Roman Colosseum, public use and symbolism.

The Colosseum, its public function and symbolic meaning.

Vespasian started building the colosseum 73 and 75AD. He used the earlier devastating fire in Rome, to free up previously occupied land, and also demolished the palace of the previous Emperor Nero.

The Colosseum is 615ft long, 510ft wide and 187ft high, its base area covers 6 acres.

Vespasian died in 79AD, two years before the building was completed. The eldest son Titus carried on the construction, and opened the arena with the first games in 81AD. More additions were made by later family members.

The construction consisted of several recently developed techniques and materials. The vualted arch, pre fabricated stairs, seating blocks, and of course concrete were all utilised during the construction.

An estimated 100,000 prisoners were used to build the colosseum, and the riches and treasures of the recently conquered city of Jerusalem paid for its construction.

The Colosseum’s public function has several different elements. Its main use was entertainment, an arena used for staging executions, gladiatorial matches, humiliation, tests of strength and ability against wild animals, basically the removal of those deemed inferior than themselves. I think it served extremely well in this role; it had a 50,000-80,000 person capacity, wide arcades for large groups of people to move around the building efficiently, a large number of arched entrances, numerous sets of staircases, for access to and from the concentric rows of seats, all socially organised of course.

The design included 80 separate entrances which allowed the Colosseum to be emptied within 10 minutes.

It possessed holding cells, animal holding and feed storage facilities, props storage and many more areas designed to allow the fights, executions, and theatre like shows to continue quickly.

As an arena, it performed excellently, allowing access to different levels of society, and displayed a diverse range of shows. It is also the worlds longest surviving, purpose built, public arena. The building materials used make it considerably fireproof, even to this day.

As to the symbolic meaning, it was considerable for the emperor. He was the leader of the civilised world, in roman eyes, so had the best entertainment, set in the grandest of all buildings. He was also very conscious of the need to increase the prestige of his own family name.

Built with the architectural orders in mind, four spectator levels, and surrounded with a multitude of arches, statues, pilasters, three different types of Greek half columns, it was designed to impress, not only in physical prestige, but also to remind the masses of who was in charge. Look what I have built, aren’t I important, rich and generous, so generous I shall give it to the public. You could compare it to an enormous stamp on the roman map; this is the centre of the civilised world, and look how prestigious our buildings are. It was also a constant physical threat to criminals, and any who felt dissent towards Roman authority, follow our way, or you will end up there.

It is impossible to say how many people or animals died in the arena, but Mediterranean elephants were hunted to extinction, just to provide the arena with entertainment. On the opening day of the arena, 100 days of games began. The first day alone saw up to 5000 animals killed.

The Roman Colosseum is an impressive, custom built, purpose serving construction, but that construction was paid for with war spoils, built by slaves, and used for the torture and murder of animals and human beings. From the first stone being laid, until it’s demise, the Colosseum was marked with blood.