In its place you can see the cellars which housed equipment used to prepare and carry out the games. The stage for shows, whose floor was once made from a mixture of brick and wood, has now disappeared altogether. On entering, we see the arena straight ahead of us. They moved in perfect synchrony to the beating of a drum. It took one hundred sailors from the Imperial fleet to move it. The Velarium was an enormous linen tarpaulin hung by a system of ropes, winches and wooden poles that girded the top of the outer wall. Like modern sports stadiums, the Roman Colosseum gave spectators efficient protection from the sun thanks to its ingenious roof covering, the “ Velarium”. The tiers of seats were inclined in such a way as to enable people to get a perfect view from wherever they sat.Įntry was free for all Roman citizens, but places were divided according to social status, similar to seating divisions in today’s theatres the seats at the top were for the common people, but with distinct sections for men and women, the nearer you got to the arena the higher your social status in the front row were senators, vestals, priests and - naturally - the emperor. The amphitheatre could hold up to seventy thousand spectators. The holes still seen in many columns are just the holes made to extract the lead and iron used by the Romans for the nails inside the marble blocks. In the Middle Ages, when no longer in use, the roman Colosseum was transformed into an enormous marble, lead and iron quarry used by Popes to build Barberini Palace, Piazza Venezia and even St. Three-fifths of the outer surrounding brick wall are missing. What we see nowadays is just the skeleton of what was the greatest arena in the ancient world. The Coliseum can be viewed as though it were a series of aqueducts built one on top of the other. The Romans used arches as the main element of their architecture, think of Roman aqueducts, for example. An arch allows you to distribute the weight of heavy constructions effectively, in a perfect manner. The Romans were really good at an architectural technique that they knew well: the arch. It's incredible to think that this imposing building took less than ten years to build. It had four floors the first three had eighty arches each the arches on the second and third floors were decorated with huge statues. It is elliptic in shape in order to hold more spectators. Imagine it all white, completely covered in splendid travertine stone slabs. The Roman Colosseum is one of the most imposing ancient structures. Perhaps he got the name from the enormous statue of the Emperor Nero, “ the Colossus” 35 meters high, which stood right next to the amphitheatre and has now been completely destroyed. This name appeared for the first time in a famous prophecy of the medieval monk Venerable Beda: “ Rome will exist as long as the Colosseum does when the Colosseum falls so will Rome when Rome falls so will the world”.
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