In Ancient Rome in the year 68 A.D. the emperor Nero committed suicide. A civil war followed, and Titus Flavius Vespasianus rose to the top and became the emperor Vespasian. One of Nero’s generals, Vespasian was the first of a dynasty of three emperors including his two sons: Titus and Domitian. The rise of the Flavian Dynasty brought an end to the decadent era of emperors Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. It also brought about a renaissance of public works including the building of a new amphitheater that became the largest permanent amphitheater in the ancient world. We know it today as the Roman Colosseum.
The Flavian Amphitheater: Vespasian’s great amphitheater was built on the site of Nero’s estate near Rome’s city center. A filled in lake provided the exact spot the builders used. Residing nearby was a giant statue that Nero built of himself along the lines of the Colossus of Rhodes. Called the Colossus of Nero, the statue was later moved near the amphitheater, and its head was replaced several times with the head or face of the current emperor. Sometime later the amphitheater itself was referred to as the Colosseum as it is known by today. The Colosseum was built to a height of 157 feet or about 15 stories. The design could hold up to an estimated maximum of 87,000 spectators under various configurations, although this number is disputed in certain historical research circles. The average attendance at a Colosseum event was perhaps 65,000 spectators.
Innovative Architecture and Engineering: Permanent amphitheaters in ancient times were a rarity as they were often made of wood for temporary use for gladiatorial games or other amusements. The Colosseum’s permanency is owed to its concrete construction making it the largest single use of concrete in any building up to that time. The ground it’s situated on was soft and marshy at one point in time, so the developers used a concrete foundation sunk deep into the soil to provide its long-standing support. Seating in ancient amphitheaters often was built into a hillside with a stage down in front. For the Colosseum the designers built it surrounding the stage using an ellipsis pattern that is widely used in today’s football stadium construction. The surface of the amphitheater’s floor was smaller than that of a football field which brought the audience a little closer to the action. There was a retractable awning that provided shade for spectators on Rome’s hot summer days. In addition to concrete, the builders used ample amounts of wood, limestone, tiles, and mortar in the building’s construction.
Features: The Colosseum had a complex network of tunnels, chambers, and storage areas under the stage floor known as the hypogeum. From there, participants, props, scenery, and other equipment was stored. This was complimented by a system of trap doors, pulleys, and vertical shafts that enabled the handlers to shift scenery on one end of the amphitheater floor while action was taking place on the other end. It enabled combatants or animals in particular to seem to appear out of nowhere while a performance was going on. The construction included a plumbing system that enabled the surface to be flooded for staging naval battles or other sea-based events. The outer walls consisted of archways and columns making crowd control easier to manage. Different corridors would separate the various persons of different social status restricting free movement throughout the structure. The political and religious VIPs had separate entrances and separate sections from the remaining spectators. The VIPs were seated down close to the playing surface, and the remainder of the ordinary population would take the seats higher up. This was in line with the rigid social structure that prevailed in Roman society of the times.
Who Built It: The architects and engineers that designed and built the Colosseum are not known to this day. The labor force is thought to be made up of slaves, particularly Jews captured during the First Jewish-Roman War from 66-73 A.D. The temple in Jerusalem was sacked and all its treasures appropriated by the Romans. This supply of capital is thought to have been redirected to Vespasian’s building boom including the Colosseum. The number of slaves or what part of the empire they came from and the
amount of war booty that went into the project is not corroborated by any source from antiquity. Further, a brigade of engineers, craftsmen, artists, painters, builders, and decorators was required to complete the complex and skilled tasks that required their expertise. The construction wound up taking nearly ten years to complete.
Later Usages: The last gladiatorial clash in the Colosseum took place about 435 A.D. Animal hunts were discontinued sometime after about 523 A.D. About that time the building suffered from earthquake damage and a large fire that destroyed much of the interior’s wooded upper superstructure. In the late 6th century, a small nondenominational chapel was built on the amphitheater floor. The space underneath the seating was developed into housing and workshops and rented out as late as the 12th century. About that same time, it was fortified into a castle. Later it was largely abandoned and became a hideout for criminals. After another serious earthquake, the Colosseum was restored by a religious order that occupied it until the early 19th century. In 1749 Pope Benedict XIV endorsed the Colosseum as a site for Christian martyrdom, and the practice of pirating the limestone and concrete parts of the building ended. Stabilization projects of various extents have taken place in more recent centuries, and it is a widely visited tourist site today.
Conclusions: Today’s arenas follow many aspects of the Colosseum’s design in that they are built usually in an ellipsis format with seating on both sides of the playing surface. Separate entrances for VIP’s are often used with the best seating going to higher paying spectators. To guard against crowd surge or panic, eighty entrances all the way round the base of the Colosseum were utilized, similar to today’s arenas. Some of today’s arenas are entirely enclosed, and many have some type of roof that at least partially protects some spectators from hot sunshine as well as rain. The major difference is that the Roman Colosseum was built more for theatrics than for sporting events. And, of course, most modern stadiums have lights for nighttime or indoor events, whereas the Colosseum attractions were essentially limited to daylight hours.
Sources: History.com, How the Colosseum Was Built—And Why It Was an
Architectural Marvel, Farrell Evans, July 15th, 2022
Wikipedia, Colosseum
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