archaicwonder:Roman Amphitheatre at Salona, CroatiaThe city of Salona was founded by Illyrians, then
archaicwonder:Roman Amphitheatre at Salona, CroatiaThe city of Salona was founded by Illyrians, then occupied by Greeks and later the Romans who made it the capital of their province of Dalmatia. The city’s amphitheatre, built during the 2nd century AD, was designed to hold eighteen to twenty thousand people. One unique feature, not found in other Roman amphitheatres, is the underground channels. There are many theories about their use but the most commonly accepted explanation is that the channels were used to facilitate the performing of mock naval battles. Salona also had a mint that was linked with the Imperial Mint in Sirmium and to silver mines in the Dinaric Alps through the Via Argentaria. When the Emperor Diocletian abdicated from the throne, he erected a monumental palace nearby to live in as a private (though immensely wealthy!) citizen. The city was largely destroyed by the Avars and Slavs in the 6th and 7th centuries, with refugees from these raids settling inside the remains of Diocletian’s Palace and forming the core of the modern city of Split. The ruins of Salona are located on the Dalmatian coast of modern-day Croatia. -- source link