«Quamdiu stabit Colyseus stabit et Roma;
cum cadet Colyseus cadet
et Roma;
cum cadet Roma cadet et mundus»
"As long as the
Colosseum stands, so will Rome;
when the Colosseum falls, so will
Rome;
when Rome falls, so will the world"
Location: Piazza del Colosseo
Tel. 06- 3006 7700
Bus:
75, 81, 85, 87, 117, 175, 673, 810
Subway: Colosseo
Open:
9am- 1 hour before sunset
Closed: Jan 1, May 1, Dec 25
The Colosseum, originally known as the Flavian Amphitheater (Latin:
Amphitheatrum Flavium) or simply Amphitheatrum (Italian: Anfiteatro),
located in the center of the city of Rome, is the largest Roman
amphitheater in the world (capable of holding a number of spectators
estimated between 50,000 and 87,000). It is the most important Roman
amphitheater, as well as the most impressive monument of ancient Rome
that has come down to us.
Inserted in 1980 in the list of UNESCO
World Heritage Sites - together with the entire historic center of Rome,
the extraterritorial areas of the Holy See in Italy and the Basilica of
San Paolo outside the walls - in 2007, the only European monument, it
was also included among the New Seven Wonders of the World following a
competition organized by New Open World Corporation (NOWC).
The
amphitheater was built in the Flavian era on an area on the eastern edge
of the Roman Forum. Its construction, begun by Vespasian in 70 AD, was
completed by Tito, who inaugurated it on April 21st in 80 AD. Further
modifications were made during the reign of Domitian, in 90. The
building forms an ellipse with a perimeter of 527 m, with axes measuring
187.5 and 156.5 m. The arena inside measures 86 × 54 m, with an area of
3 357 m². The current height reaches 48.5 m, but originally it reached
52 m. The structure clearly expresses the Roman architectural and
construction concepts of the early Imperial Age, based respectively on
the curved and enveloping line offered by the elliptical plan and on the
complexity of the construction systems. Arches and vaults are linked
together in a tight structural relationship.
The name "Colosseum"
spread only in the Middle Ages, and derives from the popular deformation
of the Latin adjective "colosseum" (translatable to "colossal", as it
appeared in the High Middle Ages among the one or two-storey houses) or,
more probably, from the proximity of the colossal acrolithic statue of
Nero that once stood nearby. The building soon became a symbol of the
imperial city, an expression of an ideology in which the will to
celebrate came to define models for the amusement and entertainment of
the people.
It was formerly used for gladiator shows and other
public events (hunting shows, naval battles, re-enactments of famous
battles, and dramas based on classical mythology). The tradition that
wants it to be a place of martyrdom for Christians is unfounded. No
longer in use after the 6th century, the enormous structure was reused
over the centuries, also as a material quarry. Today it is a symbol of
the city of Rome and one of the major tourist attractions in the form of
an archaeological monument that can be visited regularly.
In
2012, the conditions of the Colosseum structure aroused concern,
following studies that had identified over 3,000 lesions and extensive
cracking. Furthermore, an inclination of 40 cm of the structure was
detected, probably due to a collapse of the foundation slab on which it
rested.
In 2018, the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine
archaeological circuit obtained 7 650 519 visitors, making it the second
most visited Italian state museum site (the first among the paid ones),
behind the Pantheon.
The construction began between 70 and 72 under the emperor Vespasian,
of the Flavian dynasty. The works were financed, like other public works
of the period, with the proceeds of provincial taxes and the loot from
the looting of the temple in Jerusalem (70). In 1813 a block of marble
reused in the late period was found, which still bore the holes of the
bronze letters of the inscription, originally placed above an entrance.
The area chosen was a valley between the Velia, the Oppio hill and
the Celio, in which there was an artificial lake (the stagnum mentioned
by the poet Martial), which Nero had excavated for his own Domus Aurea.
This body of water, fed by sources that flowed from the foundations
of the Temple of the Divine Claudius on the Caelian Hill, was covered by
Vespasian with a "reparatory" gesture against the policy of the "tyrant"
Nero, who had usurped the public land and had for his own use, thus
making the difference between the old and the new principality clear
[citation needed]. Vespasian had the aqueduct diverted for civil use,
reclaimed the lake and had foundations laid, which were more resistant
at the point where the cavea should have been built.
Vespasian
saw the construction of the first two floors and was able to dedicate
the building before he died in 79. The building was the first large
permanent amphitheater in Rome, after two minor or temporary structures
from the Julio-Claudian era (the amphiteatrum Tauri and the
amphitheatrum Caligulae) and after 150 years from the first
amphitheaters in Campania.
Tito added the third and fourth order
of seats and inaugurated the amphitheater with a hundred days of games
in 80. Shortly after, the second son of Vespasian, the emperor Domitian,
made considerable changes, completing the work ad clypea (probably
decorative shields in gilded bronze), perhaps adding the maenianum
summum in ligneis and building the basements of the arena: after
completion of the works it was no longer possible to keep the naumachie
(representations of naval battles) in the amphitheater, which instead
the sources report for the previous era.
At the same time as the
amphitheater some service buildings for the games were erected: the ludi
(barracks and training places for gladiators, among which the Magnus,
Gallicus, Matutinus and Dacicus are known), the barracks of the
detachment of sailors of the Classis Misenensis (the Roman fleet based
in Misenum) used for maneuvering the velarium (castra misenatium), the
summum choragium and the paraphernalia (deposits for weapons and
equipment), the sanatorium (place of treatment for wounds from battles)
and the spoliarum, a place where the remains of gladiators who died in
combat were kept.
The imperial era
«The Colosseum, the most
beautiful ruin of Rome, completes the noble enclosure where all history
is manifested. This magnificent building, of which only the bare stones
of gold and marbles exist, served as an arena for gladiators fighting
against wild beasts. Thus the Roman people used to amuse and deceive,
with strong emotions, when natural feelings could no longer have
momentum.
(Madame de Staël)
Nerva and Trajan did some work,
attested by some inscriptions, but the first restoration work took place
under Antoninus Pius. In 217 a fire, presumably triggered by lightning,
caused the upper structures to collapse; the restoration works closed
the Colosseum for five years, from 217 to 222, and the games were moved
to the Circus Maximus. The restoration works were begun under Elagabalus
(218-222) and carried out by Alessandro Severo, who remade the colonnade
on the summa cavea. The building was reopened in 222, but only under
Gordian III could the works be considered concluded, as the coinage of
these two emperors also seems to demonstrate. Another fire caused by
lightning was at the origin of the repair works ordered by the emperor
Decius in 250.
After the sack of Rome in 410 by Alaric's
Visigoths, an inscription in honor of the emperor Honorius was engraved
on the podium surrounding the arena, perhaps following restoration work.
Honorius forbade gladiatorial games and since then it was used for
venationes. The inscription was subsequently canceled and rewritten to
commemorate major restoration works after an earthquake in 442, by the
praefecti urbi Flavio Sinesio Gennadio Paolo and Rufio Cecina Felice
Lampadio. Constantius II greatly admired him. Other restorations
following earthquakes still took place in 470, by the consul Messio Febo
Severo. The restorations continued even after the fall of the empire:
after an earthquake in 484 or 508 the praefectus urbi Decio Mario
Venanzio Basilio took care of the restorations at his own expense.
The venationes continued until the time of Theodoric. We have the
names of the most important senatorial families of the time of Odoacer
inscribed on the gradus: this custom is much older, but periodically the
names were canceled and replaced with those of the new occupants (also
according to the different ranks between clarissimi, spectabilis and
illustres ), so only those of the last edition before the collapse of
the empire remain.
From the Middle Ages to the modern era
After it was abandoned, it was used as a burial area in the 6th century
and shortly afterwards used as a castle. Between the 6th and 7th
centuries, a chapel known today as the church of Santa Maria della Pietà
al Colosseo was founded inside the Colosseum. Under Pope Leo IV it was
seriously damaged by an earthquake (about 847). The great earthquake of
1349 caused the collapse of the external south side, built on unstable
alluvial soil. Long used as a source of building material, in the 13th
century it was occupied by a Palazzo dei Frangipane, later demolished,
but the Colosseum continued to be occupied by other houses. The
travertine blocks were systematically removed in the 15th and 16th
centuries for new constructions, and the fallen blocks were used again
in 1634 for the construction of Palazzo Barberini and in 1703, after
another earthquake, for the port of Ripetta.
Benvenuto Cellini,
in his Autobiography, told of a spectral night among demons evoked in
the Colosseum, testifying to the sinister fame of the place.
During the Jubilee of 1675 it assumed the character of a sacred place in
memory of the many Christian martyrs condemned here to torture. In 1744
Pope Benedict XIV ordered the end of looting with an edict and had the
fourteen aedicules of the Via Crucis built there, and in 1749 he
declared the Colosseum a church consecrated to Christ and to Christian
martyrs.
In 1787, during Goethe's stay in Rome, he left an
emphatic description of the monument seen at night in the pages of his
Journey to Italy:
“Especially enchanting is the view of the
Colosseum, which is closed at night; inside, in a small chapel, lives a
hermit and beggars shelter under the ruined vaults. They had kindled the
fire on the ground at the back, and a little breeze blew the smoke over
the whole arena, covering the lower part of the ruins, while the
gigantic walls towered dimly above; we, standing in front of the
grating, contemplated that prodigy, and in the sky the moon shone high
and serene. Gradually the smoke spread through the walls, the shafts,
the openings, and in the moonlight it looked like fog. It was a show
like no other. Thus the Pantheon and the Campidoglio, the colonnade of
St. Peter and other large streets and squares should be seen
illuminated. And so the sun and the moon, not unlike the human spirit,
have a completely different function here than in other places: here,
where their gaze is faced by enormous masses, yet formally perfect.»
(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Journey to Italy)
Contemporary era:
the nineteenth-century restorations
Freed in two large repetitions,
with the excavations directed by Carlo Fea, Commissioner for
Antiquities, in 1811 and 1812 and with those of Pietro Rosa (1874-1875),
at the beginning of the 19th century, as well as being the subject of
the most imaginative projects of reused until the mid-eighteenth
century, the Colosseum was statically compromised, after having been
inhabited for centuries, used as a place of Christian worship and used
as a travertine quarry. One of the main and most obvious problems was
the abrupt interruption of the outermost ring on the sides at the
current via di San Giovanni in Laterano and via dei Fori Imperiali which
were not by chance the object of the most important restorations. Fea
also described the possible reasons for the presence of holes in the
stones of the monument, interpreting them as a way to remove the metal
clamps that held the stones together.
The intervention of
Raffaele Stern
After the establishment of an extraordinary commission
by Pope Pius VII, the first restorations began after 1806, the year in
which a violent earthquake compromised the statics of the two free sides
of the outermost ring. The earthquake had particularly aggravated the
situation of the third ring on the western side where, due to unsafe
ashlars, emergency intervention was required.
After shoring up
the ashlars, scaffolding was immediately erected to create a buttress
spur. Raffaele Stern devised two methods of intervention to be submitted
to the scrutiny of the Accademia di San Luca: "by way of removing",
which consisted in the elimination of the damaged part of the attic and
third-order arches, a solution rejected, and "by way to add", then
actually made with the addition of a brick spur.
The first two
arches of each order were plugged in and the rustic spur was built
without the architectural forms of the existing arches due to the
emergency and the need to carry out the intervention economically and
quickly. Even the propped-up ashlars, later charged with romantic
significance and described as stuck in the act of falling, are in
reality nothing but the result of an emergency intervention. Stern had
initially thought of painting the spur, then ironically called the
"crutch", with a travertine-colored plaster to avoid excessive contrast
with the authentic parts, but the painting was never carried out.
The intervention of Giuseppe Valadier
Giuseppe Valadier, who had
already taken an interest in the Colosseum in 1815 with a project to
decently close the Flavian Amphitheater with gates, in 1823 took care of
the recovery of the perimeter ring on the side towards the forums. The
substantial difference between the approach of Stern's restoration and
that of Valadier is that, while the former was carried out under the
danger of an imminent collapse, the latter could be practiced in
complete calm.
From a static point of view, the intervention
consisted of a new spur, built with arches identical to the originals.
The addition, entirely in brick, was built using different material than
the original for economic reasons, and not for a desire for
differentiation, with the exception of the travertine bases and
capitals, installed in an identical way to the originals and with the
same level of definition. Also in this case, in order not to spoil the
pre-existing structure aesthetically, a travertine-colored whitewash was
designed, which was never carried out.
Ten years after the start
of the works, the work was celebrated by Giuseppe Valadier like a new
architecture in Works of Architecture and Ornament, where he described
and illustrated in detail the building site from the construction of the
scaffolding to the end of the restoration, exalting it as one of the his
greatest achievements.
The works of Gaspare Salvi and Luigi
Canina
From the 1930s until the completion of the works in the middle
of the century, the works passed under the direction of Gaspare Salvi
and Luigi Canina.
Salvi's first intervention concerned the most
seriously compromised part of the entire building that remained
standing: the third ring on the side of what is now Via San Gregorio. On
travertine bases Salvi built a completion with brick arches on
travertine imposts; he had the arches start from the spurs to reconnect
the newly built part to the old part, which was thus statically secured.
The new arches are marked by radially arranged bipedal bricks. The
fillings of the radial walls are made of travertine in the first order
and brick in the upper orders, while the restored pillars are entirely
in brick. Upon Salvi's death, Canina took over the direction of the
works, solving on the same side a problem of overhanging towards the
inside of the highest part of the building, which was secured with iron
tie rods to the newly built brick buttresses.
The last major
intervention was carried out on the north side, towards the current via
degli Annibaldi, the best preserved with the exception of the attic,
which had a sheer drop of over 60 centimeters off the axis. It was
therefore necessary to build a support for the outermost overhanging
part. Thus a fourth-order outline was built inwards in the second ring,
in which coupled chains were sunk to secure the attic part that was no
longer aligned.
The twentieth century and contemporary works
The remains of the Meta Sudans, the Flavian fountain, were definitively
demolished between 1933 and 1936, together with the remains of the base
of the Colossus of Nero during the works for the construction of via
dell'Impero, now via dei Fori Imperiali, commissioned by Mussolini .
Between 1938 and 1939 the underground structures of the arena were
completely excavated, partly altered by the reconstructions.
Since 2002, the Colosseum has been depicted on the reverse of the 5 cent
euro coin minted by the Italian Republic.
In 2007 the complex was
included among the "Seven Wonders of the Modern World". The Colosseum
nowadays is the major source of tourism and is the symbol of Rome.
Origins of the current name
Nearby there was a colossal bronze
statue of Nero, from which the name Colosseum is said to derive,
attested starting from the Middle Ages and also linked to the colossal
dimensions of the building.
After the killing of Nero, the statue
was remodeled to depict Sol Invictus, the sun god, by adding the rays of
the solar corona around the head. The Colossus was then moved from its
original location, the atrium of the Domus Aurea, to make way for the
temple of Venus and Roma under Hadrian, in 126. The site of the colossal
statue's plinth after the move is marked by a modern tufa plinth .
The colossal statue of Nero was demolished in the imperial age and
it is difficult to remember it in the sixth century. In the 14th
century, the notary and judge Armannino da Bologna claimed that the
Colosseum was the main pagan place in the world. According to his
interpretation «the Colosseum had become the seat of some sects of
magicians and devil worshippers. Those who approached were asked: "Colis
Eum?" (that is, "do you adore him?", meaning the devil) to which one had
to answer "Ego Colo"». Pope Benedict XIV had the Colosseum exorcised and
consecrated it to the memory of the passion of Christ and all the
saints.
Structure
“I see a great circle of arches, and all around it lie
broken stones that were once part of a solid wall. In the fissures and
above the vaults grows a forest of shrubs, wild olive trees, and
myrtles, and tangled brambles, and confused weeds... The stones are
massive, immense, and jut out one over the other. There are terrible
fissures in the walls, and large openings from which one sees the blue
sky..."
(Percy Bysshe Shelley)
The building rests on a
travertine platform raised above the surrounding area. The foundations
consist of a large tuff slab about 13 m thick, lined on the outside by a
brick wall.
The supporting structure is made up of pillars in
travertine blocks, connected by pins: after the building was abandoned,
these metal elements were sought to melt and reuse them, digging the
blocks at the joints: this activity is responsible for the numerous well
visible on the external facade. The pillars were connected by walls in
blocks of tufa in the lower order and in brick above. The cavea was
supported by trapezoidal barrel vaults, cross vaults and arches resting
on travertine pillars and radial walls of tuff or brick. Travertine is
used outside, as in the series of concentric rings supporting the cavea.
In these annular walls there are various arches, decorated by pilasters
that frame them. The cross vaults (among the oldest in the Roman world)
are in opus caementicium and are often ribbed by crossed brick arches,
also used in vestments. The radial walls, beyond the two external
ambulatories, are reinforced by blocks of tuff.
A complex system
of water supply and disposal allowed the maintenance of the building and
fed the fountains placed in the cavea for the spectators.
External facade
The external facade (up to 48.50 m high) is in
travertine and is divided into four orders, according to a typical
scheme of all the buildings for entertainment in the Roman world: the
three lower registers with 80 numbered arches, supported by pillars to
which semi-columns lean against each other, while the fourth level
(attic) consists of a solid wall, marked by pilasters in correspondence
with the pillars of the arches. The orders for each floor are Doric,
Ionic and Corinthian. The top floor is also defined in the Corinthian
style.
In the stretches of wall between the pilasters there are
40 small quadrangular windows, one every two squares (the bronze clypei
must have been in the solid squares), and immediately above the level of
the windows there are three protruding shelves for each square, in which
the wooden poles that were used to open and close the velarium, probably
anchored to the ground to the series of inclined stone stones that are
still partly visible externally, at the edge of the travertine platform
on which the Colosseum rests (those visible on the side towards the
Caelian). In the first order there are 80 inputs of which 4 are
particular, placed on the axes of the ellipse.
On the short axis
were the entrances to the grandstands (the entrance for the emperor); on
the axis along the entrances that led directly to the arena.
Furthermore, the different floors were reserved for each social class.
The emperor sat in the morning on the podium towards the Arch of
Constantine and in the afternoon on the podium towards today's Metro.
On the second and third level the arches are bordered by a
continuous parapet, in correspondence with which the semi-columns have a
cube as a base.
The semi-columns and pilasters of the four orders
have Tuscan, Ionic, Corinthian and Corinthian capitals with smooth
leaves starting from the bottom. The first three orders repeat the same
sequence visible on the external facade of the Theater of Marcellus.
The monetary representations tell us the presence of four arches at
the ends of the planks of the oval of the plant, decorated with a small
marble prothyrum.
The canopy
The Colosseum had a fabric cover
(velarium in Latin) made up of many sheets that covered the spectators'
stands but left the central arena uncovered. The velarium was used to
protect people from the sun and was manned by a detachment of sailors
from the Misenum fleet, stationed next to the Colosseum. The sheets were
fixed with a complex system of ropes and guided by pulleys and at the
same time the entire structure was fixed to the ground with ropes tied
to stone milestones placed outside the Colosseum, and still partially
visible today.
Cavea and accesses for the public
Inside is the
auditorium with steps for spectators' seats; it was entirely in marble
and divided, by means of praecinctiones or baltea (masonry dividing
bands), into five horizontal sectors (maeniana), reserved for different
categories of public, whose degree decreased as the height increased.
The lower sector, reserved for senators and their families, had wide and
low steps which housed wooden seats (subsellia); the names of the
senators to whom the lower seats were reserved were inscribed on the
balustrade of the podium.
This was followed by the maenianum
primum, with around twenty marble steps, the maenianum secundum, divided
into imum (lower) and summum (upper), again with around sixteen marble
steps, and finally the maenianum summum, with around eleven wooden steps
at the interior of the colonnaded portico that crowned the cavea
(porticus in summa cavea): the architectural remains of the latter
belong to the refurbishments of the Severian or Gordian III period. On
the steps under the colonnade the women took their places, who, from
Augustus onwards, were always forbidden to mix with other spectators.
The worst place was on the terrace above the colonnade, standing room
only, intended for the lowest classes of the plebs.
Vertically,
the sectors were marked by ladders and accesses to the cavea
(vomitoria), and were protected by marble barriers (dating back to the
restorations of the 2nd century).
At the two ends in
correspondence with the minor axis, preceded externally by an
avant-corps, there were two boxes reserved for the high personages
hosted in the two boxes that have now disappeared. One, in the shape of
an "S", was intended for the emperor, the consuls and the vestals; the
other to the praefectus urbi and other dignitaries.
Spectators
reached their seats by entering through the arcades reserved for them.
Emperors and authorities reached their seats enjoying the privilege of
entering through reserved entrances, located on the minor axis of the
oval, while the entrances located in the center of the major axis were
reserved for actors and protagonists of the shows. But the rest of the
public had to queue under the arcade displaying the number corresponding
to the assigned card. Each of the arcades for the public was therefore
distinguished by a numeral, engraved on the keystone, to allow
spectators to reach their seats quickly and in an orderly manner. The
numbers engraved on the arches of the Colosseum were colored red to be
visible even from afar. This was revealed by the restorations sponsored
by the Tod's group and during which, by acting with water spray to
remove the dirt and smog deposited on the façade of the building, small
but unmistakable traces of color came to light. From here there was
access to crisscrossing stairways which led to a symmetrical series of
annular vaulted corridors. Each leads into a large sector comprising
three wedges, divided by pillars. The path had walls covered in marble
and had a stucco decoration on the vault, still the original one from
the Flavian era. The southern box, which housed the emperor, also had
another more direct access, through a cryptoporticus which opened
directly outside.
Twelve arches were reserved for senators and
led into corridors that reached the innermost ring: from here, a short
staircase led to the lower sector of the cavea. These passages were also
faced with marble.
The other arches gave access to the numerous
stairs with one or two flights leading to the upper sectors. The walls
here were covered with plaster, even on the vaults.
Arena and
underlying service areas
The elliptical arena (86 × 54 m) had a floor
partly in masonry and partly in wooden planks, and was covered with
sand, which was constantly cleaned, to absorb the blood from the
killings. It was separated from the cavea by a high podium of about 4 m,
decorated with niches and marble and protected by a bronze balustrade,
beyond which the seats of rank were located. The arena had various traps
and hoists that communicated with the dungeons and could be used during
the show.
Under the arena, service areas (hypogeum) had been
created, divided into a large central passage along the major axis and
twelve curvilinear corridors, arranged symmetrically on the two sides.
Here were the freight elevators which allowed the machinery or animals
used in the games to be brought up into the arena and which, 80 in
number, were distributed over four of the corridors: the preserved
remains refer to a reconstruction of the 3rd or 4th century. However it
is still possible to make a comparison with the underground of the
Flavian Amphitheater of Pozzuoli, built by the same architects of the
Colosseum, in order to have an idea of how the underground of the
Colosseum could have been in Roman times: in fact, in Pozzuoli you can
still see the gears that the Romans used to lift the cages containing
wild beasts on the arena. The roof of the basement is no longer
preserved, so the rooms below the arena are now visible outdoors.
The service structures underneath the arena were provided with
separate entrances:
underground galleries at the end of the main axis
gave access to the central passage under the arena, and were used for
the entry of animals and machinery;
two monumental entrances with
arches on the major axis gave directly onto the arena and were intended
for the entrance of the protagonists of the games (the pump), gladiators
and animals too heavy to be lifted from the dungeons;
the arena was
also accessible for attendants from open passages in the service gallery
that ran around it under the podium of the lower sector of the
auditorium. The gallery was reached from the innermost ring, the same
one that the senators used to reach their seats.
Church of Santa
Maria della Pietà at the Colosseum
Inside the Colosseum is the church
of Santa Maria della Pietà al Colosseo, a place of Catholic worship. The
small church is inserted in one of the arches of the Flavian
amphitheater. It was probably founded between the 6th and 7th centuries,
although the first certain news of its existence dates back to the 14th
century.
The church has always been a place of worship in memory
of the Christian martyrs who lost their lives inside the Colosseum, and
was frequented by numerous saints including San Ignazio di Loyola, San
Filippo Neri and San Camillo de Lellis. The Roman archaeologist Mariano
Armellini recounts that the chapel: "... was originally intended as a
cloakroom for the company that used to perform the great drama of the
Passion of Jesus Christ in the arena of the amphitheater, a use that was
maintained until the time of Paul IV" . Subsequently, in 1622, the
aedicule was purchased by the Confraternity of the Gonfalone who
transformed it into an oratory, and entrusted it to a monk as custodian
of the place.
In 1936 the Vicariate of Rome entrusted the Circolo
San Pietro with the task of providing for the officiation of the church.
The Colosseum hosted the amphitheater games, which included: fights
between animals (venationes), the killing of condemned by wild animals
or other types of executions (noxii) and gladiator fights (munera). The
activities followed a codified programme: in the morning there were
fights between animals or between a gladiator and an animal, at
lunchtime the death sentences were carried out and only in the afternoon
did the fights between gladiators take place.
For the
inauguration of the building, the emperor Titus held games that lasted
three months, during which about 2,000 gladiators and 9,000 animals
died. To celebrate Trajan's triumph over the Dacians, 10,000 gladiators
fought there.
The last fights between gladiators are witnessed in
437, but the amphitheater was still used for venationes (killing of
animals) until the reign of Theodoric the Great: the last were organized
in 519, on the occasion of the consulate of Eutharic (son-in-law of
Theodoric ), and in 523, for the consulship of Anicius Maximus.
The excavations of the sewage collectors of the Colosseum have returned
the remains of skeletons of numerous domestic and wild animals,
including bears, lions, horses, ostriches.
The Colosseum is delivered to the Colosseum Archaeological Park and is directly managed and protected by it. In 2016, the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill circuit was visited by 6,408,852 people, making it the most visited site in Italy. In 2018 it was visited by over 7.6 million visitors[39]. The following table shows the overall trend of the "Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Archaeological Circuit" in recent years, based on data from the statistical office of Italian cultural heritage.