The Beautiful Colosseum

Located in Rome, Italy, the Colosseum is one of the most amazing structures in the world to me. It's not only the architecture, but the history behind the place that has me so interested.

Of course, most of us know of the movie "Gladiator," and while it may not focus a lot

on events that actually took place, it certainly gives you an idea of what kind of activities took place in the days of Rome. It makes you feel like you experienced what they experienced.

There are a lot of things that I didn't know about the Colosseum until we discussed them in my art class. One thing that I found particularly interesting was the exact location where it was built. The emperor who commissioned the building of the amphitheatre, Vespasian, wanted to build a place where all the people of Rome could go whenever they wanted. He wanted to do this because of the mistakes of the previous emperor, Nero. Located on the exact spot where the Colosseum is now, Nero, who was a very hated emperor during his reign, had built a very large and extravagant location for himself and his family right in the middle of the city often called "The Golden House." After seeing how much the people hated this emperor, Vespasian made the very political decision to tear this house down and build the amphitheatre directly in it's place.

The Colosseum was built out of concrete (one of the many Roman developments that makes this building so significant) and covered with a layer of travertine which was a very popular material at the time. After about 500 years after it had been built, the Colosseum quit having events and the site was used as a quarry for this material, which is one of the reasons why it looks like it does today.

Another Roman accomplishment that makes the Colosseum amazing was the invention of barrel vaults and cross, or groin, vaults. This allowed for several entrances and one tunnel that continued around the entire length of the building.

The Colosseum also uses all three types of orders: the Doric order, the Ionic order, and the Corithian order. The first floor uses the Doric order, the second floor uses the Ionic order, and the top floor uses the Corinthian order.

It is also suspected that it had some form of awning that could be suspended over the top of the building when weather didn't permit.

The Colosseum was seated due to class: the lowest at the top in the standing area, the highest at the bottom, and the rest in between. This is much like today's stadium where you can enhance you seating position with the more money that you have to offer.

As I said before, the main use of this building was entertainment for the people. It was made to hold 50,000 people. The shows often involved death resulting from differents battles: gladiator vs. gladiator, gladiator vs. animal, animal vs. animal, etc. Gladiators were often criminals and this was often just a way of carrying out capital punishment. The government used these games to show that they had these criminals and animals under control. It could also be filled with water to enact sea battles for the crowd. It is suspected that thousands upon thousands of animals and gladiators were killed all in the name of entertainment at this site.

http://www.the-colosseum.net/architecture/descriptio_en.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/colosseum_01.shtml

http://www.helium.com/items/398575-the-history-of-the-roman-colosseum