Following an introduction by the editor, the proceedings of the conference on amphitheatres and spectacula held at Chester in 2007 continue with an eclectic collection of 19 contributions grouped under six headings, with single paper themes on, respectively, amphitheatre planning (Wilson Jones) and the end (Christie) framing regional studies (3); single site studies (6); social and functional aspects (3); and gladiators and spectacula (5).

The geographical and subject range of the contributions is empire-wide, ranging from topics of generic interest, such as the setting out of amphitheatres: ellipse or oval (Wilson Jones), the amphitheatres of auxiliary forts on the frontiers (Sommer), and a study of the evidence of gladiatorial iconography by Jon Coulston, to regional surveys. The latter include a review of recent work on amphitheatres in Hispania by Durán Cabello, Hazel Dodge's careful consideration of amphitheatres in the Roman East, Wilmott's thoughts on the design of amphitheatres in Roman Britain, Jones' study of pre-Augustan seating in Italy and the West, Lafer's essay on the relationship between epigraphy and spectacles in Africa Proconsularis and Numidia, and Neil Christie's survey of the ends of entertainment structures in the late Roman West. This leaves the category of ‘single site’, which mostly embraces studies of the structures themselves as exemplified by amphitheatres from Britain, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany and Switzerland, but also captures studies of certain aspects of others. So Bateman essays on the relationship between Diana/Nemesis and the amphitheatre in London, Funari and Garrafoni analyse gladiatorial graffiti from Pompeii for their social meaning, and Kanz and Grosschmidt report on the skeletal evidence associated with the tombstones of gladiators from a mass grave at Ephesus. The incidence of head trauma and of other pathologies fits well with the interpretation of the remains as those of gladiators.

Of most relevance to the readers of Britannia are the essays of Wilson Jones on planning, concluding that monumental amphitheatres tend to be oval, while smaller provincial and military ones tend to be elliptical or oval (but why change from circular to oval, as at Silchester?), of Sommer on the small amphitheatres associated with auxiliary forts, with examples mostly drawn from Britain and Germany, which he concludes were not for regular use, of Wilmott on British amphitheatres, drawing out distinctions between the provision for the military and that for civil towns and making the case for the inclusion of London among the former, and of Bateman on London. There is also the report on the remains of the Ephesian gladiators which resonates well with the recent report of finds of possible gladiatorial remains from Driffield Terrace, York. There are two British case-studies: an interim report on the editor's recent excavations of the Chester amphitheatre has resulted in a substantial and convincing re-interpretation of Hugh Thompson's excavations of the 1960s. In particular, Thompson's first timber phase is now seen to be evidence of seating arrangements integral to an otherwise masonry structure dating from the late first century. Second, Wilmott and colleagues also report on geophysical and other non-invasive investigation at the military and civil site at Richborough (Kent). They conclude that there were two phases of construction, the first of timber, the second of masonry. The earlier is associated with the early development of the port at Richborough, so probably later first century in date. The masonry phase, however, is suggested to relate to the late Roman military occupation associated with the ‘Saxon Shore’ fort of the late third to fourth century. Even though the association of legio II Augusta, formerly of Caerleon, which boasted a handsome amphitheatre, with Richborough (but not attested there until the late fourth century) offers a tempting context to explain the remodelling in masonry of the Richborough amphitheatre, my money would be on a second- or early third-century date. No other late Roman Saxon Shore fort has produced evidence of an amphitheatre.