Anceint Staduim

The Colosseum is the popular name for the Amphiteatrum Flavium (located on the site of the Domus Aurea, Nero’s residence), between the Esquiline and Palatine hills, near the southeast end of the Forum. Construction was started by Vespasian in 69 AD (Nero had committed suicide in 68 AD), finished by Titus in 80 AD, and restored in 217 AD. The Colosseum is 1730 feet around, 180 feet high, and was designed to hold 50,000 people. That’s as high as an 18-story building; it held more people than many of today’s professional baseball stadiums. The arena floor measured 282 by 177 feet, not quite large enough for an American football game. Remember, it was built nearly 2,000 years ago.

To supply the travertine that covered the exterior walls of the structure, a special 20-foot-wide road was built from the Colosseum to a quarry near Tivoli, a town about 20 miles east of Rome. Then in the early-1500s, the travertine marble that covered the Coliseum’s walls was itself “quarried,” and 2,522 cartloads of marble were used to complete St. Peter's Basilica. Uncounted Romans live, work, and worship in buildings constructed with blocks of stone and slabs of marble, from the “Coliseum Quarry.”

One evening we rode the bus from Camping Roma (located on Via Aurelia on the west side of Rome), past St. Peter’s, then on to Piazza Venezia. We walked down Via del Corso, stopping to see the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, and finally to the Spanish Steps. To the left of the Spanish Steps we boarded subway Ligne A and rode to the Stazione Termini, changed to Ligne B, and then went to the Colosseum. What a beautiful sight, as we snapped this memory of the floodlit remains of that ancient stadium!
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During our first visit in 1970 the street around the Colosseum was so crowded with traffic it was almost impossible to cross the street for a visit. We’ve been told that some people would hire a taxi to cross the street to the Colosseum. During our visit a few years later the street was dug up, the subject of an archaeological excavation. During yet another visit in Rome, the excavation was complete, but the traffic pattern had been changed so tourists could visit in safety.
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We have visited inside the Colosseum two or three years, and find it very interesting to see that amphitheaters today, are built in much the same manner as they were thousands of years ago. We have visited at least 15 Roman Amphitheaters in several countries.

If you climb to the top of the Colosseum, you can see St. Peter's Basilica, far in the distance.

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