The riot at the Amphitheatre of Pompeii; a roman fresco considered to depict a historical clash of 59 CE between Nucerians & Pompeians during a gladiatorial show. Discovered at Pompeii, house of Anicetus [I.3.23], now in the Naples arch. museum., inv. n. 112222 [2760 x 2300]

The theme of the fresco has been connected with a story narrated by Tacitus in his Annals [14.17]:

>At the same time [59 CE], a savage slaughter arose from an unimportant incident, between the inhabitants of Nuceria and Pompeii during a gladiatorial show; which Livineius Regulus had organized, and whose the removal from the senate I have recounted. In fact after they were assaulting with insults in turns, according to the urban jollity, and then with rocks, finally they took up swords; with the Pompeian people, where the show was taking place, being mightier. Therefore, many of the Nucerians were carried to the city with maimed and wounded bodies, and a great number was lamenting the deaths of children or of parents. Emperor entrusted the trial of the incident to the senate, and the senate to the consuls; and after the case was again reported to the senators, the Pompeians were forbidden publicly from such similar meetings for ten years, and the unions, which they had founded illegally, were dissolved. Livineius and the other who had caused the outbreak, were punished with exile.

>*my translation*

cropped from photo by Van Der Meulen Christofle in [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fresque_(11)_(Mus%C3%A9e_arch%C3%A9ologique_national_de_Naples).jpg](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fresque_(11)_(Mus%C3%A9e_arch%C3%A9ologique_national_de_Naples).jpg)