The Colosseum, a structure that is elliptical in shape, was built in the first century CE under the Roman emperor of the Flavian Dynasty which included; Vespasian (69-79 CE), Titus (79-81CE), and Domitian (81-96 AD) (Kuntz 45). History of the Colosseum started after Nero, who was the ruler at that time, became too extravagant. The aftermath was a rebellion by the Jews in Palestine against the Roman rule. After the great fire at Rome, Nero had built an enormous palace for himself, which he called the Golden Palace in AD 64 right in the centre of the city. Thereafter was a growth in the military uprising which led Nero to commit suicide. Nero's death resulted to engulfing civil wars, where Vespasian (Emperor 69-79) became the winner and decided to build a pleasure palace for the people, the largest amphitheatre in history, capable of holding up to 80,000 people (Welch 24). It is commonly known as the Colosseum.
The Colosseum also was known as the Flavian Amphitheatre, whose construction started in AD 80 during the period of Vespasian and completed by his heir Titus, and their successor Domitian made further modifications (Lancaster 456). All together, they formed a dynasty known as Flavian Dynasty named after their family name Flavian. It was constructed on the site of the lake in the gardens of Nero’s palace which had been demolished to convey the Glory of Rome (Lancaster 456). The amphitheatre was built for people's entertainment like gladiator fighting, animal hunting and was also used for execution of criminals.To date, the Colosseum has remained to be one of the biggest tourist attractions in the city of Rome.
Planning and Building of the Amphitheatre
Colosseum construction started during the reign of Vespasian, it was constructed in the period between 73-75AD where the construction began and was completed in 79 AD when Vespasian died(Welch 29). The building was then taken over by Vespasian's eldest son known as Titus, who saw the completion of the amphitheatre and inaugurated the games in AD 21. Vespasian's second son, Emperor Domitian added more modifications to he Colosseum by adding the top tier of the Amphitheatre and a vast network of rooms, cells, tunnels and passages under the Roman Colosseum called the Hypogeum. To date, no one knows how much it cost to build the Colosseum but, however, it is said that all the treasure got from Jerusalem while the sacking of the city of Jerusalem by Titus, was used to pay for the materials used in the building of the Colosseum and no expense were spared.
Construction of the Amphitheatre had to be planned carefully since it was located in a valley that was previously a lake(Lancaster 457). For this reason, drains were to be built 8m underneath the structure to take away the streams that flow from the surrounding valleys and hills. Foundations o the structure were very strong and skillfully constructed in the shape of a doughnut made of concrete; The outer walls and the seating of the structure were about 39- 42 feet deep while the inner eclipse of the arena was about 13 feet deep and the designed in strips beneath each of the concrete walls (Kuntz 65).
The building of the greatest Roman Colosseum was in the application of the latest Roman arts, architecture, engineering and other creative endeavours (Welch 68). Colosseum was built at a very fast pace due to the invention of concrete and vaulted arches. As the Romans were still new to the invention and were still learning how to use the concrete, they did not know how long the structure would last and, therefore, they had to mix the concrete with stones. Concrete was made of different ingredients which included a mixture of high volcanic material (known as pozzolana) with rubble, sand and a mix of lime.
The Colosseum was built by an estimated number of 10,000 prisoners who were brought back to Rome as slaves from the Jewish war(Welch 121). Their primary task was to undertake manual labour, such as working at the quarries at Tivoli where travertine was quarried and lifting up heavy stones from Tivoli to Rome. Skilled tasks necessary for building the Roman Colosseum were undertaken by a team of professional builders, engineers, decorators, painters and artists.
Roman Colosseum was built using different high-quality materials which included; First, was travertine limestone. The limestone was ferried from Tivoli, which was about 20 miles from Rome. It was majorly used for the main pillars, the ground floor and the external walls. It is estimated that over 100,000 cubic metres of travertine stone which are equivalent to 3,531,446 feet was used in the building of the Colosseum which was held together by 300 tonnes of iron clamps(Lancaster 455). Secondly, they used Tuff or Tufo, which was a porous stone utilised in the preparation of cement. Tuff was used for light pillars and radial walls. Other materials included was cement used for vaulted arches, tiles which were used for the floor and the walls, Bricks used in walls, Marble used for the seating, statutes and ornaments, drinking fountains and as a covering for the outside walls, and lastly, they used Lead and Terra-cotta pipes for the water and sewer systems.
Design details
The Colosseum was developed and constructed according to specific plans and dimensions. It is an oval or elliptically shaped structure wich stands freely on is own, 615 feet long, 510 feet wide and 187 feet high and also had a base area which sits on 6 acres of land(Kuntz 135). The base of the building was two steps and above it, there were four floors.Three floors which had arcades. Each floor had about eighty arches divided by pillars and a half column but the fourth floor only contained small rectangular windows. Four arches at the axes of the building served as the main entrances which were decorated by a little porch and a statute. The remaining 76 arches were numbered for easy accessibility to the public. There were circular promenades around the rims of the first three floors which were able to accommodate most f the public in case of rain (Kuntz 75).
The floors of the Colosseum were ordered according to a Roman variation of the Daric order. For example, the order of the ground floor half column was Tuscan, on the second floor the semicolumns are ionic and the third-floor Corinthian. In place of the half columns in the lower arcades, fourth floor, the attic was divided by flat composite which was the Roman Corinthian lenses. There was a significant difference in the arches height between the ground floor and the second and third floor. For example, the arches on the ground floor were 4.20 metres wide and 7.05 metres high while 6.45 metres high on the upper floors(Pearson 65).
The arena was also another carefully built segment of the building which sat on 76 by 44 feet of land(Pearson 63). Its floors were made of wooden planks and all round the arena was a wall known as the podium which was about 10 feet high. During the shows, the arena was covered with a yellow sand popularly known as the Herena, which was picked from the hill of Monte-Mario and during special occasions, the stage was covered with uniquely coloured sand and a mixture of speckles and glittered minerals.
Like any other amphitheatre in Rome, the Colosseum had two main entrances which were the NW and the SE gates. The first entrance, the NW gate, was popularly known as the Porta Triumphalis where the gladiators used as their main entrance while the parade took place outside. The second gate, SE was called the Porta Libitinaria, named after Libtina a goddess of death, funeral and corpses, which acted as an exit for the dead gladiators which were ferried out of the arena(Lancaster 456). The Roman architects also enhanced an excellent method of crowd control through the construction of many entrances, staircases and exits. For example, there were about 80 arches that served as entrance and exit points. This enabled the Colosseum to be cleared in less than 10 minutes.
Under the arena, there were special services taking place in order to make the show successful. For example, there existed cages for animals, stores for the various arena equipment and tools that were used in different repairs of the arena, lifts that were used in lifting the wild beast to trap doors that existed on the floor of the arena. When the wild beast was in the arena, there was an erection of an all round podium with wooden rollers at the top which prevented the beast fro climbing over the fence to the audience.
The Colosseum sits under many metres of silk and clay (Welch 124). This is because, in the ancient times, the ground which the Colosseum sits on was lower than it is today, making water drain from the neighbouring valleys forming a small lake around the depression. During the Nero's reign, the architects saw it better to raise the level of the ground in order to prevent water from draining and destroying the construction.
After four centuries of active use, the Colosseum went into neglect and in the 18th century, it was used as a source of building materials (Welch 127). Two-thirds of the colosseum have been destroyed over time by massive earthquakes and remains to be a popular tourist attraction and a great icon of the Roman empire.
Works Cited
Kuntz, Lynn. The Roman Colosseum. [San Diego, Calif.]: KidHaven Press, 2005. Print.
Lancaster, Lynne C. "The Colosseum for the General Public". Journal of Roman Archaeology 20 (2007): 454-459. Print.
Lancaster, Lynne C. "The Process of Building the Colosseum: The Site, Materials, and Construction Techniques". Journal of Roman Archaeology 18 (2005): 57-82. Print.
Pearson, John. Arena. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1973. Print.
Welch, Katherine E. The Roman Amphitheatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Print.
