On the step number 29, to the top of the arena in Nîmes, you can read a “astivo” engraved in the stone. The graffiti left by a viewer about 2000 years ago plot Richard Pellé, archaeologist at Inrap. “There is no written source on these arenas. But a mosaic of the Colosseum mentions a certain Astivus, who was one of the gladiators stars of the era. Is this the same man? It is a research that I am conducting around the amphitheatre”, he says. On the terraces, notches, have already delivered their secret. They delineate the spaces, which measured 49 centimeters wide, about 5 inches shorter than the foundation of modern. “The ranks of the top, reserved for the plebs, were probably not very comfortable”, he admits.
Until 2034, an army of specialists will look into this roman heritage, pride of Nîmes. The goal is to restore, but also of the study, while the city has just opened a large museum on roman history and culture, overlooking the …
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