12.

The Colosseum in Ancient Rome civilization

- Location: East of the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill, on the grounds of what was Nero's
Golden House, in Rome - the capital of Italy now
- Origin:
 After the decadent Roman emperor Nero suicided in A.D. 68, his misrule and
excesses fueled a series of civil wars. The Flavian emperor Vespasian(A.D. 69-
79) attempted to tone down the excesses of the Roman court, restore Senate
authority and promote public welfare.
 Around 70-72, Vespasian returned to the Roman people the lush land near the
center of the city and built there a new amphitheater for the public to enjoy forms
of entertainment.
 Colosseum was constructed around A.D. 70-72 by Emperor Vespasian
( 69-79 AD ) of the Flavian dynasty as a gift to the Roman people
 In A.D. 80, Vespasian’s son Titus opened the Colosseum—officially known as
the Flavian Amphitheater—with 100 days of games, including gladiatorial
combats and wild animal fights.
-Architecture:
 Measure: 620 by 513 feet (190 by 155 meters)
 Material: Mainly cement, mortar, stone, bricks, and wood, tuff, tiles, marble, lime,
Iron / Bronze Clamps, travertine.
 A statue of the sun god that the Emperor Hadrian moved right next to the
Coliseum - about 100 feet tall - but soon be decayed due to earthquakes and
pillaging
 Colosseum was a freestanding structure ( unlike many earlier amphitheaters,
which had been dug into hillsides to provide adequate support )
 Exterior decoration: followed Greek architecture by piling one order or style of
architecture on top of the other ( Classical orders):
++ At the bottom were columns of the relatively simple Doric order ( or Tuscan
order )
++ Middle story was in Ionic order
++ Topped story was in the ornate Corinthian order.
 These three stories included 80 arched entrances, supported by semi-circular
columns.
++ A large number of entrances allowed Romans to access the maze of
staircases, ramps, arcades, and passageways inside.
++ 76 arches on the entry level were numbered as key to the number on the ticket
of spectators
++ The four axial entrances (one on the west, the east, the south and the north)
which didn't have numbers were the main entrance
 Located just near the main entrance to the Colosseum was the Arch of Constantine,
built in A.D. 315 in honor of Constantine I’s victory over Maxentius at Pons Milvius
 Inside:
++ There was a very complex interior structure of corridors and stairways
++ A massive weight of stone benches for seating for more than 50,000
spectators, who may have been arranged according to social ranking.
 +++ The emperor, magistrates, and priests sat in the lowest seats. The
marble seats were inscribed with the names of the categories of people
who were allowed to sit there.
+++ The senators sat secondly
+++ The wealthy businessmen sat thirdly
+++ The plebeians sat fourth
+++ The common folk who didn't have that much money sat fifth
+++ The foreigners, slaves, sat at the very top
+++ The women sat only on temporary wooden seats
++ The arena floor was made up of wood planks. These wood planks were
punctuated every couple of meters with a trap door and those trap doors were the
caps to elevators which were operated manually by slaves
++ Series of animal pens and rooms for the gladiators is placed under the
Colosseum
++ Awnings were unfurled from the top story
-Activities:
 Roman people watched gladiatorial combats, hunts, wild animal fights and possibly even
larger combats such as mock naval engagements put on at great expense. Mainly
following schedule:
++ In the morning, there were the animal hunts with imported exotic, fearsome animals
like tigers and lions and elephants and rhinoceroses
++ At the lunch hour on midday, there were the execution of prisoners,which even
included people being burnt at the stake, or being tied to the stake and being mauled to
death by animals.
++ In the afternoon, it was the gladiatorial combats.
 The entertainment was mainly violent and bloody.
 The “games” were often paid for by the emperor and were free to attend.
 It was an important to the political control of the emperor to make him
popular and make the Romans much less likely to rebel or revolt against
the Roman government.
 Almost gladiators were men, generally enslaved peoples, condemned criminals or
prisoners of war, with thousands of wild beasts
 It is said that up to 400,000 people met their end on the sands of the
arena, as did one million wild animals of many different species.
-Achievement:
+ Colosseum was the largest amphitheater in the Roman world as well as one of the most
famous structures in all of Ancient Rome
+ It has been on the Unesco World Heritage List since 1980
+ It was included among the New Seven Wonders of the World in 2007
-The collapse:
 By the 6th century A.D, the Colosseum saw some four centuries of active use
until the struggles of the Western Roman Empire and the gradual change in public
tastes put an end to gladiatorial combats and other large public entertainments.
 In the centuries to come, the Colosseum was abandoned completely, and used as a
quarry for numerous building projects, houses and workshops
 By the 13th and 14th century, a combination of weather, natural disasters, neglect,
and vandalism had destroyed nearly two-thirds of the original Colosseum,
including all of the arena’s marble seats and its decorative elements.