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The Colosseum
Rome's Flavian Amphitheater, the largest arena of the ancient world
For nearly 2,000 years the Colosseum has stood as shorthand for imperial Rome, its spectacle and its cruelty. Opened in 80 CE, it held perhaps 50,000 spectators, who entered through numbered arches to watch gladiators fight, wild animals hunted and condemned prisoners executed, shaded from the sun by a vast awning worked by sailors. It was the largest amphitheater the Romans ever built, and its arches, vaults and tiers of seating set a pattern for stadiums that still fill today. Shaken by earthquakes and stripped for building stone, it remains standing in the center of Rome, which treats it as both monument and stage, and every Good Friday the pope leads the Way of the Cross there.
The amphitheater stands in the valley between the Palatine, Esquiline and Caelian hills, on the site of an artificial lake in Nero's Golden House, at the eastern end of the Roman Forum. It is an ellipse about 189 by 156 meters and 48 meters high, built of travertine, tuff and brick-faced concrete, with three tiers of arches framed by Tuscan, Ionic and Corinthian half-columns beneath a solid fourth story. The northern outer wall survives to full height, while much of the south side fell in an earthquake in 1349, exposing the inner rings. With most of the arena floor gone, visitors look down into the hypogeum, the underground maze of passages, cages and lifts that raised animals and scenery into view.
The emperor Vespasian began the Colosseum around 72 CE, his son Titus opened it with 100 days of games in 80 CE, and Domitian completed it. Gladiator combat ended in the 5th century, but animal hunts continued into the 520s. Later the building became housing, workshops, a fortress and a quarry whose stone went into palaces and churches, among them St. Peter's Basilica, until Pope Benedict XIV protected it in 1749 as a site of Christian martyrdom. A cleaning and restoration funded by the Italian company Tod's ran from 2013 to 2016. Part of the Historic Centre of Rome, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1980, it anchors an archaeological park that recorded about 14.7 million visits in 2024.