The Roman gymnasium is a Roman-era monumental complex built along via Elorina in Siracusa, datable to the second half of the 1st century AD and made up of a theatre, a quadriporticus and a temple.
What to see
Despite the name, the excavations have not yet made it possible to establish its purpose with certainty. The monument was discovered in 1864 by the archaeologist Francesco Saverio Cavallari in a marshy area flooded because of rising sea level, and soon afterwards it was wrongly called the Bath of Venus or the Bath of Diana. It was entered through a quadriporticus of about 60 by 50 metres, raised above the interior floor, with Doric limestone columns on the north side, perhaps belonging to an earlier phase. At the main entrance three statue bases remain; other statues, found in later excavations, all depict men in togas, with the exception of a single female statue from the late Flavian period.
Inside are the remains of a small temple on an Italic-type podium, about eighteen metres on each side, whose upper part was Corinthian in order: it keeps one of its two side stairs, holds a vaulted chamber with a well, and outside has a second well and an altar. Behind the temple opens the cavea of a theatre, about nineteen metres in diameter, with steps originally faced in marble. The most widely accepted hypothesis sees in it a sanctuary of oriental deities, probably dedicated to Serapis, as mentioned in a passage of Cicero; supporting it are the resemblances to the Temple of Isis at Pompeii, the discovery of statues of Roman magistrates that can be linked to those Cicero cites, and a dedication from the Republican period recalling a certain Papinius, a Roman citizen who restored at his own expense a building that seems to be the Serapeum.
Visiting
The complex lies along via Elorina; access arrangements, hours and tickets should be checked with the archaeological park or the tourist offices, because the sources consulted do not give them.
Our editors' tip
Do not trust the name: «gymnasium» is only one of the readings proposed, and in the past the site was mistaken for a bath of Venus. Pause at the three bases at the entrance to the quadriporticus and remember that the statues found depict almost all men in togas.
