The Colosseum

The ancient Colosseum (name: Amphitheatrum novelty or Amphitheatrum Flavium) is the largest amphitheater built in ancient Rome and the largest single construction of Roman antiquity in general. Built between 72 and 80 AD, it is now one of the landmarks of the city and also a testament to the high class architecture of the ancient Romans.

Building History
The first stone amphitheater in Rome was inaugurated in 29 BC under Augustus Statilius amphitheater of Taurus. Until its destruction by the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD, it stood in the Campus Martius, and should not have substantially different from the amphitheater outside Rome. After the fire, the Emperor Nero built on the same site is not only a wooden substitute, but also began on the southern slopes of the Esquiline Hill, a new palace, the Domus Aurea. The gardens of the Domus Aurea also included the future site of the Colosseum in the hollow between the hills Oppius (part of the Esquiline Hill), and Palatine.

, At 72, a few years after Nero's fall, gave his successor, Vespasian returned the territory to the public. There he sat in a few years to build a new stone amphitheater that would not only exceed Nero's predecessor on the Campus Martius, but all existing arenas. According to a recent reconstruction of the inscription of the Colosseum was its establishment of the spoils of the Jewish War, including in 70 with the golden treasure of the Temple of Jerusalem plundered funds.

The building, which should be originally three storeys, was completed at the death of Vespasian's almost 79. It consisted of three superposed arcades to each of 80 arches. The arcades were divided by half-columns: the ground floor in the Doric, the second floor of the Ionian and the third floor of the Corinthian style. At the request of Vespasian's son Titus, the three Rundbogengeschossen added a fourth floor, which was not pierced by arcades, but heavily decorated and broken only by the rectangular window niches. The outer walls of the Colosseum were carried out in Roman travertine used in the interior, but the cheaper brick and tuff.

Opened after its completion in 80, the Colosseum to the historian Dio Cassius, was that with hundred-games, including with gladiator fights, mock naval battles and animal fights, in which 5000 animals were killed in the arena.

The architecture
The Colosseum was not only an architectural, but also a thought-to the very last masterpiece of logistics.
Input system

More than 80 entrances around the arena allowed the audience to get directly to their seats. Four of these inputs were reserved for the top layer. Among these were, inter alia, the emperor, senators, Vestal and the male priests. For these remarkable persons a specially secured podium was erected on the edge of the arena.

Knights and ordinary citizens used the remaining 76 of the decorated arches as entrances. The surrounding corridors and the many stairs, which were mostly made of marble, brought the audience up to the third floor, where they reached their seats on the tiers.

Even today, one uses the stadium this intricate system that made it possible spectators to vacate the arena in just five minutes or 15 minutes to fill up. The builders gave the name of this system, therefore, vomit vomitoria (from the Latin vomere "")
The arrangement of the seats

The Colosseum could find by today's calculations, about 50,000 spectators. The podium, the first row of seats was reserved for the Roman senators. The imperial loge (pulvinar) was located here. There were also special places for the Vestal Virgins, who traditionally attended public spectacles. In the maenianum primum was, was reserved for the state of the Equites. The overlying series maenianum secundum were divided into three sectors. The lowest sector (imum) was for wealthy citizens, while the upper sector (summum) was reserved for the poorest inhabitants of Rome. Worse were housed only the women from the lowest layers. For them, there was standing on a wooden structure on the top floor (maenianum summum in ligneis) Hörel that Titus.

The Arena
The Colosseum is an elliptical construction. Its width is 156 meters, the length of 188 meters, the size of 527 meters, the height 48 meters. Also, the floor of the arena was elliptical, with a width of 54 meters and a length of 86 meters. The round shape to prevent that gladiators were sentenced to death or search for animals hunted in a corner protection. Moreover, the ellipse is the audience allowed to be closer to the action than in a circular arena.

The floor of the arena were wooden planks, which could go away as needed. These included the basement and the 7-foot-thick foundation. On the upper floor, Titus led the construction of which had been attached to masts, where a giant, shadow-giving sun shade (velarium) could be raised. These marines have been used in the Misenum (on the Gulf of Naples) Roman fleet stationed units.

The space beneath the arena floor was not originally built. After removal of the wooden planks, he could be flooded,) as for the naumachiae (naval battles, as they had been shown to perform Titus inaugurated the Colosseum.

One assumes that the arena was already under Titus' brother and successor, Domitian, divided into several basements. Thus, the so-called hypogeum was created - a system of rooms, corridors and utility shafts. Here were sentenced to death for the prison, the underground entrance from the adjacent barracks Gladiator (Ludus Magnus), cages for wild animals and the bodies of the highly complicated stage machinery, such as trap doors, ramps and elevators. With the help of a complex system of winches and pulleys elaborate decorations and scenes could be transported into the arena. Within minutes, could be the surprise of the spectators, for example an entire forest or a desert landscape to rise from the ground.