The Roman Colosseum was the first major stadium or amphitheater ever to be built. It was located near the heart of the Roman
Empire in Rome, Italy. The Colosseum was used for many different events, most
of which were entertainment related. Some of the events included public
executions, gladiator fights, wild beast shows, and the exceptional animal
fight. General admission to the Colosseum was free. But you wished to view any
of these events you would have to be of a higher class or pay with special
entrance tokens called ‘tesserae’. The Colosseum was capable of holding around
50,000 people. Seating for the shows was strongly based on your social class as
well. People such as the emperor and his friends sat in a luxurious, expensive,
marble enclosure close beside the arena. Spectators of lower class were seated
in different levels of the stadium depending on how high up they were. If you
were poor, a foreigner, or a slave, you were not given a seat. You stood high
above the stadium on a wooden terrace behind the seats. The Colosseum was one
of the most popular attractions during the Roman Empire.
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| Vespasian, The Roman Empire's | 9th | emperor |
The
Construction of the Roman Colosseum began in 72 A.D. It
was designed by Vespasian (the emperor at the time) as a typical Roman
amphitheater.Vespasian’s Colosseum was built soon after the great Roman fire which took place in 64 A.D and damaged a large portion of Rome. Vespasian built the Colosseum to simply entertain the citizens of Rome as well as impress the visitors with its architectural achievements. The Colosseum was built entirely out of a mixture of stone, concrete, and limestone. This insured that the Colosseum had a strong foundation so it would not collapse under its own weight. The Romans used a variety of different tools such as chisels, mallets, cutters, plumb-lines, and stone drills to build an essential part of the Colosseum, the blocks. Blocks were a very important aspect in the building of the structure because they were used to form arches. Arches were extremely significant because the walls of the Colosseum were made from tiers of arches which helped get the Colosseum to reach its massive height of 160 feet. The framework of the building was made from limestone blocks. Many other materials such as tufa, brick, and pumice were used for the smaller parts of the job such as filling in empty spaces, creating ceiling vaults, and finishing the lower and higher parts of the wall. The Roman Colosseum was one of the first examples of organized work labour. Slave workers were organized by skill and trade, defined work hours, breaks, and a daily routine. With the extreme, hard work of many of Roman slaves and skilled workers such as masons, iron workers, carpenters and demolition experts the completion of the Colosseum took a total of eight years. The Roman Colosseum was opened in 80 A.D.
amphitheater.Vespasian’s Colosseum was built soon after the great Roman fire which took place in 64 A.D and damaged a large portion of Rome. Vespasian built the Colosseum to simply entertain the citizens of Rome as well as impress the visitors with its architectural achievements. The Colosseum was built entirely out of a mixture of stone, concrete, and limestone. This insured that the Colosseum had a strong foundation so it would not collapse under its own weight. The Romans used a variety of different tools such as chisels, mallets, cutters, plumb-lines, and stone drills to build an essential part of the Colosseum, the blocks. Blocks were a very important aspect in the building of the structure because they were used to form arches. Arches were extremely significant because the walls of the Colosseum were made from tiers of arches which helped get the Colosseum to reach its massive height of 160 feet. The framework of the building was made from limestone blocks. Many other materials such as tufa, brick, and pumice were used for the smaller parts of the job such as filling in empty spaces, creating ceiling vaults, and finishing the lower and higher parts of the wall. The Roman Colosseum was one of the first examples of organized work labour. Slave workers were organized by skill and trade, defined work hours, breaks, and a daily routine. With the extreme, hard work of many of Roman slaves and skilled workers such as masons, iron workers, carpenters and demolition experts the completion of the Colosseum took a total of eight years. The Roman Colosseum was opened in 80 A.D.
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| Hypogeum literally means "underground" in Greek |
The Roman Colosseum was completed with many outstanding and
impressive features. Below the Colosseum they built an amazing, intricate 2
story deep hypogeum. It was a vast network of rooms, cells, tunnels and
passages under the Roman Colosseum. The hypogeum was used to house animals, stage
props, and slaves that worked there. It also included a serious of elevators
and trap doors to add exciting and unexpected twists to the events and shows.
Another cool feature the Roman Colosseum was that it had was a retractable roof.
It was an extremely useful feature because it allowed the interior of the Colosseum
to be shielded from bad weather as well as opened up to allow sunlight and
fresh air into the Colosseum. There were many other amazing, wonderful,
features that made, and continue to make the Colosseum such a great attraction.
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