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| GENERAL INFORMATION |  |
| ARCHITECTURE | 
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| A poet's pride |
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ARCHITECTURE
The Vienne Odeum is made up of two series of terraces, 16 below and 4 or 5 above separated by an ambulatory, making up the cavea. On the lower level 2 or 3 tiers of seats of honour surround a semi-circular space, the orchestra, paved with marble tiles in different colours. A wide pit containing the curtain mechanism separates the orchestra from the stage, which was made up of a wooden floor. The back of the stage is closed by a wall which was at least as high as the highest terrace. Columns in white and yellow marble, green breccia marble, and porphyry were found as well as a great many sculpted fragments, an imperial bust, an alter base decorated with a ram's head, a frieze of griffons confronting each other...Technically, it doesn't seem possible that the Vienne odeum was covered in its entirety. Earlier remains suggest that the building could only have been constructed as of the end of the 1st Century AD at the earliest. The one at Lyons, whose dimensions are similar, dates from the beginning of the IInd Century AD. It must have held about 3,000 people while the theatre could hold about 13,000.
