Cavea
The semicircular, tiered seating area of and ancient theatre.
cavea
Latin pl. caveae the tiered semicircular seating space in a Roman theater. From the Greek koilon a hollow or cavity. A large theatre had three seating tiers the ima cavea was the lowest part of the cavea the media cavea was the middle and the summa cavea was the upper tier. Social rank dictated the seating restrictions for the audience with the ima cavea reserved for the upper echelons of society senators and equestrians the media cavea was reserved seating for pleb togata respectable citizens and those with lesser status mixed crowd of urban poor foreigners slaves and women were restricted to the upper or summa tier. The Roman cavea corresponds to the Greek theatron.""