The Colosseum: When and Who Built Rome’s Iconic Amphitheater

• The Colosseum was built by the Flavian emperors, who reclaimed the land from one of Nero’s extravagant private palaces and returned it to the people as a grand arena. It served as propaganda highlighting the differences between the old and new regimes.
• The emperor hosted games in a philanthropic capacity, attending to judge gladiatorial matches and receive adoration for the generous donatives distributed to the audience. Some emperors, notably Commodus, went so far as to perform in the arena.
• While it is questionable how many Christians were executed as martyrs in the Colosseum, it eventually gained status as a site of religious significance within Christianity, which contributed to its preservation over the centuries.

To the east of the Roman Forum stands the vast edifice of the Colosseum, the largest amphitheater ever built during antiquity. Centuries ago, tens of thousands of spectators — perhaps as many as 60,000 — crowded into the seats here. The entertainment offered was grizzly fare. Gladiators fought to the death in the arena for the adulation of the crowds, baying for blood. Others fought against the prizes of the Empire, as wild and exotic beasts were brought to the Empire’s heart to appease the curiosity of the crowds. For others still, the Colosseum was the scene of their execution, criminals condemned to die for the entertainment of others.

The history of the Colosseum offers a window into an ancient society and the politics of an Empire. Originally constructed by the Flavian emperors, it was a highly visible and visceral public display of the differences between the new dynasty and the disgraced Nero. It provided the emperors with opportunities to show their munificence to the people or put themselves on display as acts of megalomania. Whether accurate or not, the imposing structure later became a symbol of Christians overcoming persecution, and it was this association that helped the structure survive until the modern day.

Who Constructed the Colosseum and When?

The Colosseum was built in the valley between Rome’s Caelian, Esquiline, and Palatine Hills. In 64 BCE, this area of the city had been ravaged by a terrible fire. The great conflagration laid waste to the region and provided Emperor Nero the opportunity to seize space in the imperial capital for his own ends. He appropriated the land as the site of his infamous Domus Aurea (the “Golden House” of Nero), an architectural statement of his sense of superiority. Unfortunately for the emperor, his popularity soon plummeted dangerously. Committing suicide in 68 CE, the empire was engulfed in a civil war. Four competitors surfaced, from which Vespasian would emerge triumphant as the new emperor. Together, he and his sons Titus and Domitian – the Flavian Dynasty – would attempt to restore Rome and efface the legacy of Nero.

To do so, the Domus Aurea had to go. In a symbolic gesture, the land appropriated by Nero for private purposes was given back to public use. A vast amphitheater, a place of popular entertainment and a venue for imperial beneficence in the heart of the imperial capital, was a fitting gesture. Construction began on the Amphitheater in around 70 CE, funded by the extravagant wealth plundered by the emperors from the Temple at Jerusalem, sacked during the First Jewish-Roman War. A dedicatory inscription, now lost, recorded the structure’s debt to Rome’s military successes:

Imp. Caes. Vespasianus. Aug.
Amphitheatrum Novum
Ex Manubis fieri iussit

—–

Emperor Caesar Vespasian Augustus ordered a new amphitheater
to be made from the spoils (ex manubis)

The idea that the construction of the Colosseum represented returning this land to the people was clearly prominent in contemporary propaganda, as the poet Martial, writing under Titus, specifically references this, stating that the gleaming palace of a hated king built on land robbed from the poor had now been returned to delight the populace, an act which has restored Rome.

The amphitheater was only completed as far as its third level when Vespasian died in 79 CE, and it was left to Titus to complete the work and inaugurate the stadium in 80/81 CE with 100 days of games. According to Cassius Dio, some 9,000 wild animals were slain in the arena, along with combat between single fighters, groups of men, naval battles, and horse races.

Not one to be outdone by his brother, Domitian made further improvements to the arena. He increased capacity by adding additional seating to the upper levels. He also built an intricate system of underground tunnels and chambers for transporting gladiators and animals for more spectacular entrances. He added decorative features to the structure’s facade to increase its grandeur and spectacle.

Much like the Flavian emperors, the rulers that came after found the Colosseum to be a politically charged environment in the heart of the imperial capital. Successive emperors could copy the Flavian exempla and invest in the vast arena, either in the games or in the structure of the arena itself. In 217 CE, the arena was badly damaged by fire, which Dio attributed to a lightning strike. The wooden floors on the upper levels of the arena were ruined. Repair works were ongoing throughout the 3rd century.

The shows hosted at the arena, called munera, were always given by wealthy private individuals. In the Colosseum, this was always the emperor himself. The games offered a way for the princeps to display his generosity to the ordinary people. He would have attended the games personally, sitting in the imperial box surrounded by invited guests who would have taken the opportunity to discuss their interests with the emperor. The box was set just two meters above the ground, letting him remain close to the action and leaving him visible to the other spectators. He would have been on hand to receive applause in response to the donatives and gifts that were often handed out at imperial expense to the crowd.

After a morning of spectacles, the emperor and his senatorial companions would have left for lunch. Executions were usually held during the lunch period and it was considered unseemly for the emperor to be present. We know this because Suetonius criticized the emperor Claudius for staying to watch, suggesting a blood thirsty nature.

The emperor would have been present again in the afternoon, when most gladiatorial combats took place. He was there to give the Pollice Verso, the hand gesture that determined whether defeated gladiators lived or died. Many defeated gladiators were spared, as it was expensive to train new gladiators, and many also had significant fan bases. It was often just good business to let them live to fight another day. Martial wrote a poem commemmorating the unusual event during Titus’ inaugural games when two veterans found themself in a stalemate. Titus awarded both gladiators their freedom with the symbol of a wooden sword.

Of course, the arena could also be the haunt of the deranged and the depraved, a showground for the worst imperial excesses. This was, as one theory holds, where the name came from. The Flavian Amphitheater picked up its enduring nickname from the Colossus of Nero. This enormous bronze statue of the emperor had originally adorned the vestibule of the Domus Aurea. After the emperor’s death, it was moved to a platform outside the arena, and the visage was modified into that of the sun god Sol. This, too, was impermanent. The emperor Commodus had the statue modified again. This time, it represented himself, but in the guise of Hercules; you can make out the club of the statue on the medallion of Gordian above.

Commodus himself is perhaps the emperor most closely associated with the Colosseum, infamous for his predilection for playing the role of a gladiator. The most noble born of all emperors (the son of Marcus Aurelius), Commodus would debase himself by participating in events in the arena. He boasted that he never lost a fight, though his opponents would always submit rather than strike the emperor, and he famously slaughtered scores of exotic beasts. In one gruesome encounter, he carried the decapitated head of an ostrich over the watching spectators and motioned to the elderly politicians that they would be next.

The gladiators at Rome, the celebrity sportsmen of their day, gave life and limb for the entertainment of the imperial capital. Despite this, they were often from the lowest rungs of the social ladder, and gladiators were very often either slaves or criminals condemned to death. Some, such as Spartacus, rebelled against their fate, often in vain. Others would achieve fame, notoriety, and even wealth. Gladiators typically kept their prize money and other gifts, and their skills were highly valued. Suetonius even alleges that the emperor Tiberius offered several retired gladiators as much as 100,000 sesterces to return to the arena! They were trained in special schools. The largest in Rome was the Ludus Magnus, built by Domitian in the late 1st century CE directly to the east of the Colosseum.

The beast hunts in the arena, fabulously rendered on a number of mosaics to have survived from antiquity, were known as venationes (a single venatio). This was a display of imperial opulence as much as power: exotic beasts from the far corners of the Empire were brought to Rome to exhibit in the arena. The spectacles were often staged among elaborate sets and ran the course of dozens of days. One of the most famous were the games were staged by Trajan in celebration of his conquest of Dacia. Reportedly, there were 107 contests involving over 10,000 gladiators that took place over 123 days.

How Big Was the Original Colosseum?

The Colosseum was, and remains, an architectural marvel. The word amphitheatrum literally means “theater all around,” and the structure is best interpreted as two classical theaters joined together. However, unlike a Classical Greek theater, typically built to maximize the advantages of natural topography, the amphitheater was entirely free-standing. The Colosseum itself is comprised of an elliptical structure that measures 189m long and 156m across. The height of the outer wall soars 48m high. The floor of the arena itself is also an oval, measuring 87m in length by 55m across; a 5m wall separated the baying spectators from the bloodletting on the sands below.

The outer wall is a wonderful mix of architectural orders, one per level: Doric half-columns are used on the base, then Ionic around the middle, and finally, elaborate acanthus leaves spill out of Corinthian columns on the uppermost level. Although now lost, there once would have been around 240 mast corbels positioned around the top. These supported a retractable awning that could be used to protect spectators from the blistering Italian sun.

The base of the Colosseum had 80 separate entrances, and visitors today can still see the numerals above that marked these out. Modern estimates put the number of spectators at around 50,000, and these would have been seated in tiers on the interior. These would likely have reflected the strictly hierarchical nature of Roman society: the better your standing in life, the better your seating at the games. The floor of the arena, a wooden floor covered with sand, covered a subterranean structure called the hypogeum.

Although the Colosseum was the largest amphitheater in the ancient world, it was far from the only such arena. In all, around 230 have so far been uncovered across the expanses of the Empire, from Britain in the north to Tunisia in the south. The earliest of these dates to the Republican period and may perhaps be a feature of the Capuan region of Italy.  However,  many of the permanent structures belong to the imperial period. One of the best-known of these earlier amphitheaters is the arena at Pompeii, which is confidently dated by archaeologists as belonging to a period shortly after 70 BCE.

Later, during the imperial period, amphitheaters became a recurring feature of the Roman urban landscape, a testament to the integration of Roman cultural norms into other societies. These vast, permanent structures became spaces for towns and cities to compete for pre-eminence in the Empire, increasing the arenas in size, sophistication, and decorative elaboration. They could also reflect the personal attachments of the emperors themselves. The fifth-largest amphitheater in the world was built in Italica, located in Andalucía, southern Spain. The home of the emperors Trajan and Hadrian, it was the latter who commissioned the structure to be built during his reign (117-138 CE).

Were Christians Executed in the Colosseum?

Within the Christian collective consciousness, the shadow of the Colosseum looms large as a site of martyrdom. The Church’s historic tradition presents the arena as one of the primary places where the persecution their faith suffered reached a bloody nadir. A notable example is provided by Irenaeus, who died around 202 CE. The Greek Bishop described how Ignatius of Antioch was taken from his hometown in Syria to Rome, where he was fed to lions for the entertainment of the Romans in 107 CE. However, specific evidence that this took place in Rome — let alone in the Colosseum — is sparse.

It was John Chrysostom who first alluded to the Colosseum as the place of Ignatius’ martyrdom. The association of the Colosseum with early Christian martyrs is further problematized by the apparent lack of reverence shown to the structure in the Middle Ages. At a time when sites associated with martyrdoms were typically venerated, the Colosseum itself was spoliated. It became, in effect, a vast quarry for building materials in the center of Rome. Nor, it should be noted, was it included in the itineraries compiled for pilgrims. The 12th-century Mirabilia Urbis Romae (“Marvels of the City of Rome”) instead identifies the Circus Flaminius as the site of Christian martyrdoms. Despite this, a small chapel is known to have been built in the arena in the 6th century, though this should not be conflated with a broader religious significance attributed to the structure.

Nevertheless, the Colosseum evidently captured the imagination of the Christian communities in Rome. Artists, in particular, have found the subject of Christian martyrdom in Rome’s greatest arena to be an evocative and emotive subject for paintings. Pope Pius V (1566-1572) reputedly encouraged pilgrims to view the sand of the Colosseum’s arena as a relic. It was, he argued (though not all his contemporaries agreed), rich with the blood of martyrs. Associations with the Christian faith likely helped preserve the structure’s remains and certainly warded off plans to turn the arena into a bullring, as proposed by Cardinal Altieri. Pope Clement X  declared the structure a sanctuary in 1675. Stations of the Cross were erected around the Colosseum by Pope Benedict XIV in the mid-18th century. The link endures, and today, a Christian Cross stands in the Colosseum, accompanied by a plaque that declares its dedication to the suffering of the martyrs, which purified the arena from its previous impious superstitions.

The Colosseum’s decline as an arena was long and protracted. First, Honorius banned gladiator fights in the late 4th century CE. However, the structure was evidently still an important venue in Rome, with epigraphic evidence indicating that Theodosius II and Valentinian III — who reigned during the mid-5th century — restored the structure. The venationes, the Roman beast hunts, are known to have continued until at least 523. Anicius Maximus, a late Roman senator, celebrated his consulship with games. Unfortunately for Anicius, and a sure sign of the times, the high cost of the games attracted criticism from Theodoric the Great, the Ostrogothic King.

By the 13th century, the arena had become a castle, taken over by the Frangipani family and fortified. Then, in the age of the Popes, the Colosseum was the subject of much deliberation. In the late 16th century, Pope Sixtus V, one of the great rebuilders of Rome, floated a plan to convert the Colosseum into a wool factory to provide honest employment to the city’s prostitutes. His premature death brought an end to this proposal. It wasn’t until the 20th century and the archaeological endeavors (poorly judged) of Benito Mussolini and the Fascists that the arena substructure was fully exposed.

Today, the Colosseum is what it has been for a very long time: one of Rome’s most popular tourist attractions. Millions visit the enormous structure every year, bewitched by the architectural marvel, the history of bloodshed and crazed emperors, and the plans of Renaissance popes.

The Colosseum captured the imagination of artists who visited Rome as a must-see stop on the Grand Tour. Despite, or perhaps because of, its ruined condition, artists found the structure an endless source of Romantic inspiration. Lord Byron, one of the leading Romantics, painted a particularly evocative image in his Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, a narrative poem published between 1812 and 1818. The poem recounts the travels and reflections of a cynical, world-weary young man who has gone traveling to inject his life with meaning. In Canto IV, the hero of the poem enters Italy and encounters the ruins of an ancient empire, crumbling. Of the Colosseum, he opines:

“While stands the Colosseum, Rome shall stand;

When falls the Colosseum, Rome shall fall.”

There are few clearer expressions of the Colosseum’s enduring status as an icon of Roman and Italian history and the continued importance of this architectural masterpiece to people all over the world.

Originally published: April 18, 2022. Last update: January 23, 2025, by Jessica Suess.