The Colosseum Abigail Braddock “Houses of Mortals and gods: Latin Language in Context” NEH Summer Institute 2006.

The Colosseum

Abigail Braddock“Houses of Mortals and gods:

Latin Language in Context”NEH Summer Institute 2006

Table of ContentsIntroduction Who built it?Literature on the Colosseum

When Was it built?

Why was it built? Construction of the Colosseum

Development of Amphitheaters

Features of the Colosseum

Why is it called the Colosseum?

Legacy of the Colosseum

A Tale of Two Colosseums

• Marvel of engineering and design

• Symbol of depravity, decadence, and cruelty

Measurements

• Largest amphitheater in the Roman world

• 189 meters long

• 156 meters wide

• 48 meters high

• Intact outside perimeter measured 545 meters.

Literature on the Colosseum:

• Martial, De Spectaculis IBarbara pyramidum sileat miracula Memphis,Assiduus jactet nec Babylona labor.Nec Triviæ Templo molles laudentur honores,Dissimuletque Deum cornibus ara frequens.Aere nec vacuo pendentia MausoleaLaudibus immodicis Cares in astra ferant.Omnis Cæsareo cedat labor Amphiteatro:Unum pro cunctis Fama loquatur opus.

(From the Latin Library)

Veneble Bede (8th cent.)

• Quamdiu stat Colisæus, stat et Roma; quando cadet colisæus, cadet et Roma; quando cadet Roma, cadet et mundus ("as long as the Colossus stands, so shall Rome; when the Colossus falls, Rome shall fall; when Rome falls, so falls the world")


• Martial, De Spectaculis I (Translation)“Let Barbarous Memphis speak no more of the

wonder of her pyramids, nor Assyrian toil boast of Babylon; nor let the soft Ionians be extolled for Trivia’s triumph; let the altar of many horns say naught of Delos; nor let the Carians exalt to the skies with extravagent praises the mausoleum poised in empty air. All labor yields to Caesar’s Amphitheater. Fame shall tell of one work in lieu of all.”


• Martial, De Spectaculis IIHic ubi sidereus propius uidet astra colossus et crescunt media pegmata celsa uia,inuidiosa feri radiabant atria regis unaque iam tota stabat in urbe domus;hic ubi conspicui uenerabilis Amphitheatri 5 erigitur moles, stagna Neronis erant;hic ubi miramur uelocia munera thermas, abstulerat miseris tecta superbus ager;Claudia diffusas ubi porticus explicat umbras, ultima parts aulae deficientis erat. 10Reddita Roma sibi est et sunt te preside, Caesar, deliciae populi, quae fuerant domini.

(From The Latin Library)

Literature on the Colosseum:• Martial, De Spectaculis II (English translation)Just here, where Nero’s skyey colossus sees stars, and the scaffolding towers up high, right in the way,once shone the nasty halls of that cruel king,and only the one Golden House in all of Rome. Just here, where the Amphitheatre’s honoured pile rises, towering before our eyes, was Nero’s lake. Just here, where we gaze at Titus’s thermal baths,swift gift, proud acres razed the poor man’s roof. Where the Claudian colonnade spreads wide its shade,that golden palace’s outermost corner came to an end.Caesar, Rome’s back to herself, now you’re in charge,and the master’s pleasures are the people’s now.

Translation courtesy of Tony Klinehttp://www.tonykline.co.uk/PITBR/Latin/Martial.htm

Why was it built?

• Rome needed an amphitheater

• A partially stone structure constructed in 29 B.C. by Statilius Taurus proved too small.

• Caligula started progress on amphitheater, but it was stopped by Claudius

• Nero built an amphitheater on the Campus Martius, but it too had been destroyed.


• In earlier examples, most ancient arenas for funerary games were simply open spaces bound by a wooden fence and finished with a platform

• originally temporary structures made of wood or wood with a stone foundations- nothing remains of them

• Amphitheaters developed out of a need to hold gladiatorial contests in specifically designed spaces.

• For more information on the invention of the amphitheatres, see Pliny the Elder (Historia Naturalis, XXXVI, 116-120).


The first amphitheater was constructed in Capua.


In Pompeii, an amphitheater was constructed around 80 BC which developed the cavea system of underground passages which was supported by a system of radial walls connected by sloping vaults and interrupted by rings of tunnels, was progressively elevated from the ground and support structures were replaced by walls to create a panorama effect. This style was used in the construction of Pompey’s Theater.


• Three issues involved in planning the Roman Amphitheater– Since shows were sponsored by high officials, they

must be grand so they had to provide facilities for grandeur in a limited amt of space

– Large and diverse audiences-senate decree in the Augustan era established a hierarchy for assigning seats

– How to quickly evacuate in case of emergency- established regular paths to and from seats


• In antiquity, the Colosseum was known as the Amphitheatrum Caesarum Flavium or just the Flavian amphitheater.

• Termed Colosseum in the middle ages from a colossus statue of Nero


• The colossus of Nero was a 120 foot bronze statue built by Zenodorus originally placed in the Domus Aurea.

• At the death of Nero, Vespasian changed it into a statue of the sun.

• Some historians say that it was moved by Hadrian in 128 AD nearer to the Colosseum.

Why is it called the Coloseum?

• A recent reconstruction of an inscription on one of the Colosseum’s blocks reads:

“The emperor Vespasian ordered a new amphitheater to be built from the booty [of the Jewish War in 70 A.D.]”

• This was not the principal dedicatory inscription which would have run around the parapet

• The block was found in 1813 at arena end of east entrance so scholars believed that it could have formed the lintel of the door.

Who Built it?

• Colosseum was a monument to sheer Roman organizational ability.

• Amphitheater commissioned by Vespasian who was proclaimed emperor in 69 A.D.

Who Built it?

• Vespasian characterized as “down to earth” and possessing a “solid middle-class character,” and he built the Colosseum as one who understood the needs of the masses.

• Thus, the Colosseum reflected Vespasian’s outlook

When was it built?

• Based on the brainchild of Augustus, Vespasian began construction in 70 A.D. and completed up to the third story in 79 A.D.

When was it built?• Based on the brainchild of Augustus, Vespasian began construction in 70

A.D. and completed up to the third story in 79 A.D.

• Suetonius, De Vita XII Caesarum, Divius Vespasianus, Liber VIII,9.1

Fecit et nova opera templum Pacis foro proximum, Divique Claudii in Caelio monte coeptum quidem ab Agrippina, sed a Nerone prope funditus destructum; item amphitheatrum urbe media, ut destinasse compererat Augustum.

• “He also undertook new works, the temple of Peace hard by the Forum and one to the Deified Claudius on the Caelian mount, which was begun by Agrippina, but almost utterly destroyed by Nero; also an amphitheatre in the heart of the city, a plan which he learned that Augustus had cherished. “

• Source:http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/home.html

When was it built?

• Top level of structure was finished by his son Titus who inaugurated it in 80 A.D. with games lasting for 100 days.

When was it built?

• Domitian later added the top story to the façade, of which none survives, and underneath, which was previously a work yard.

When was it built?

• Legend believed that the Colosseum was built by 15,000 captives from the Jewish wars.

• This was unlikely because of the skilled and specialized workforce of craftsmen using local materials

• The captives could have been used to transport stones from quarries

Construction of the Colosseum: Preparing the site

• Built on land reclaimed from Nero’s estate after draining the artificial lake.

• Engineers erected drains to ensure adequate drainage toward the Circus Maximus, part of which was lost when the Metro was built.

Construction of the Colosseum: Materials

• 100,000 cubic meters of Travertine quarried at Tivoli– used because of its high resistance to stress and wear– Drawbacks to use:

• Calcinated in fire• Expensive to quarry• Tends to split when cut vertically

– Used in heavy traffic areas including: floors and perimeter porticoes of lower levels, internal tiers leading to the upper levels, landings on the stairs, surface channels for running water, tiers for the audience, the podium wall and perimeter walls of the four main entrances at the far ends of the major and minor axes.


• Peperino rock used for blocks in both underground chambers and radial passageways on the first level between the second and third annular corridors and wide walls connecting the supporting travertine pillars

• Yellow tufa cut into pieces for the cement vaults and the original nuclei of walls

• Gray tufa used at the base of the brick radial walls of the first level and between the third and forth annular corridors filling a cavity between the wall and its foundation


• Stone blocks fit together with metal clamps. 300 tons of iron needed to clamp blocks together. The surviving chunks in the walls are where the iron was stolen.

• Other walls were made of cement and then covered with brick facing-such as substructures in the lower part of the cavea- designed to support a lesser burden and not weigh to heavily on the walls underneath

• It is estimated that over 200 ox carts of stones needed to be supplied each day of construction.


• It is estimated that over 200 ox carts of stones needed to be supplied each day of construction.

• There is evidence of many colors used in construction– Fragments of plaster painted black, green, red, and

yellow– Mosaic fragments in different colors

• Bricks in herringbone pattern used on a large scale because of its elasticity and the ease of replacing it.


This diagram shows the general location of various construction materials incorporated in the Colosseum.

Construction of the Colosseum: Logistics

• Logistical considerations must have been worked out well in advance:– Bricks, quicklime, quarried

stone, and equipment to be located and transported to site.

– Employment of skilled laborers

– Acquisition of unskilled laborers

Construction of the Colosseum: Foundation

• Laid out with ropes swung from carefully established points serving as the 8 centers of the curvature for each of the circle segments (method decreased in accuracy proportional to the length of the rope)

• After substructures completed, annular lines defined by using shorter lengths of rope measuring from the edge of the arena rather than the original points


• Follows a design that mimicked the cosmological map of the universe, a net of radial and annular lines which when applied to the surface of a globe, become meridians and parallels. At every intersection of this grid rose a forest of travertine piers ascending like tree trunks forming the main structural and load bearing elements of the edifice.


• The foundation was 13 meters deep made of Roman cement because it could be set in damp condition. Due to the concrete’s composition, it does not need to lose water by evaporation to set.

• Around the foundation a reinforcement brick wall was built 3 meters wide and 6 meters deep and a similar wall was built inside on the internal side.


• 4 +1 underground tunnels connected the amphitheater to the surrounding buildings.

• These were constructed by casting concrete around wooden boxing.

Construction of the Colosseum: Process

• The Italian engineer Cozzo purported that it was constructed by erecting a skeletal structure like modern steel-framed buildings.

• By Vespasian’s death, only the two lowest layers were built and the barest skeleton– Engineers erected two co-centric walls behind exterior

and created radial passages of travertine piers that ran straight up through the structure independent of walling and high enough to support ceiling


– When piers reached points where they had to support vaults that carried staircases, a springing was left in stone

– At a pier’s tallest height, vaults were constructed but not at lower levels

– Brick arches built by linking piers, and on these, sloping barrel vaults built which supported banks of seats.


• During the reign of Titus, men were employed to fill in spaces between piers and to build staircases in the lower sets of vaults on the springings provided.


• Mixture of materials employed extended working season since masonry can be quarried and worked all year while concrete was affected by extremes of temperature.

• Two advantages to building the second story first (according to Cozzo)– Workmen infilling could work under cover – Top vault provided a platform on which material

was stored for upper story


• After first two levels finished, scaffolding was built to support topmost parts of building

• On inner side of piers of third story, huge projecting corbels were left to support scaffolding on inside of building.


• Domitian completed the building, adding the topmost story of the façade

• In alternate bays were bronze shields and square windows.

• Cozzo suggests that square windows were used to support transverses during construction

• Also, Domitian built top most story of seating, summum maenianum, of wood so that the thrust would not be too great.


• Diagram of possible various phases of construction

Features of the Colosseum: Exterior

Façade was a direct descendent of the Theater of Marcellus.


•First three levels consisted of 80 arches with openings 4.2 meters high sent on pillars with semi-columns 2.7 meters wide that formed 76 gates and 4 entrances.

•First level- Doric capitals with arches 7m high above which was an architrave beneath a smooth frieze and a molded cornice.•Second level- Ionic capitals•Third level- Corinthian capitals with a double crown of acanthus leaves that were curved at the top. There were four leaves on the bottom and five on top.


•Fourth level- fill wall with pilasters placed on high pedestals that divided 80 panels which consisted of ionic bases and Corinthian capitals.•Statuary found on third level•Bronze shields likely melted in fire of 217 A.D.•Velarium-protected people from sun

•One theory states that ropes which supported it were attached to masts which projected above the cornice of the outer wall•Another theory projects that ropes were attached at the ground level to winches fixed to a row of bollards encircling the building which were manned by the imperial fleet.


Reconstruction of Colosseum exterior

Features of the Colosseum:Entrances

• There were more than 80 entrances.• Seventy-six were numbered to correspond to

the spectators' tickets. • Two were reserved for the emperor and his

guests. These led directly to the podium. • Two were for the gladiators

– Porta Triumphalis– Porta Libitinaria (Libitina was the Roman goddess of

death) was the gate through which the bodies of those slain in the arena were carried out to an unmarked grave beyond the walls of the city.

Features of the Colosseum:Seating and Social Engineering

• On the ground floor, archways were tiered to give access to different parts of seating

• Vomitorium- passageways that controlled people by two sets of gates

• Admission was by ticket

• Arena held 50,000 people

• Spectators arrived either on foot or in litters.


• Emperor and Vestal versions faced each other in boxes• Five levels of seating:

– Primo settore-• lowest area accommodating members of the senatorial elite• Four large marble terraces, with a cloakroom in front and short

flights of stairs leading up to their places, three steps for each quarter of the building

• Landing supported by the podium wall and was bordered on the arena side by a marble parapet

• Senators brought their own chairs, called bisellia– Maenianum primum- first sector

• Equestrian class• 8 marble esteps and furnished with a walkway accessible by flights

of 16 stairs, for four each quarter of the building– Both Primo settore and Maenianum primum were the first level

of exterior


• Five levels of seating (cont’d)• Maeniamum secundun inum

– Greatest number of tiers and most spacious– Could be reached through the second and third levels– Second level of the exterior– For plebs

• Maenianum secundumt summum, the lower and upper second sector

– Third row and the passageway above the third row– For plebs

• Maenianum summum in ligneis, the upper wooden sector– For poor, slaves, women– 80 partitions (tabulations) corresponding to the divisions in the attic wall– 11 tiers of wood beneath the portico– Most difficult part to reach– Panorama offered great view



• Legislation about who sat where begun by Augustus• Boys who were not of age sat with tutors in a specific

sector, as did serving soldiers on leave, scribes, heralds, foreign dignitaries, and priesthoods

• Grave diggers, actors, and former gladiators were barred from attending

• The Lex Roscia (67 B.C.) banished women to the highest seats

• The wedge of marble seating down low at east end is an erroneous piece of reconstruction from the 1930s.



Suetonius De Vita XII Caesarum, Divius Augustus, Liber II,44.1

Spectandi confusissimum ac solutissimum morem correxit ordinavitque, motus iniuria senatoris, quem Puteolis per celeberrimos ludos consessu frequenti nemo receperat. Facto igitur decreto patrum ut, quotiens quid spectaculi usque publice ederetur, primus subselliorum ordo vacaret senatoribus, Romae legatos liberarum sociarumque gentium vetuit in orchestra sedere, cum quosdam etiam libertini generis mitti deprendisset. Militem secrevit a populo.

2 Maritis e plebe proprios ordines assignavit, praetextatis cuneum suum, et proximum paedagogis, sanxitque ne quis pullatorum media cavea sederet. Feminis p196 ne gladiatores quidem, quos promiscue spectari sollemne olim erat, nisi ex superiore loco spectare concessit. 3Solis virginibus Vestalibus locum in theatro separatim et contra praetoris tribunal dedit. Athletarum vero spectaculo muliebre secus omne adeo summovit, ut pontificalibus ludis pugilum par postulatum distulerit in insequentis diei matutinum tempus edixeritque mulieres ante horam quintam venire in theatrum non placere.


Suetonius De Vita XII Caesarum, Divius Augustus, Liber II,44.1 (translation)

He put a stop by special regulations to the disorderly and indiscriminate fashion of viewing the games, though exasperation at the insult to a senator, to whom no one offered a seat in a crowded house at some largely attended games in Puteoli. In consequence of this the senate decreed that, whenever any public show was given anywhere, the first row of seats should be reserved for senators; and at Rome he would not allow the envoys of the free and allied nations to sit in the orchestra, since he was informed that even freedmen were sometimes appointed. He separated the soldiery from the people.

2He assigned special seats to the married men of the commons, to boys under age their own section and the adjoining one to their preceptors; and he decreed that no one wearing a dark cloak should sit in the middle of the house. He would not allow women to view even the gladiators except from the upper seats, though it had been the custom for men and women to sit together at such shows. 3Only the Vestal virgins were assigned a place to themselves, opposite the praetor's tribunal. As for the contests of the athletes, he excluded women from them so strictly, that when a contest between a pair of boxers had been called for at the games in honour of his appointment as pontifex maximus, he postponed it until early the following day, making proclamation that it was his desire that women should not come to the theatre before the fifth hour.

Features of the Colosseum:Floor and Underground

• Floor- oak wood– Laid on top of underground walls– Strewn with sand to absorb bodily fluids and prevent

slipping

• Around the arena walls was a curved tunnel, part of it comprised a cryptoporticus which contained radial passages and drains

• Maze of substructure underneath consisted of 32 cells around edge where animals were kept

Features of the Colosseum:Floor and Underground

• Animals were driven underground under the short ends of arena– Each segment was completely separage– Contained 8 cages close to the edge of arena

• Animals were driven along narrow passageway which did not allow them to turn around

• Animals were raised to cages where they were released to trapdoor which was designed so they would race to the light

• 32 animals could be released simultaneously on to the floor

Features of the Colosseum:Scenery and Spectacle

• Scenery was the conspicuous feather in the center of floor

• Scenery consisted of huge, hinged platforms in the middle (pegmata)

• Masonry supports still seen today

• Hinged end at arena level and other end was about five meters below


• Major fire 217 A.D. affected the uppermost level of seating and arena

• Not fully operational again until 240 A.D.• Further repairs were made after an earthquake in 443

A.D.• Cassius Dio relates that it was frequently damaged

by lightening and earthquakes• Gladiators and animal hunts continued into 523 A.D. • In the late 6th century, small church installed using

arena as a cemetery• In 12th century, it was rented out as houses and

workshops.


• Frangipani family built palace there in 1200.• By 1362, outer south side had collapsed in heap

of stones.• During Renaissance (15th and 16th centuries)

people quarried travertine blocks on outer rings and miles of marble seating for many building projects, including St. Peter’s Basilica.

• Declared sacred ground in 1675 and filled with stations of the cross to commemorate martyred Christians.

Legacy of the Colosseum:Ecological Impact

• Game consumption emptied some lands of animal species

• Before overgrowth of vegetation was cleared in 1871, over 400 species of plants grew on ruins, a variety made possible both by seeds attached to or ingested by animals and the Colosseum’s special microclimate.

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The Colosseum Abigail Braddock “Houses of Mortals and gods: Latin Language in Context” NEH Summer Institute 2006.

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