Colosseum of Rome

This building, anciently called the Flavian Amphitheatre, was named the Colosseum from the colossal statue of the Emperor Nero which was near by. The statue was of gilded bronze, one hundred and seventeen feet in height, and represented the tyrant refulgent with rays as the god of the sun.

The Colosseum is, without doubt, the most celebrated building in the world.

It is in the form of an ellipse, measuring eighteen hundred and forty-eight feet in circumference, and is built in a series of three arcades, one above another, with an attic over all, the total height being one hundred and sixty-five feet. The seats, which range up from the arena, are of massive stone, and could accommodate eighty-seven thousand persons. The seats were protected from the sun by an awning of canvas stretched across the building.

It was commenced by the Emperor Vespasian about the year A.D. 72, and completed at the end of the fourth year after the laying of the corner-stone. The last two rows were finished by the Emperor Titus, son of Vespasian, after his return from the conquest of Jerusalem. It is said that twelve thousand captive Jews were employed in building the Colosseum, and that the external walls alone cost a sum equal to seventeen million francs.

It was dedicated by Titus in the year 80, with games that lasted one hundred days, during which time nine thousand animals were slain to gratify the thirst for blood of the savage populace, while eighty thousand spectators crowded from day to day the marble seats and corridors of this magnificent structure.

Designed originally for exhibitions of wild beasts, which were made to fight in the arena, gladiatorial combats were soon introduced; and, during the era of the persecutions of the Christians, many of them suffered martyrdom by being thrown to the wild beasts within the arena. The arena could on occasions be filled with water, for the sake of naval combats.

There is an ancient prophecy concerning the Colosseum:--