More than 230 amphitheatres, among the largest and most memorable monuments left to us by the Romans, survive in cities from northern England to the banks of the Jordan River. The Romans built amphitheatres for more than 500 years in a range of sizes -- from a capacity of a few thousand to 50,000 in the Colosseum -- using a variety of techniques. The amphitheatre at Pompeii was built in the first...