Colosseum

The first

It was built where Nero's lake had been

After the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD, Nero built a palace with an artificial lake. Vespasian filled in the lake and built the amphitheatre there, which can be seen as returning the area to the people. It was completed in AD 80 under his successor Titus.

65,000average audience, from an estimated 50,000 to 80,000 spectators

The name

A statue of Nero gave it its name

The name Colosseum is believed to come from a colossal bronze statue of Nero, which the emperor Hadrian moved to a spot beside the amphitheatre. By the year 1000 the name had been coined for the building. Its original Latin name was simply amphitheatrum.

The crowd

Eighty entrances, and a crowd out in a few minutes

The amphitheatre was ringed by eighty entrances, 76 of them for ordinary spectators, and each entrance and staircase was numbered. Spectators were given tickets in the form of numbered pottery shards, and passageways called vomitoria could clear the building within only a few minutes.

80ground level entrances, 76 of them used by ordinary spectators

The awning

A retractable awning kept off the sun and rain

Two hundred and forty mast corbels around the top of the attic supported a retractable awning, called the velarium. It covered two-thirds of the arena. Sailors enlisted from the naval headquarters at Misenum were used to work it.

The stone

After the earthquake of 1349 its stone built other Rome

After the great earthquake of 1349, much of the tumbled stone was reused to build palaces, churches and hospitals elsewhere in Rome. The iron clamps were pried out of the walls, leaving pockmarks that still scar the building. In 1749 Pope Benedict XIV forbade its use as a quarry.