The amphitheatre arena is one of the most iconic images of Ancient Rome but it's very barbarity has inhibited research. 

Tony Wilmott, an archaeologist with English Heritage, describes every ampitheatre and amphitheatre type structure in the province, and analyses their architecture. He compares and describes the contexts of the buildings in terms of the various communities of Roman Britain they served - whether military or civilian, urban or rural, native or incoming. He shows that these communities interpreted the basic form of the amphitheatre.