3840 AM · 80 CE · world history
The Opening of the Colosseum
Rome opens an amphitheatre for fifty thousand—the emblem of imperial spectacle.
The Flavians build a vast oval on the drained lake of Nero's palace—a gesture of giving land back to the people. The tiers held about fifty thousand. Eighty entrances filled and emptied the stands in minutes, awnings gave shade, and underground machinery lifted animals to the arena. Part of the funding came from the spoils of the Judaean war.
Sources
Documents of the period
- inscriptions and coinage of the Roman Empire — the dedication inscription and coins showing the amphitheatre
Scholarship
- Roman authors: Tacitus, Suetonius, Livy — Suetonius on Vespasian and Titus; Martial, On the Spectacles
Basis: documents and evidence.