The Colosseum opens

The story

From Nero's lake to the amphitheatre

In the heart of Rome, between the Oppian Hill, the Caelian and the Velia, there was a valley. Before the Colosseum, on that spot stood an artificial lake, dug by the emperor Nero for his enormous residence, the Domus Aurea, the “Golden House”. After Nero's death, his successor Vespasian decided to give that space back to the people. He had the lake drained and, between AD 70 and 72, began to build a new building, a great amphitheatre, that is, a theatre with tiers of seats all around a central arena.

The work was paid for mostly with the booty of the Jewish war, that is, the treasure brought to Rome after the conquest of Jerusalem in AD 70. Vespasian died in 79, when the first two storeys had been completed. His son Titus added the third and fourth tiers of seats and inaugurated the building in AD 80 with a great celebration: the games lasted a very long time: a hundred days according to the tradition, about three months according to other calculations. Titus's brother, Domitian, completed the work.

Its official name was the Flavian Amphitheatre, from the name of the family of emperors (the Flavians). The name “Colosseum” came later, in the Middle Ages. Perhaps it comes from the Latin word colosseum, meaning “colossal”, or, more probably, from the nearness of the gigantic statue of Nero, the Colossus, which stood there beside it. That statue, according to the sources, was remodelled as an image of the Sun and moved under Hadrian, in 126, to make room for a temple.

A giant of travertine

The measurements of the Colosseum are impressive. The perimeter is about 527 metres long. The building is elliptical, with two axes of about 187.5 and 156.5 metres. The arena, where the shows took place, measures about 86 by 54 metres. Today the height is 48 metres, but originally it was about 52. How many spectators it could hold is hard to say: scholars estimate a number between 50,000 and 87,000.

Under the ground there is a foundation platform of tuff about 13 metres thick. The façade is made of travertine, a pale stone, and rises in four storeys: the first three are formed of 80 arches, with columns in three different styles (Doric, Ionic and Corinthian, from the simplest to the most elaborate), while the top storey is a solid wall. The interior parts use brick, tuff and, for the vaults, Roman concrete.

The public came in through 80 entrances, with numbers carved on the keystones of the arches: each person knew which entrance to go to in order to reach their own section, as with the tickets at a stadium today. Four entrances, on the axes of the ellipse, were reserved for special access.

The velarium and the sailors

To protect the spectators from sun and rain a great fabric cover was used, the velarium. We do not know whether it covered only the seating or the arena too. It is said that it was operated by sailors of the fleet of Misenum, who had a barracks next to the Colosseum: experts in sails and ropes, they were the best suited.

Under the arena

Beneath the floor of the arena, made of wood and covered with sand, there was a hidden world: the hypogeum. A large central passage and twelve curved corridors, with 80 lifts, were used to make animals, scenery and actors appear suddenly. The remains that can be seen today date from a rebuilding of the 3rd or 4th century, and the structures were created under Domitian.

What shows were seen

The shows followed a precise programme. In the morning there were the venationes, hunts and fights with animals, even exotic ones, brought from far away. At midday executions of condemned prisoners were held. In the afternoon the gladiators fought, men trained in schools, often slaves or prisoners. It was a cruel way of having fun, which today seems very far from our sensibilities. The last gladiator fights recorded date from about AD 435–437, the last venationes from 519 and 523, under King Theodoric.

After the Romans

The Colosseum was damaged several times: by a fire in 217, after a lightning strike, and by earthquakes, the one of about 847 and that of 1349, which brought down the south side. In the Middle Ages it was used as a cemetery, as a castle and as a quarry: from the 15th and 16th centuries many travertine blocks were carried off to build other buildings. In 1744 Pope Benedict XIV forbade stripping it and in 1749 he declared it consecrated to the Christian martyrs.

Today it is the symbol of Rome. In 2023 the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine circuit had 12,298,246 visitors, the leading state museum site in Italy. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1980 and in 2007 it was chosen as one of the “New Seven Wonders of the World”. Since 2002 it has appeared on the back of the Italian 5 euro-cent coin.