Orange

Updated: Apr 20, 2022

Mini Rome - Roman Theatre and its Surroundings and the "Triumphal Arch" of Orange 163

What and Why

The Roman city of Orange was established in the mid-1st century CE and became one of the important Roman capitals outside the empire. It prospered from the 1st to the early 5th century CE, when a lot of important Roman monuments were constructed, until it was conquered by the Visigoth (Latin : Visigothi).

Toponymy

The city name was originally named Arausio, the Celtic water god and the name slowly changed itself phonetically to Orange. This definitely has no correlation with the colour nor the fruit. The area, or technically the principality, formed the House of Orange-Nassau (Dutch: Huis van Oranje-Nassau) of Netherlands during the mid-16th century CE and adopted the colour orange as their house colour. The fruit orange came from its Sanskrit word नारङ्ग (nāraṅga) and gave the colour the name.

See

Ancient Theatre (Théâtre Antique)

The Ancient Theatre (French : Théâtre Antique) of Orange is one of the best constructed Roman theatres in the ancient world. The theatre was built in the 1st century CE, and played a major role in citizen's cultural life during their pastimes. The theatre was built with the intention of distracting its citizens from political activities and social unrest by providing them with cultural activities, and also a means of spreading Roman culture to the city.

One of the most prominent features of this theatre is the iconic stage and grand facade, which measures more than 100 m wide and close to 40 m high. The wall, also known as the scaenae frons, is the only architecturally decorated surface throughout the entire theatre and produces an imposingly powerful appearance to the theatre. The palatial-looking scaenae frons is extremely well preserved and the original appearance can be seen in the signboard as shown. In fact today, the theatre is considered the best preserved Roman theatres in the world.

Appearance of the stage in 19th century CE

Since the theatre's major modern restoration took place in the mid-19th century CE, an annual Roman Festival (Chorégies d'Orange) is held in the theatre, featuring concert, operas and dramas. The roof was reconstructed after the wooden roof was destroyed by fire.

The stage was also one of the first in history to make use of stage machineries to change the appearance of the stage sets. Usually during ancient times, mime, opera, poetry readings and attelana, a farcical comedic performance during the time were the dominant performances and entertainments performed in the theatre.

Triumphal Arc (Arc de Triomphe d'Orange)

The Triumphal Arc (Arc de Triomphe d'Orange) is a small triumphant arc built sometime in the turn of the first century CE under the rule of Augustus (né Octavius). The arch was built originally to honour the veterans of the Gallic Wars but later reconstructed under Tiberius Augustus in 27 CE to celebrate the victories of Germanicus (Latin: Germanicus Julius Caesar) over the German tribes. This is clearly inscribed on the well-embellished arch facade.

The arch is the oldest surviving example of the almost standard Roman design that was used later in Rome (Italian: Roma) like the Arch of Constantine (Italian : Arco di Costantino).