Ancient Wonders of the World Final Draft

Amphithearium Flavian 6

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The Roman Coliseum

When you travel across the world, you will be amused by some places that have turned out to be centres of attraction for visitors all year round. These places may capture your interest and curiosity as you try to find out their origin that are in most cases very mysterious when compared to their huge sizes. Ancient Roman Empire had a masterclass piece of architectures (Liberato, Liberato, & Gonçalves, 2019). with a population of more than one million people in the city of Rome, various architectural designs were made. Architectural columns and shapes were used in building huge temples that were used as places of worship and for social gatherings. The Roman coliseum that is located right within the city of Rome, is a huge building of attraction that has had the capability of holding the attention of millions of visitors who come to Europe. Its sheer size is enough reason to make it one of the wonders of the world. It carries a long history that has continued to make it a big centre of attraction up to date (Liberato, Liberato, & Gonçalves, 2019).

The construction work on the Roman Coliseum is recorded to have commenced in 70 A.D and was finished in 80 A.D( Das, 2021). with very little information on the real construction known, the majority of the details are missing. The Hebrew prisoners and slaves were the ones who built this significant structure. The great walls of the Roman Coliseum were made of travertine blocks that had been supported by archers, vaults and piers of linked walls. The Roman Coliseum remain to be an interesting aspect of the history of the Roman people as it acted as an arena where many contests were displayed. For example, in the current world, you can think of the world series that is hosted in Sports arenas, all these sports were done in the Roman Coliseum( Das, 2021). The main purpose of the Coliseum did not change, this was the centre of entertainment.

The construction of the Amphitheatrum Flavium was endorsed by Vespasian, the Roman Emperor by that time(de Magalhães, 2020). Emperor Vespasian could not live to see his dream come true, his son Titus finished the construction years later. The Coliseum has been central in the history and culture of the Romans up to date. This significant building had been built to act as a centre for performing all major events in the entire roman empire. It was the modern sports arena of that time. The Colosseum still stands at the centre of the city of Rome, in Italy as an attractive architectural structure, which has for decades acted as a recognizable historical landmark(de Magalhães, 2020). Later on, cathedrals of St Peters and St John Lateran used the coliseum as a quarry and caused a lot of damage to its original beauty making it a shadow of its former self. People all over the world visit the coliseum every year.

Photography of Rome Coliseum, c.A.D 70-82

Figure 1. ( traveldigg.com)

The coliseum had been made to act as a centre for all types of entertainment. It was built using about 100,000 cubic metres of travertine stones, Roman cement, and tuff blocks. The coliseum had an underground arena called hypogeum, this arena was composed of a network of tunnels and chambers that had been distributed into two levels (de Magalhães, 2020). Gladiators and animals that were used to entertain the crowds that come to the coliseum were kept in these chambers before they were allowed to surface in the main arena that was above. The seating in the arena was done based on the social status of the people that were being entertained. The arena had a well-sheltered viewing space on both sides. The colosseum had 80 entries and exits that allowed for the big crowds that come to the coliseum to easily exit and enter (de Magalhães, 2020). The oval shape of the coliseum allowed all the spectators to have a very clear eagle’s view of every activity that was happening in the arena.

Photography of features of the coliseum

Figure 3. (Landlopers.com)

The coliseum was built using travertine stones. The ground floor of the coliseum was built using the Tuscan style. The second floor had elaborated ionic columns with the third floor having been built in a decorated corinthian style( Das, 2021). The fourth floor of the coliseum was made of flat planes and not columns and had many decorations of carvings and many bronze and azurite insets. It was designed to have two main entrances; the Porta Triumphali(Northern entrance) was used as the entrance for the triumphal processions. this entrance was used by the gladiators when entering the arena. The other entrance was the Porta Libitina (southern entrance)( Das, 2021). It was used as an exit door to remove the dead bodies of those gladiators who were killed in the arena during the presentations. The arena itself was built using red and black blocks and was very different from the rest of the building that had been painted in white. The colours of the arena were symbolic in nature.

References

Das, N. (2021). Time and memory in Carthage. Renaissance Studies, 35(3), 360-385.

de Magalhães, M. J. D. S. (2020). ROME: COLOSSEUM. Marcelo José da Silva de Magalhães.

Liberato, D., Liberato, P., & Gonçalves, A. (2019). Dark Tourism, the Dark Side of Cultural Tourism. Application to the City of Porto. In Smart Tourism as a Driver for Culture and Sustainability (pp. 163-178). Springer, Cham.