The spectacle of the Colosseum
The Colosseum or Flavian Amphitheater is one of the most famous monuments in Rome and one of the most visited in Italy and in the world. If you happen to pick up a souvenir, be it a coffee mug or a fridge magnet, it is very likely that the silhouette of this monument is your background.
Also an iconic symbol of the capital of Italy, it was built in the first century after Christ at the behest of the emperors of the Flavian dynasty
There they hosted, until the end of the ancient age, games and shows very popular among the Romans such as the gladiatorial ones, re-enactments of famous battles, dramas based on classical mythology. It was able to accommodate between 50,000 and 87,000 spectators. In fact, it is also the most impressive monument of ancient Rome that has come down to us and has been included in the list of Unesco Heritage since 1980.
The works for its construction were started in 71/72 AD by Vespasian while the cutting of the ribbon was under the guidance of Emperor Titus, subsequent structural interventions were made by Domitian in 90
The building forms an ellipse of 527 meters in perimeter, with axes measuring 187.5 and 156.5 meters, the arena inside measuring 86 × 54 meters, with an area of 3,357 m². The current height reaches 48.5 meters but originally reached 52 meters and is made of Roman travertine. The Colosseum had a fabric cover called velarium in Latin, consisting of many sheets that covered the stands of the spectators but left the central arena uncovered. Used to protect people from the sun, it was maneuvered by a detachment of sailors from the fleet of Miseno, stationed next to the Colosseum while the sheets were fixed with a complex system of ropes and guided by pulleys and at the same time the whole structure was fixed to the ground with ropes tied to stone blocks placed outside the Colosseum, and in part still visible today.
In 438, with the abolition of gladiator games at the behest of Valentinian III, the amphitheater underwent a slow and progressive decline.
In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance it was in fact used as a quarry for materials also for the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica and as a shelter for animals and home for craft workshops and homes, while the process of its Christianization was long. Inside one of the arches of the Colosseum is the church of Santa Maria della Pietà at the Colosseum of which we begin to have news from the fourteenth century.
The curiosity
The name “Colosseum” derives from the size of the amphitheater and also from a colossal bronze statue of Nero in the vicinity. Remodeled later to depict the Sol Invictus it was demolished in the imperial age.
