Amphitheatrum Flavium
About
Rome's great amphitheater, begun under Vespasian on the drained lake of Nero's Domus Aurea, dedicated by Titus in 80 CE with 100 days of games, and completed with a fourth story added by Domitian c. 82 CE. Fully standing and hosting spectacles in 117 CE.
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.
Sources
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →