The colosseum originally the flavian Amphitheatre is in the centre of Rome. The closseum was the largest ever built in the Roman Empire .
The Romans started building it between 70 and 72AD under the emperor vespasian and was finished in 70 AD under titus. The Colosseum could seat around 50,000 people, the colosseum was used for contests such as gladiatorial contests and public spectacles. The Colosseum was used for nearly 500 years with games recorded as far back as the 6th century. Some of the spectacles that the Colosseum was used for included mock sea battles, animal hunts, executions and re-enactments of famous battles.
Once the Colsseum was not used for these spectacles it was used for housing, work shops, quaters for a religious order a fortress a quarry and a christian shrine. The Colosseum is now a ruin because of damage caused by earthqualces and stone robbers. The Colosseum still has close links with the Roman catholic church. On every Good Friday the Pope lead a torchlit procession to the amphitheatre . The torchlit procession is called "The way of the cross".
The Colosseum is stamped on to the Italian version of the five cent euro coin.The original Latin name for the Colosseum was the Amphitheatrum flavium, the building was built by emperors of the Flavian dynasty.
In the 8th century the Venerable Bebe wrote a famous saying celebrating the symbolic significance of the structure. The famous saying is "As long as the colossus stands, so shall Rome; when the colossus falls, Rome shall fall; when Rome falls, so falls the world."
Written by Jessica