The Colosseum: History & Architecture

The Colosseum is a very huge stone arena or amphitheater constructed in the shape of an oval located in the center of the city of Rome, Italy. There are many stones which were necessary in the creation of this massive structure which is still standing today, even though it is so old! Madeleine commented and asked me if I was planning on visiting The Colosseum, and I did, so this post is inspired by her! I was on a walk with two friends of mine and we weren’t even planning on going to The Colosseum that day, but we came across it during our walk and had to spend some time there admiring it! We didn’t go inside, but if you pay a few Euros you can even go inside and get an educational guided tour of it. 

Also Known As: The Flavian Amphitheatre

The Colosseum was built in the first century. We’re currently in the twenty-first century, which means that the structure of The Colosseum is about 2000 years old! Isn’t it amazing that The Colosseum is still standing and still safe to go inside, considering how super old it is?! I heard you guys have studied some of the history of Rome, so maybe you’ll recognize some of these words, ideas, and names! The Roman emperors of the Flavian dynasty built The Colosseum. Roman emperors named Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian commissioned the construction of The Colosseum to be used as an arena for entertaining the Ancient Roman people.

An Ancient Arena

Arenas as we know them today are usually used to house public events such as sports games and theatrical performances such as plays. The Colosseum is an ancient arena that was used as a place where gladiators fought, wild animals were hunted, and criminals were punished – all as entertainment. What a different type of entertainment than what we’re used to! The word “gladiator” is a Latin word that translates into English as “swordsman”. Gladiators were essentially what we would call today armed soldiers who would fight with each other and animals in order to bring entertainment to the public in the arena. 

Colosseum used to be spelled Coliseum, and the origins of the word are Latin. Isn’t it interesting how the spelling of words changes over time? This is usually due to miscommunications and misspellings, but it ends up in the creation of new words! “Colosseum” is actually a noun that was created from the adjective “colosseus”, which is a Latin word that translates into English as “gigantic”. I think it’s pretty clever that the Ancient Romans decided to title their gigantic structure exactly what it is: gigantic! Today, in Italian, the word for “The Colosseum” is “Il Colosseo”. 

Ancient Architecture

The Colosseum today marks the city center of Rome, and this was the same in ancient times. The Colosseum is located directly next to the Roman Forum, which today stands only in remnants, however in ancient times was considered the city center, where markets, shops, government buildings, meeting places, temples, churches, and the homes of the wealthy and important people such as emperors, senators, priests, and priestesses were located, so these people lived within walking distance to their entertainment arena. 

At the time, The Colosseum was the largest arena in the world.  The design of The Colosseum is very beautiful, consisting of four levels. The first three levels are decorated with large arch-shaped windows, and the fourth/top level is decorated with square-shaped windows, all symmetrical in placement. Also symmetrical in placement are the columns that are placed around the arena. The materials used to build the arena were locally sourced limestone, brick, concrete, and volcanic stone, built to last a very long time, as we can see today. The arena’s audience capacity was 50,000 people. What do you think of The Ancient Colosseum? Do you like to go to arenas to watch things like sports and plays?

Here's a really great painting by John Inigo Richards of The Colosseum, titled The Colosseum, painted in 1776. Through this painting we can get a sense of what it might've looked like to be around The Colosseum in historical times.

P.S.: I couldn’t find a good poem to include with this post, but I hope you all enjoy the photos I took and included, and the painting! Do you like poetry, photography, or paintings more? 

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Bibliography (Sources)                                         

https://www.ancient.eu/Colosseum/