DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.71133#0261
THE COLOSSEUM
199
home has been razed to the ground since 1870, to make way
for modern tenement houses, and the good Religious have been
compelled to seek shelter elsewhere.
Near the same church is a piazza with a fountain, and on
one side of the square will be noticed the new Ruthenian
College, founded by the Emperor of Austria.
176.-THE COLOSSEUM, OR FLAVIAN AMPHITHEATRE.
If every part of the soil of Rome is sacred, because reddened
with the blood of martyrs, that of the Colosseum is especially
holy, and to prevent this battlefield of the first soldiers of
Christ, saturated with their blood, from being trodden under
the feet of the tourist and the curious, the Popes caused the
arena to be covered with fifteen feet of sand. Of recent years
the chapels with the Stations of the Cross, that formerly stood
here, have been removed, and the arena has been torn up in
search of ancient substructures and passages. In one of these
chapels, that of the Fifth Station, St. Benedict Joseph Labre
often passed the night.
The colossal pile before us, “ which for magnitude can only
be compared to the pyramids of Egypt, and which is perhaps
the most striking monument at once of the material and moral
degradation of Rome under the Empire,” was commenced by
the Emperor Vespasian in A.D. 72, and finished by his son
Titus in A.D. 80. The captive Jews, led in chains to Rome
after the destruction of Jerusalem,1 were employed on its con-
struction, amid terrible hardships, the Colosseum being thus a
monument of their sufferings and tears, as Jerusalem, levelled
to the ground, is a symbol of their rejection.
The outline of the building is elliptic, the exterior length
being 607 feet, and its breadth 512 feet; it is pierced with
80 vaulted openings or “vomitories” in the ground storey,
over which are superimposed on the exterior face three other
storeys, the whole rising perpendicularly to a height of 159 feet.
The arena is 253 by 153 feet, and covers extensive substructures
provided for the needs and machinery of gladiatorial displays.
A system of awnings was provided for shading the entire
interior. It is estimated that the Colosseum provided seats
for 87,000 spectators.2 The exterior of the building is faced
1 Josephus says over one million Jews perished in the siege, and
97,000 were sold as slaves or reserved for the amphitheatre.
2 Professor Huelsen has calculated that there was accommodation
for only 50,000 people.
199
home has been razed to the ground since 1870, to make way
for modern tenement houses, and the good Religious have been
compelled to seek shelter elsewhere.
Near the same church is a piazza with a fountain, and on
one side of the square will be noticed the new Ruthenian
College, founded by the Emperor of Austria.
176.-THE COLOSSEUM, OR FLAVIAN AMPHITHEATRE.
If every part of the soil of Rome is sacred, because reddened
with the blood of martyrs, that of the Colosseum is especially
holy, and to prevent this battlefield of the first soldiers of
Christ, saturated with their blood, from being trodden under
the feet of the tourist and the curious, the Popes caused the
arena to be covered with fifteen feet of sand. Of recent years
the chapels with the Stations of the Cross, that formerly stood
here, have been removed, and the arena has been torn up in
search of ancient substructures and passages. In one of these
chapels, that of the Fifth Station, St. Benedict Joseph Labre
often passed the night.
The colossal pile before us, “ which for magnitude can only
be compared to the pyramids of Egypt, and which is perhaps
the most striking monument at once of the material and moral
degradation of Rome under the Empire,” was commenced by
the Emperor Vespasian in A.D. 72, and finished by his son
Titus in A.D. 80. The captive Jews, led in chains to Rome
after the destruction of Jerusalem,1 were employed on its con-
struction, amid terrible hardships, the Colosseum being thus a
monument of their sufferings and tears, as Jerusalem, levelled
to the ground, is a symbol of their rejection.
The outline of the building is elliptic, the exterior length
being 607 feet, and its breadth 512 feet; it is pierced with
80 vaulted openings or “vomitories” in the ground storey,
over which are superimposed on the exterior face three other
storeys, the whole rising perpendicularly to a height of 159 feet.
The arena is 253 by 153 feet, and covers extensive substructures
provided for the needs and machinery of gladiatorial displays.
A system of awnings was provided for shading the entire
interior. It is estimated that the Colosseum provided seats
for 87,000 spectators.2 The exterior of the building is faced
1 Josephus says over one million Jews perished in the siege, and
97,000 were sold as slaves or reserved for the amphitheatre.
2 Professor Huelsen has calculated that there was accommodation
for only 50,000 people.