The Colosseum: A Complete Guide to Rome’s Greatest Arena
The Colosseum, also known as the Flavian Amphitheatre (Amphitheatrum Flavium), is the largest amphitheater in the ancient world and the most famous building of the Roman Empire. Located in the valley between the Esquiline, Palatine, and Caelian hills in Rome, it could seat about 50,000 spectators and was the setting for the most spectacular public games of the Roman world: gladiatorial combats, animal hunts, public executions, and elaborate mythological reenactments. Built between 72 and 80 CE by the emperors Vespasian and Titus of the Flavian dynasty, the Colosseum is a masterpiece of Roman engineering, and it has been one of the most iconic buildings in the Western world for almost two thousand years.
This page is a complete guide to the Colosseum. It explains the history, the architecture, the games, and the modern legacy. It links back to the Roman Gladiators cluster, the Roman Engineering cluster, and the Roman Empire cluster.
The History of the Colosseum
The Colosseum was built on the site of the artificial lake of the enormous Golden House (Domus Aurea) of the emperor Nero, who had taken over a large part of central Rome for his private palace after the Great Fire of 64 CE. After Nero’s suicide in 68 CE, the new Flavian dynasty (Vespasian, his son Titus, and his other son Domitian) made a point of returning Nero’s land to the people of Rome, and they began a series of public building projects, including the temple of Peace and the Colosseum.
The Flavian Amphitheatre was built in three phases. The first, under Vespasian, was the substructure and the first tier of seats, completed in 79 CE. The second, under Titus, was the main superstructure, completed in 80 CE, with inaugural games lasting one hundred days, including the slaughter of 9,000 animals. The third, under Domitian, was the hypogeum (the underground network of passages), completed in the late first century CE.
The Colosseum was called the Amphitheatrum (the amphitheater) until the Middle Ages, when the name “Colosseum” came into use. The name probably comes from the colossal bronze statue of Nero, called the Colossus, that stood beside the amphitheater and was later modified to represent the sun god Sol. (This statue is not the source of the word “colossal,” but the two are related.)
The Architecture
The Colosseum is a free-standing oval, 188 meters (615 feet) long, 156 meters (510 feet) wide, and 48 meters (157 feet) high. The exterior is built of travertine limestone, with a system of arches, vaults, and buttresses that supported the tiered seating inside. The four stories of the exterior are articulated by engaged columns of the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders, with a fourth story that was added by Domitian.
The interior of the Colosseum was a complex system of corridors, stairs, and seating tiers. The seating was divided into four sections, each corresponding to one of the social classes of Roman society. The lowest tier was the podium, where the emperor, the Vestal Virgins, the senators, and the most important officials sat. The next tier was for the equestrians and the wealthy. The upper tiers were for the common citizens, and the very top tier was for the slaves, foreigners, and women.
The arena floor was 83 meters by 48 meters (272 feet by 157 feet), covered with sand to absorb the blood. The floor was supported by the hypogeum, an underground network of passages and chambers, where animals, gladiators, and scenery were kept before being lifted to the arena floor by a system of pulleys and counterweights.
The Colosseum could be filled with water, according to some accounts, and mock naval battles (naumachiae) were staged in the flooded arena in the early years. The hypogeum was added under Domitian, presumably to facilitate the more elaborate games that became popular in the later empire.
The Games
The games at the Colosseum were held an average of about 100 days a year. The most popular were the gladiatorial combats, the venationes (animal hunts), the damnationes ad bestias (condemned prisoners killed by animals), and the naumachiae (mock naval battles).
The gladiatorial combats are described in detail in the Roman Gladiators cluster. The most popular animals in the venationes were lions, tigers, bears, leopards, rhinoceroses, hippos, elephants, ostriches, and aurochs. The Colosseum could be drained of blood in a single day, and the sand of the arena was often stained with the blood of the animals and the gladiators.
The games were a form of public entertainment on a scale that is hard for the modern reader to imagine. The emperor Trajan, in 107 CE, celebrated his Dacian victories with games lasting 117 days, including 5,000 pairs of gladiators, 11,000 animals, and 1,000,000 spectators.
The Decline of the Colosseum
The Colosseum was damaged several times in antiquity. In 217 CE, a fire destroyed the upper tiers. In 250 CE, an earthquake damaged the south side. In 442 CE, another earthquake destroyed much of the outer wall. After the fall of the western Roman Empire, the Colosseum was used as a fortress, a quarry, a Christian shrine, and a housing complex. The hypogeum was filled in, the seats were removed, and the marble was burned for lime.
In the Middle Ages, the Colosseum was used as a Christian shrine. A small chapel was built into the wall, and a cross was erected in the arena. The site was consecrated as a holy place, in memory of the early Christian martyrs who were believed to have been killed there. (The popular tradition that many early Christians were martyred in the Colosseum is not supported by historical evidence, but the tradition gave the Colosseum a special status that protected it from further damage.)
In the Renaissance and Baroque periods, the Colosseum was one of the most famous ruins in the world. Pope Benedict XIV declared it a holy site in 1749, and the papal government helped to preserve it. In the 19th and 20th centuries, restoration projects stabilized the structure and cleared the area around it.
The Modern Colosseum
The Colosseum is one of the most visited tourist attractions in the world, with millions of visitors a year. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it has been the setting for papal ceremonies (Pope Benedict XVI held a Way of the Cross ceremony there in 2005, and Pope Francis led a similar ceremony in 2013). The Italian government has undertaken major restoration projects to clean the exterior and to protect the interior from the effects of pollution and weather.
The Colosseum has been the subject of countless works of art, literature, and film. It is the symbol of Rome, of the Roman Empire, and of the entire classical tradition. It is also, in the modern imagination, the most powerful single image of the cruelty of the ancient world and of the spectacular public entertainment that was the Roman games.