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Inauguration of the Colosseum

Titus opened the Flavian Amphitheatre, the largest amphitheatre of the Roman world, with games that lasted more than a hundred days.

Date
80year known
Place
Colosseum (Flavian Amphitheatre)today: Rome, Italy · Western and Central Europe
Participants
Titus, Vespasian
Threads
Europe in the Roman age (1st–5th c.)
Also known as
Inaugural games of the Flavian Amphitheatre; Flavian Amphitheatre; Амфитеатр Флавиев

Vespasian began the amphitheatre around AD 70 on the site of the artificial lake of Nero’s Golden House, returning the land to public use, and Titus completed it within a year of his father’s death. The inaugural games of 80 included animal hunts, executions, gladiatorial combats and mock naval battles; Cassius Dio writes that some 9,000 animals were killed. The poet Martial celebrated the spectacles in his Book of Spectacles.

The Colosseum, which held tens of thousands of spectators, was used for gladiatorial games into the 5th century and for animal hunts into the 6th, and became the best-known symbol of Rome.

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Connections

Related events

  • Great Fire of Rome19 July 64 – c. 27 July 64 · Western and Central Europethe Colosseum rose on the site of the lake of Nero’s Golden House
  • Siege of JerusalemApril 70 – 8 September 70 · Middle East and Egypta reconstructed inscription suggests the Colosseum was financed from the spoils of the Jewish War

Same participants

Same place

Adjacent events in the thread

Meanwhile in the world

Other regions, within 25 years of this event

Eastern Europe

Balkans and Anatolia

Middle East and Egypt

The same period

Sources

  1. Wikipedia (English): Inaugural games of the Colosseum
  2. Wikipedia (English): Colosseum
  3. Wikipedia (Russian): Колизей
  4. Hopkins K., Beard M. The Colosseum. — London: Profile Books, 2005.
  5. Wikidata: Q2554098