In 1381a section of the Colosseum was donated to the religious group called Confraternita del Santissimo Salvatore ad Sancta Sanctorum, also called del Gonfalone, which from 1490 to 1539 was granted permission to hold Passion plays in the amphitheatre. By now, the function of the amphitheatre had been rediscovered by the humanists, and it had become commonplace …
The modern architectural studyof the Colosseum started with Carlo Fontana, who, around 1720, made a survey of the amphitheatre and studied its geometric proportions. Most of the ground floor of the building was by now almost submerged by earth and debris accumulated over the centuries, and the arches were used as a deposit for manure. In …
For many centuries,before the cleaning carried out in the 19th century by archaeologists and engineers, the Colosseum had been overgrown with plants and trees. For a long time there had been orchards and gardens, and in the dark of the arches or clinging to the top of the walls could be found all kinds of …
Comparethe perspective of the picture by Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Il Canaletto, and the real one: Il Canaletto My photograph
The inaugurationof the Roman amphitheatre must have been an unforgettable event. The historian Dio Cassius wrote, about it: “Most of what he [Titus] did was not characterized by anything noteworthy, but in dedicating the hunting-theatre (Amphitheatrum Flavium) and the baths that bear his name, he produced many remarkable spectacles. There was a battle between cranes and also between …
TITUS bronze sestertius 80 ADEuro, 5 cents, 2003 This is a serious page on Roman coins, weights and measures. If you are looking for the Colosseum on coins click here. The principal Roman coinswere the as, made of copper; the sestertius, the quinarius, the silver denarius and the golden aureus.1. The as, the unit of the Roman currency, was originally one pound of …
The Amphitheatrum Flavium,a.k.a. Colosseum or Coliseum (though in olden times Romans referred to it as Amphitheatrum Caesareum or hunting theatre), was built by the Flavian emperors Vespasian, Titus and Domitian between 71-72 and 80 AD as a gift to the Roman citizens in the place where the previous Emperor Nero (37-68 AD) had his residence, the Domus Aurea. (To see what was there before …
Were Christians ever tortured and killed in the Colosseum? The answers seems to be no. The original sources on the amphitheatre are very few, and a connection between Christian martyrdom and the Colosseum still has to be found, though the Church for many years has credited the story of Christian martyrs finding death in the …
How many are the Romans?In its almost 2.800 years of existence, the city had its ups and downs. The number of inhabitants in imperial times has been estimated between 1/1.5 million. The image below (from this website) shows the evolution of population in the city.
Stones speakthe stories that the pieces of marble can tell are amazing. Read how scholars have deciphered the meanings of some inscriptions found in the Colosseum.Iunius Valerius Bellicius… the arena was once again repaired between 417 and 423 by the Praefectus Urbi Iunius Valerius Bellicius…How do we know this? It is an interesting story.When the arena was …
