The building depicted in this fresco from Pompeii is the town’s amphitheater, where gladiatorial contests were held. However, somewhat amazingly, it depicts, like a sort of photographic journalistic record, an actual historical event, which was also recorded in text by the Roman historian Tacitus: “About this time there was a serious fight between the inhabitants  of two Roman settlements, Nuceria and Pompeii. It arose out of a  trifling incident at a gladiatorial show . . . During an exchange of  taunts — characteristic of these disorderly country towns — abuse led  to stone-throwing, and then swords were drawn. The people of Pompeii, where the show was held, came off best.  Many wounded  and mutilated Nucerians were taken to the capital.  Many  bereavements, too, were suffered by parents and children. The  emperor instructed the senate to investigate the affair. The senate passed it to the consuls.  When they reported back, the  senate debarred Pompeii from holding any similar gathering for ten  years.  Illegal associations in the town were dissolved; and the sponsor  of the show and his fellow-instigators of the disorders were exiled.  (Annals 14.17; trans. by Michael Grant, The Annals of  Imperial Rome [London: Penguin Books, 1973], 321-22). You can see that the fighting has moved out into the streets. A real riot in the city.