Colosseum, Rome · Diliff, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA)

Colosseum (Flavian Amphitheatre)

Amphitheatrum Flavium

AmphitheaterItalia · Rome, ItalyBuilt 80 CE

About

Vespasian drained the ornamental lake of Nero's palace and gave the ground back to the people as an amphitheatre; the politics of the gesture were the point of it. Titus opened the building in 80 CE with a hundred days of games, and Domitian added the top storey and the two-level basement of cells, cages and lifts beneath the arena floor. Around fifty thousand people come in through eighty numbered arches on tokens that match their seats, sorted by rank from senators at the arena rail to women and the poor at the top. Sailors work an awning on ropes above the crowd. In 117 CE it is thirty-seven years old.

What happened here

Doors open early and the programme runs all day. Morning is animal hunts, staged with scenery hauled up through trapdoors from the corridors below. Midday is executions, and it is the hour when the seats thin out and people go for lunch. The afternoon is the gladiators, matched by type and record like boxers, refereed, and stopped when a man raises a finger. Most fights are not to the death — a trained fighter is expensive — but a decision can go the other way and the crowd is consulted. Seating is strictly by rank: officials at the front, women at the top. Awnings are worked by sailors detailed for the job. Sand is spread thick and replaced between shows, and the whole building smells of it.

In ancient writing

Suetonius, Divus Vespasianus 9.1
Vespasian begins an amphitheatre in the middle of the city, on ground Augustus had wanted to use for one.
Cassius Dio, Roman History 66.25
Titus's inaugural games: a hundred days of hunts, gladiators and a flooded arena staging a sea battle.
CIL VI 40454a, dedication c. 80 CE
Reconstructed from the nail-holes on a reused seating block: the amphitheatre was built from the spoils of war — originally credited to Vespasian, the text amended after his death to insert Titus's name.