POV: You Arrive in Rome During the Opening of the Colosseum, 80 AD The monument ahead of you is not yet an ancient ruin, and Romans do not commonly call it the Colosseum. To them, it is the newly inaugurated Flavian Amphitheatre: an enormous public arena built by the Flavian imperial dynasty. Construction began under Emperor Vespasian and was continued by his son Titus, who became emperor in June 79 AD. The amphitheatre rose on land previously occupied by an artificial lake belonging to Nero’s vast private palace complex, the Domus Aurea. Replacing an emperor’s private lake with a public entertainment venue carried a powerful political message: land once claimed by Nero was being returned to the Roman people. By 80 AD, the amphitheatre was ready for its inaugural games. Ancient accounts describe celebrations lasting one hundred days, although surviving writers recorded the events decades or centuries later and sometimes disagree about the details. The spectacles included gladiatorial combat, staged animal hunts, executions, elaborate performances, and displays involving animals brought from across the Roman Empire. Suetonius claims that five thousand animals were exhibited in a single day. Cassius Dio gives an even larger figure for the wider celebrations. The poet Martial, who witnessed the games, praised spectacles featuring animals, fighters, and aquatic displays. Exactly how some water performances were staged remains debated. What is certain is that the permanent masonry underground complex visible beneath the Colosseum today did not yet exist in its familiar later form. Major underground construction and service infrastructure were added under Domitian and subsequent emperors. Entry to the amphitheatre was free, but Roman society did not become equal once spectators entered. People passed through numbered arches and followed designated routes to seats assigned according to status. Senators occupied the rows closest to the arena. Behind them sat the equestrian order, followed by progressively lower social groups. The poorest spectators were placed high above the action, where the view was worst. The imperial seating area occupied a privileged position along the arena’s shorter axis. Above sections of the audience, sailors operated the velarium, a system of enormous fabric awnings designed to provide partial shade. Around the exterior, statues of gods, heroes, and demigods decorated many of the upper arcades. The building would have appeared complete, colorful, crowded, and intensely alive, not like the exposed stone ruin familiar today. Outside the amphitheatre, Rome remained a densely populated working city. Most inhabitants lived in crowded apartment buildings called insulae. Streets were filled with workshops, food sellers, porters, laborers, merchants, carts, animals, public fountains, and open-fronted shops. Public baths served as places for washing, exercise, business, conversation, and social display. The Roman Forum was still the active political, religious, and legal center of the city. Its temples and civic buildings were roofed, painted, maintained, and occupied. They did not resemble the isolated columns and excavated foundations visitors see today. This moment of celebration came during an extraordinarily difficult reign. Only the previous year, Mount Vesuvius had devastated communities around the Bay of Naples. During 80 AD, Rome itself was also struck by a major fire and an outbreak of disease. The lavish inaugural games therefore served as more than entertainment: they advertised imperial generosity, Roman recovery, and the continuing power of the state. For the people entering the amphitheatre, however, the politics may have mattered less than the experience itself: tens of thousands of spectators descending through dark passages before suddenly emerging into sunlight, noise, color, and an arena unlike anything Rome had seen before. #rome #ancienthistory #historytok #History - @moments.in.time0