A Short History of the Coliseum in Rome

Rome’s magnificent Coliseum is more than a tourist attraction; it is a lasting reminder of the power and abilities of the ancient Romans whose impact on the Western world is still felt today.

The Coliseum was built in the 1st century AD. It played an important part in the culture of Rome and the lives of the Romans. It could hold as many as seventy thousand people, making this the biggest amphitheater in the entire Roman Empire.

It took eight years to complete the structure, which was finished in 80 AD. It was therefore begun while Vespasian was emperor and continued once his son, Titus, had inherited the title. The site on which it was built had once been overlooked by Nero’s palace, when it had been a lake.

The name used by contemporaries for the Coliseum was the “Flavian Amphitheater”. It remained in use as a venue for various events until the early 3rd century when it was temporarily unusable after a fire that had been started by lightening. It was out of action from 217-238, when the gladiators returned. Once Rome embraced Christianity these professional fights were discontinued, and by the beginning of the 6th century the Coliseum was in a very poor state due to a combination of disuse and severe damage from two large earthquakes.

Further damage had been done by the tectonic unrest in the area by the time that the Coliseum was being used as a Middle Age fortress. Part of the ancient amphitheater had even been converted into a small church by this time, and the original name had been forgotten. Instead, the word Coliseum was being used, which appears to have originated from the massive statue of Nero which stood nearby. A large figure like this was often referred to as a “colossus”.

Parts of the marble that once covered the structure were gradually carried away as a cheap source of building materials, turning up throughout the rest of the city, or even being burned in order to create quicklime. Visitors to the Coliseum today will only see a ruin of its former grandeur, but it is impressive even as it is. There is no longer a floor in the arena and only parts of the walls remain standing. These are still enough to give an impression of how the massive structure once dominated this part of ancient Rome. Parts of the structure that were underground are still in existence (the hypogeum), and there are separate buildings nearby that date from the same period as the main amphitheater: the school where gladiators were trained, and the arms store, for example. You can also get an idea of the vastness of the crowds that once gathered here, both from the overall size and the existence of the eighty entrances surrounding the site.

The Coliseum still holds many mysteries, both in its history and in the diverse plant life that has colonized the area- almost seven hundred new species have been discovered on the site since the seventeenth century.