The Amphitheatre Flavium or Flavian Amphitheatre became known as the Colosseum in the Middle Ages, either because of the huge statue of Nero that once stood outside it or from its sheer size and magnitude. 

The Colosseum’s fortunes have fluctuated. It was the centrepiece of Vespasian’s regenerated Rome, the home of vagrants, a palatial fortress and a stone quarry for renaissance churches and palaces. But despite this varied history, the structure has remained one of Rome’s major landmarks for nearly 2000 years.

The Amphitheatre Flavium

Building began on a new monumental amphitheatre for Rome in 70AD, instigated by the Flavian Emperor Vespasian as part of his regeneration of Rome. Roma Resurgens was Vespasian’s motto, and as the city rose from the ashes of civil war and unrest, the arena that became known as the Colosseum rose from the basin of the lake of Nero’s Golden House. It became the city’s first permanent, all-purpose stone amphitheatre.

The building remained a family project. Its grand opening was in 80AD under Vespasian’s son Titus. Vespasian’s youngest son, Emperor Domitian, added the structural finishing touches by completing the arena area.

Repairs to the Colosseum

The amphitheatre was repaired and modified several times in its history. The building was particularly vulnerable to fires because of its wooden arena and upper ring of seating. Archaeologists have also discovered that the original corridor décor of red, yellow, green and black painted plaster was changed following the fire of 217 AD to a plainer red and white style.

As time went on, repairs were less meticulous. A lightning strike in the third century meant that the Colosseum again went up in flames. Repairs took two decades and did not have the attention to detail of earlier eras. 

The last recorded repair of the amphitheatre was in 443 AD, when an earthquake destroyed the upper tier of seating. Repairs on this occasion were makeshift and incomplete.

The Decline of the Colosseum

Gladiatorial contests were outlawed in 438AD, and the games stopped completely in 523AD after one final animal hunt took place in the arena. Subsequently, the Colosseum became redundant until it became a refuge for the city’s vagrants. Makeshift dwellings grew up in the basement corridors, and gradually, a small community of artisans developed around the former amphitheatre. A road was built down the main axis of the arena, with the rest used as a storage yard, while outside the perimeter walls, several dwellings were erected.

Plundered for Stone

By the twelfth century, the Colosseum once more went up in the world when it became part of the Frangipane family’s fortress. The family occupied two levels of arches at the eastern end of the structure until the building left their ownership, eventually falling into the hands of the church. 

Now the stonework of the Colleseum began to be plundered. Records show travertine stone from the building was put up for sale in 1362. During the Renaissance, humanists such as Pope Eugene IV called for the historical remains to be preserved. However, this did not prevent the building from being used as a “quarry” supplying stone for great Renaissance buildings such as the Vatican’s St Peter’s church.

In the sixteenth century, the church sanctified the former amphitheatre due to the misconception that it was a place of martyrdom for early Christians under Nero. A small church — the Chapel of Santa Maria Della Pieta — was built in the northeastern corner of the arena. However, this in no way stopped the slow erosion of the building’s structure. Soon, only the north side of the Colosseum remained relatively intact.

The Conservation and Excavation

Real conservation of the Colosseum did not begin until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. A law was passed in 1743 forbidding any further removal of stone. In addition, the east and west ends of the building were reinforced to stop them from collapsing. But it was not until the nineteenth century that the first systematic excavations of the building began under Carlos Fea.

Sources

The Colosseum: The Official Guide. Electa: Soprintendenza Archeologica di Roma

Connolly, P, (2003)Colosseum: Rome’s Arena of Death. BBC Books