Flavian Amphitheatre: the emperors, the building, and its names
The Flavian Amphitheatre takes its familiar scholarly name from the imperial family that commissioned and completed Rome's Colosseum. Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian belonged to the Flavian dynasty. That connection is secure, but the full Latin label Amphitheatrum Flavium is not documented in contemporary Roman sources. A reconstructed dedication instead describes a new amphitheatre built with the proceeds of war. Scholars recovered the proposed lettering from fixing holes left in a marble block after the bronze letters disappeared. The reconstruction associates the building with Vespasian and may preserve a later adjustment that assigned the commission more specifically to Titus.
The name Colosseum has a different association. It most likely derived from the colossal statue near the amphitheatre, originally dedicated to Nero and subsequently rededicated by Vespasian to the Sun. The building's popular name was widely established by about 1000 CE, although an earlier nickname is possible. The imperial family name and the colossal statue thus supplied different labels for the same monument. The Flavian Amphitheatre designation commemorates its builders, while Colosseum preserves an association with a neighboring landmark. Neither the later popularity of Colosseum nor the conventional Latin label establishes what all Romans called it when it opened.
Vespasian chose a site previously occupied by the artificial lake of Nero's Golden House. The valley lay between the Velia, Esquiline, and Caelian. Work continued under Titus, who dedicated the expanded building in 80 CE with celebrations lasting 100 days. Platner and Ashby attribute the third and fourth stories to Titus, distinguishing them from subsequent additions under Domitian. They connect Domitian's finishing work with bronze shields below the upper cornice and further interior construction. Successive emperors also repaired and altered the structure. Its construction history therefore includes several phases within and beyond the reigns of the original Flavian patrons.
The Flavian Amphitheatre was an ellipse approximately 188 meters along its main axis and 156 across its shorter axis. Travertine formed the monumental exterior and important load-bearing parts inside. Other internal walls used volcanic stone and concrete, sometimes faced with brick. Four stories rose around the outside. The lower three contained open arcades with 80 arches apiece. Four entrances at the ends of the principal axes were unnumbered; the other 76 arches carried numbers to help organize admission. Above the arcades stood a more solid upper wall, with windows and pilasters replacing the open rhythm of the lower floors.
The interior organized spectators by Roman social rank. Senators and other magistrates sat on the podium closest to the arena. Members of the equestrian order occupied places behind them, while women sat in the highest wooden seating beneath a portico. Circulating corridors, stairs, aisles, and passages divided the seating into sections and wedges. The major axis had a ceremonial entrance through which gladiators paraded and an opposite exit associated with carrying out the dead and wounded. On the shorter axis, reserved entrances served the emperor, magistrates, and Vestal Virgins.
A vast fabric awning, the velarium, sheltered the seating and part of the arena. Ropes suspended it from tall masts around the cornice, with a detachment of marines operating the system. Below the wooden arena floor lay service passages, animal cages, ramps, and lifting machinery added under Domitian. Sand covered the floor, giving the arena its name. Five surviving stone posts outside the building have fittings that probably supported barriers controlling movement in the surrounding paved area. The architecture managed several movements at once: the arrival of spectators, the circulation of performers, and the movement of equipment beneath the arena.
An amphitheatre differed in form from a circus built for racing. Roman circuses had a long course and a central barrier, whereas an amphitheatre enclosed a more compact arena with seating around it. Gladiatorial combats and animal spectacles had earlier taken place in other public spaces. The oval Flavian Amphitheatre concentrated the audience around the action. Stone blocks and metal clamps supported the Colosseum's exterior, and attached columns gave the lower levels successive classical orders. The uppermost level instead used Corinthian pilasters against a wall pierced with alternating windows. Brackets and openings near the cornice supported the awning's masts.
The monument's later condition reflects damage and repeated repairs. Lightning caused a major fire in 217 CE, interrupting gladiatorial performances until repairs allowed them to resume. Earthquakes damaged the structure again, and inscriptions record restoration by later officials. Medieval documents mention houses and enclosed spaces inside the amphitheatre, whose uses changed as the ancient entertainment complex fell into ruin. Stone removal further reduced the building, while restoration projects began in the 19th century. Much of its structural skeleton survives, although the original marble seating and decorative surfaces have largely disappeared.
- Guy Puzey, Jani Vuolteenaho, and Matthias Wolny, Signals of Onomastic Capital (2021), pp. 145–146 — www.pure.ed.ac.uk
- Samuel Ball Platner and Thomas Ashby, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome: Amphitheatrum Flavium (1929) — penelope.uchicago.edu
- James Grout, Encyclopaedia Romana: The Colosseum — penelope.uchicago.edu
- Philip Smith, Amphitheatrum, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1875), LacusCurtius — penelope.uchicago.edu