Visit the Colosseum with us<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The Colosseum is located \u00a0among\u00a0three hills of Rome: the Palatine and Roman Forum valley on its South-western side, the last slopes of the Esquiline hill on the Northern side and the Celio on the Eastern side.<\/p>\n
The emperor Vespasian originally commissioned the amphitheatre in AD 70-72 in the grounds of Nero’s vast Domus Aurea.<\/p>\n
After that two-thirds of the city were destroyed by the great fire in 64 AD, emperor\u00a0Nero\u00a0used the valley between the three hills as a site for his new palace, \u00a0the \u00a0Domus Aurea\u00a0(Golden House), which occupied an enormous area in the centre of the city. \u00a0In the depression of the valley where now the Colosseum stands, \u00a0Nero built an enormous rectangular artificial lake, that became part of a huge park provided with all sorts of amenities, including the most luxurious mansions, water sources and fountains.<\/p>\n
Even after the decadent Roman emperor\u00a0Nero\u00a0took his own life in A.D. 68, his misrule and excesses fueled a series of civil wars. No fewer than four emperors took the throne in the tumultuous year after Nero\u2019s death; the fourth, Vespasian, would end up ruling for 10 years (A.D. 69-79). The Flavian emperors, as Vespasian and his sons Titus (79-81) and Domitian (81-96) were known, attempted to tone down the excesses of the Roman court, restore Senate authority and promote public welfare. Vespasian wanted to gain popularity with the Roman citizens and to dissociate himself from Nero, the hated tyrant, \u00a0showing that the times of tyranny and despotism were over. He made a point of giving back the area of Nero\u2019s Domus Aurea to the Romans. The amphitheatre then \u2013 a public building donated by the emperor to the Roman citizens \u2013 stood on the former site of Nero\u2019s mansion as a splendid\u00a0symbol of the new political order.
\nVespasian never lived to see it finished and it was completed by his son and successor Titus, a year after his death. The final stages of construction of the Colosseum were completed under the reign of Titus\u2019 brother and successor, Domitian.
\nTo mark its inauguration, Titus held games that lasted 100 days and nights, during which some 5000 animals were slaughtered.<\/p>\n
The arena\u2019s official name is Flavian Amphitheatre, the name Colosseum dates back to the XI century, and it is origin is uncertain. The most popular version is that the name comes from a colossal statue of Nero, called indeed Colossus Neronis, that at first was in the Domus Aurea. The statue was one of the most visible (and arrogant) features of Nero’s residence: a 36 meter (120 ft) bronze statue of Nero placed just outside the entrance. This monstrosity was built in imitation of the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Colossus was later dedicated by Vespasian to the Sun God – after replacing its face – and then affixed with the heads of several emperors, until\u00a0Hadrian\u00a0moved it near the amphitheatre.
\nAnother theory maintains that the name might have come from the\u00a0Collis Iseum, a nearby hill where a temple dedicated to Isis once stood.<\/p>\n
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The Colosseum is probably the most impressive building of the Roman Empire. Originally known as the Flavian Amphitheater, it was the largest building of the era. Rome\u2019s great gladiatorial arena is the most thrilling of the city’s ancient sights and maybe is the main symbol of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[74],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iviaggidialuve.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iviaggidialuve.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iviaggidialuve.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iviaggidialuve.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iviaggidialuve.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1640"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/iviaggidialuve.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1642,"href":"https:\/\/iviaggidialuve.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640\/revisions\/1642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iviaggidialuve.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iviaggidialuve.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iviaggidialuve.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}