10 Fascinating Facts About the Roman Colosseum

Want to know some of the most fascinating facts about the Roman Colosseum?

Like how, when and WHY it was built? What happened in there - to both humans and other animals? And  why it has holes in it? Find out here!

Facts About the Roman Colosseum

I could easily list hundreds of facts about the Colosseum!

I've tried to keep it to ten, which I think answer the questions I hear the most...but actually, I've peppered this page with quite a few more fun facts about the Roman Colosseum, like where we got the word "vomit" from, and how it was nearly turned into a wool factory...

facts about the roman colosseum - How, WHEN and Why it was built

1 - The colosseum was built on the site of a giant man-made lake

The decadent, egotistic emperor Nero had built a gigantic villa for himself, called the Domus Aurea.  It included an enormous man-made lake.

After Nero committed suicide in 68CE, the senate issued a Damnatio memoriae on him, meaning, let's condemn his memory and remove all traces of him.

A couple of years later, emperor Vespasian decided to remove Nero's lake and put an arena there, to entertain the people and make them focus on fun and forget the hated Nero. In doing so, Vespasian also showed the Romans he was a man of the people, unlike Nero who'd taken all that land just for himself.

2 - The colosseum was built in UNDER 10 Years, mostly by jewish slaves

Emperor Vespasian and his son Titus had conquered Judea (Jerusalem), and had brought back with them many spoils of war, including artefacts from the temple. (This story is depicted on the Arch of Titus, just near the Colosseum inside the Roman Forum.)

They also brought back with them about 100,000 Jewish slaves. Many of these men were put to (unpaid) work doing the hard stuff like dragging quarried Travertine rock from Tivoli all the way to Rome. (Other more skilled citizens of Rome, such as architects, artists and engineers, were paid to do the more artistic and specialized work.)

Vespasian began work on the Colosseum in around 70 or 71 CE. He died in 79 CE and his son Titus became emperor. Titus finished the Colosseum in 80 CE. A few years later, the last emperor of the Flavian Dynasty, Titus' brother Domitian added the highest tier, and also the Hypogeum, or underground complex, where animals and fighters were held until showtime.

3 - the colosseum got its nickname from nero's giant statue

The amphitheater was made by one family, Vespasian and his sons Titus and Domitian of the Flavian Dynasty. It was named for them: The Flavian Amphitheater.

Back to ego-maniac Nero - he'd also had a giant 100-foot bronze statue made of himself.

After Nero's death, Vespasian replaced the face and called it a sun-god statue.

The statue was later moved (with the help of 24 elephants) by the Emperor Hadrian, in 124 CE, to just next to the Amphitheater. 

The statue is long gone, and nobody knows where it went.

There was never a clear rendering of it, so any depiction you see today, including on this page, are guesses as to how it looked. But it was called a Colossus, and many scholars believe this is where the Flavian Amphitheater got its current nickname.

Facts about the roman colosseum - what went on in there

4 - Over a million animals, and nearly half a million people died in the colosseum

When Titus inaugurated the amphitheater in 80 CE, he held 100 days of activities. In that time, over 9000 animals were killed, and according to some, 5000 of them were killed in a single day. Around 2000 people died as well.

About 30 years later, the Emperor Trajan held 123 days of games, in which thousands of people and animals were slaughtered.

The animals came from all over the Roman empire. They were of a vast variety of species, from lions, tigers and bears, to horses, ostriches, rhinos and crocodiles.

There was such a global demand for wild animals over the hundreds of years the Colosseum was in use, some animals disappeared entirely from their natural habitat, leading to eventual extinctions of some species. 

5 - it was free for Romans to attend the games

The Colosseum could seat between 50,000 and 80,000 people. Entrance to the games was free. 

Spectators were given numbered pottery shards as tickets. These indicated the appropriate section and row, according to their social status. Women and slaves were at the very top.  

There were 76 entrances for spectators, and they were numbered. You can still see the numbers today.

Four other entrances were reserved for the emperor, and for other people of importance including patricians, visiting dignitaries, and Vestal Virgins.

A retractable awning called the Velarium could be pulled almost entirely over the structure, providing cover and in case of rain or heat.

6 - NOT ALL EVENTS AND GAMES IN THE COLOSSEUM ENDED IN DEATH

There was a daily schedule of events in the Colosseum:

• In the morning, there were animal shows. Sometimes it was just a parade.  Or, there may have been animal hunts, called venationes, in which whole stage sets would be used to replicate a hunting environment. Emperors sometimes took part in these, shooting at animals with bow and arrow from the security of their seat.
• Part of the animal games were the Bestiarii - gladiators trained to fight the wild animals, sometimes with background scenery.
  
•  And, still part of the animal portion, sometimes condemned criminals were sentenced to fight wild animals, with nothing to fight with or protect themselves with.
• During these animal games, animals did not always die, although they did more often than not.

• At noon, there were executions, sometimes using torture, sometimes using wild animals to attack a tied up prisoner.
  
• In the late afternoon, the most "interesting" and important part of the day's schedule was the gladiator fights. In some cases, battles were re-enacted. In some cases it was a fight to the death, but sometimes it was just a fight between gladiators, with neither dying.

Facts about the Roman Colosseum - when they stopped using it and what happened next

7 - THE COLOSSEUM WAS USED THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE AGES AND RENAISSANCE, BUT NOT FOR GAMES

The last gladiatorial games were held in 435 CE. The last animal hunts stopped in 523 CE, despite a ban on animal sacrifice more than 200 years prior. It simply became too expensive to procure these wild animals, to house and train gladiators and to continue putting on the sometimes elaborate spectacles.

The underground (hypogeum) was filled in, and for a few centuries, the Romans used the Colosseum as a place to live, grow gardens, conduct business, run workshops, and quite a few other things.

One of my favorite odd facts about the Roman Colosseum is that in the late 16th century, Pope Sixtus V tried to turn the Colosseum into a wool factory to give prostitutes other employment. He died in 1590, and the project never got off the ground (no pun intended.)

8 - WHY THE COLOSSEUM HAS HOLES

The Colosseum was built from travertine stone and tufa, both local, limestone-based stones. 

Mortar was not used - iron clamps held the stones together instead.  The outside would have been impressive, covered in marble. The niches held statues. 

An estimated 200-300 tons of iron clamps were used.  In the middle ages, all that iron was simply pilfered, and used for other things, mostly weaponry.

So now we are left with a lot of holes.

9 - MUCH OF THE ANCIENT COLOSSEUM was used to build other structures IN ROME, NAMELY SAINT PETER'S BASILICA

Over the centuries, there were quite a few natural disasters, including fires and earthquakes, that caused  destruction of the Colosseum.

Earthquakes in 847 CE and 1231 CE caused most of the damage you see today.

And in those days, there was no reason to rebuild it.

On the contrary, it further helped provide people with building material for other projects, as pieces of the Colosseum fell to the ground during the quakes.

The Colosseum had a marble façade, and marble seats on the inside. When they were looking around for material to build the (new) Saint Peter's Basilica in the 15th century, they figured the Colosseum was the closest "quarry."

So when you visit Saint Peter's today, you are also visiting part of the Colosseum. 

Facts About the Roman Colosseum Today

10 - THE COLOSSEUM IS THE MOST VISITED SITE IN ITALY

Other than the Vatican (which is not part of Italy), the Colosseum is the most visited site in Italy, and the most visited monument in Rome, with 4-5 million visitors a year.

Want more facts about the Roman Colosseum?

If you would like more details and facts about the Roman colosseum, and its history, building materials and other data, there is also an excellent, well-researched privately published website, The Colosseum.

You will also find more facts about the Roman Colosseum at the Superintendence for Archaeological Heritage of Rome.