The history of the Colosseum in brief

Short answer: the Colosseum was built by the emperor Vespasian from around 70–72 AD and opened by his son Titus in 80 AD with a hundred days of games. Its real name was the Flavian Amphitheatre. It hosted gladiator fights and animal hunts for about four centuries, then became housing, a fortress and a quarry, before it was protected as a monument.

A political building

In 68 AD Nero died and Rome went through a year of civil war. The winner, Vespasian, founded a new dynasty, the Flavians, and needed to show he was nothing like Nero. Nero had taken a huge part of central Rome for his private palace, the Golden House, with an artificial lake at its heart. Vespasian drained the lake and built on its site a public amphitheatre for the people of Rome — a gift and a message at the same time.

Much of the money, and much of the labour, came from the Jewish War: Titus had sacked Jerusalem in 70 AD, and a reconstructed dedication inscription suggests the building was paid for from the spoils.

Built in about a decade

• Around 70–72 AD: Vespasian begins construction.
• 79 AD: Vespasian dies; the building is not finished.
• 80 AD: Titus inaugurates it with a hundred days of games.
• 81–96 AD: Domitian completes it, including the underground hypogeum with its lifts and trapdoors.

The outer wall is travertine, a limestone quarried near Tivoli, held together with iron clamps instead of mortar. Inside, brick, tuff and concrete. It could hold roughly 50,000 spectators, seated strictly by rank, and a canvas awning, the velarium, could be pulled over part of the seating against the sun.

Why “Colosseum”?

The Romans called it the Flavian Amphitheatre, or simply the amphitheatre. The name Colosseum appears in the Middle Ages and most likely comes from the Colossus, a giant bronze statue of Nero that stood next to it and was later re-dedicated to the sun god. Its base was still visible until the 1930s.

Four centuries of games

A typical day began with animal hunts in the morning, executions at midday and gladiator combats in the afternoon. The games were free for spectators and paid for by the emperor. Gladiatorial combat faded in the 5th century as the empire became Christian and poorer; animal hunts lasted longer — the last recorded ones were in 523.

From arena to quarry

After the games ended, the building was used for whatever it could offer. Houses and workshops were built into its arches; in the 12th century the Frangipane family turned it into a fortress. A strong earthquake in 1349 brought down much of the southern outer ring, and for centuries the fallen stone was carted away for churches and palaces across Rome.

The holes that cover the walls are not damage from the games: they were made in the Middle Ages by people digging out the iron clamps between the stones to reuse the metal.

Saved as a monument

In 1749 Pope Benedict XIV dedicated the Colosseum to the memory of Christian martyrs, which put an end to quarrying, although there is no reliable evidence that Christians were actually killed here. In the 19th century the popes added the great brick buttresses that still hold up the ends of the surviving outer wall. The hypogeum was excavated in stages from the 19th century on, and the facade was cleaned between 2013 and 2016.

Updated 2026-10-27