Games in the rain?

[richsc]

Watching the Pompeii trailer, there is a Hollywood shot of a fight in the driving rain, all in stylish blue and black, but it made me wonder if actual games were conducted no matter the weather? As pointed out by Medusa on FB RAT, wet sand is fine where wet grass isn't (maybe the real reason for sandy arenas?). The only covering evidence is foe sun awnings, and I don't recall Pompeiian adverts talking about rain dates. Any ideas?

[Nathan Ross]

There's a note in Suetonius Domitian (4,2): "He often gave sea-fights almost with regular fleets, having dug a pool near the Tiber and surrounded it with seats, and he continued to witness the contests amid heavy rains."

This implies that watching games in bad weather was not usual. I would think that it was more of a problem of the spectators getting soaked than the fighters (especially in a 'sea-fight'). Presumably if the emperor insisted on sitting it out then everyone else had to do the same...

[Flavivs Aetivs]

That, and ships are expensive! (Especially considering they weren't built skeleton first yet)

[john m roberts]

Plus, munera were religious observances. That meant if you cut them short because of a downpour, you had to give them all over again, right from the beginning. No problem if you wanted to display your extravagance and generosity, but not if you'd gone way into debt to put on your games as advertised.