The construction of the Amphitheatre by the emperor Hadrian (as evidenced by the coin portraying the emperor, found in the walls) in the 2nd century AD is an example of the panem et circenses strategy, or the quest for the widest of public approval and the lightening of social tension by affording the people moments of collective distraction.
The monument rose in a peripheral areal, on the edge of Ariminum, near the port and its location made it easily accessible by road, facilitating the flow of those visitors reaching it by land.
An oval, concrete structure clad with bricks and reaching more than 15 m in height, the building was composed of two orders, one on top of the other, composed of 60 archways. In that the capacity to host more than 10,000 spectators, and boasted a clay arena a little smaller than that of the Coliseum.
After not much more than a century of use, the structure, whose north-eastern section, two arches of the porch outside, the arena and the auditorium still remain standing, ceased to function and was incorporated into the walls erected when the city attempted to ward off the threat of the barbarians.
