Amphitheater of Italica and 8th-grade (Male) Students

Scipio Africanus founded Italica, north of present day Seville, as a place to retire soldiers wounded in Africa. It became a reasonably important settlement with 8000 people in its heyday. It was the birthplace of Emperor Trajan, the town’s most famous son.

Although Italica only had a population of 8000, their amphitheater seated 25,000, third largest in the Roman Empire. (Little strange, that. I didn't question those figures in 1976, but they don't seem quite right now.)

Moving right along, we saw the remains of the mini-coliseum on a trip in the spring of '76. I thought it was a pretty dinky amphitheater when I saw it, but I was thinking chariot races, naval battles, Cecil B. DeMille.

As we watched, a bus load of 8th-grade boys with their harassed teacher pulled up. Close to 40 boys crammed into the bus, 40 eighth-grade boys. In the center of the amphitheater’s arena lay a pit, maybe for lions or Christians, who knows. Maybe it was a green room for the gladiators.

The teacher shouted to his students, “Don’t go near the pit!” He must have been a new teacher who didn’t realize what happens when you tell eighth-graders not to do something. As soon as the words left the teacher’s mouth everyone of the boys ran to the pit and hung ten. They all jostled for position in the front row and it’s a wonder they didn’t all fall in.

Maybe I misread the situation. Maybe the teacher was a burn out case who was hoping the kids would all fall in and he could go out for a glass of wine.