Exploration of Roman Theater in Ancient Nicaea Continues

İZNIK, TURKEY—Hürriyet Daily News reports that archaeologists have uncovered pathways paved with marble, entry and exit passages, and a sewage line at the Roman theater in northwestern Turkey’s ancient city of Nicaea. Aygün Ekin Meriç of Dokuz Eylül University said that the 2,000-year-old theater had been built on flat ground, without the support of a natural slope. Its three stories stood on vaulted foundations, and held some 10,000 people, she added. Gladitorial games and other Roman performances were held in the theater during the second and third centuries. “From the fourth and fifth centuries onward, the theater entered a phase of religious use,” she said, explaining that the Christian First Council of Nicaea was held in the city in A.D. 325. “At the time of the council, the seating steps of the theater were still intact. About 300 clerics from around the world are believed to have gathered here for nearly a month of meetings.” Churches were eventually built inside the theater, which became a Christian pilgrimage site, in the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. Meriç and her team plan to excavate an adjacent necropolis dating to the First and Fourth Crusades next year. To read about the discovery of a submerged basilica near Nicaea, go to "Our Lady of the Lake."