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 …
Nero Lucius Domitius (Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus) (Antium, 37AD – Roma, June 9, 68).Son of Domitius Enobarbus and of Agrippina Minor, who, after having married Claudius, managed to have the young Nero adopted by him, ensuring his succession as emperor (54). Finely educated, in the first years of his reign Nero was closely controlled by his mother, by …
PREHISTORYBefore man made his appearance in the site of Rome, the valley where now stands the Colosseum collected the waters from the hills, thus creating a small lake. In these maps you can see the geography of the city before human settlement. The Tiber river would flood the area of the Circus Maximus, and part of …
Timeline of the Valley of the Colosseum PREHISTORY Before men inhabit the site of Rome, the valley where now is the Colosseum collected the waters from the hills, that created a pond. 508-44 BC – REPUBLICAN ROMEThe Romans drain the valley in early republican times and build houses, public buildings and temples. The area of the ancestral …
Famous Authors’ Reflections on the Colosseum Hans Christian Andersen“…like a vast mass of rock.” Venerable Bede“While the Coliseum stands, Rome shall stand; when the Coliseum falls, Rome shall fall; when Rome falls, the world shall fall.” [Venerable Bede (c. 673-735) quoting a prophecy of Anglo-Saxon pilgrims. Lord Byron“… when the rising moon begins to climb/ …
So Dio Cassius wrote:[In the year 217] the hunting theatre was struck by thunderbolts on the very day of the Vulcanalia, and such a blaze followed that its entire upper circuit and everything in the arena was consumed, and thereupon the rest of the structure was ravaged by the flames and reduced to ruins. Neither …
