DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.44944#0040
IO
AMPHITHEATRUM FLAVIUM
standing room for the pullati, or poorest classes of the population.1 The
modern terrace is lower than this roof was, and about at the level of the
floor of the corridor behind the wooden seats. Of the four principal
entrances, those at the north and south ends of the minor axis were for
the imperial family, and the arches here were wider and more highly
ornamented than the rest. For the stucco decoration see LR 381 ;
Weege ap. Hoffmann (Vatik. Palast.) col. 145 ; Egger, Cod. Escurial 43,
pp. 115-116; Heemskerck, ii. 58; WS 1902, 437-440; id. Festheft fur
Bormann (xxiv. 2. 205) ; Rev. Arch. 1917, 2. 228; Mem. Am. Acad. iv.
41-43). The entrance on the north seems to have been connected with
the Esquiline by a porticus. A wide passage led directly from this entrance
to the imperial box [pulmnar, cf. Suet. Nero 12) on the podium. A corre-
sponding box on the opposite side of the podium was probably reserved
for the praefectus urbi. The entrances at the ends of the major axis led
directly into the arena.
The floor of the arena, which must have been of wood, rested on lofty
substructures, consisting of walls, some of which follow the curve of the
building, while others are parallel to the major axis. They stand on a
brick pavement and are from 5.50 to 6.08 metres high. These substructures
are entered by subterranean passages, on the lines of the major and minor
axes. Another such passage, resembling a cryptoporticus, starts from a
raised substructure, projecting a little beyond the line of the podium, not
far to the east of the state entrance on the south side, and leads to the
buildings of Claudius on the Caelian, and is usually ascribed to Commodus.2
In the substructures are traces of dens for wild beasts, elevators, and
mechanical appliances of various sorts, and provision was made for the
drainage of the water which flows so abundantly into this hollow and which
was carried off in a sewer connecting with that running under the via S.
Gregorio (Narducci, Fognatura della Citta di Roma 65-70 and pl. 14; see
Ill. 5). The masonry of the substructures dates from the first century to
the end of the fifth.
The statement in the Regionary Catalogue (Reg. Ill), that the amphi-
theatre had 87,000 loca, cannot refer to persons but pedes, and even so, it
is probably incorrect, for the total seating capacity cannot have exceeded
forty-five thousand (BC 1894, 312-324), with standing room on the roof
for about five thousand more.
Nine published fragments of the Marble Plan (FUR 55, 69, 113 a-g)
represent parts of the amphitheatre, and there are a few others of little
importance and uncertain position (HJ 294-296).
For the history of the Colosseum, see Babucke, Geschichte des Kolos-
1 According to the restorations of Taylor and Cresy (Text fig. 1) and of Canina, which
are adopted by Von Gerkan (Mitt. 1925, 18), there was a covered portico at the top, the
roof of which reached to the summit of the outer wall. Durm’s objections to Hulsen’s
restoration (Text fig. 2) (669 sqq)—that the spectators on the roof would have been
exposed to the weather and unable to see—are thus both met.
2 Lugli assigns it to Domitian (Mem. Am. Acad. cit.).
AMPHITHEATRUM FLAVIUM
standing room for the pullati, or poorest classes of the population.1 The
modern terrace is lower than this roof was, and about at the level of the
floor of the corridor behind the wooden seats. Of the four principal
entrances, those at the north and south ends of the minor axis were for
the imperial family, and the arches here were wider and more highly
ornamented than the rest. For the stucco decoration see LR 381 ;
Weege ap. Hoffmann (Vatik. Palast.) col. 145 ; Egger, Cod. Escurial 43,
pp. 115-116; Heemskerck, ii. 58; WS 1902, 437-440; id. Festheft fur
Bormann (xxiv. 2. 205) ; Rev. Arch. 1917, 2. 228; Mem. Am. Acad. iv.
41-43). The entrance on the north seems to have been connected with
the Esquiline by a porticus. A wide passage led directly from this entrance
to the imperial box [pulmnar, cf. Suet. Nero 12) on the podium. A corre-
sponding box on the opposite side of the podium was probably reserved
for the praefectus urbi. The entrances at the ends of the major axis led
directly into the arena.
The floor of the arena, which must have been of wood, rested on lofty
substructures, consisting of walls, some of which follow the curve of the
building, while others are parallel to the major axis. They stand on a
brick pavement and are from 5.50 to 6.08 metres high. These substructures
are entered by subterranean passages, on the lines of the major and minor
axes. Another such passage, resembling a cryptoporticus, starts from a
raised substructure, projecting a little beyond the line of the podium, not
far to the east of the state entrance on the south side, and leads to the
buildings of Claudius on the Caelian, and is usually ascribed to Commodus.2
In the substructures are traces of dens for wild beasts, elevators, and
mechanical appliances of various sorts, and provision was made for the
drainage of the water which flows so abundantly into this hollow and which
was carried off in a sewer connecting with that running under the via S.
Gregorio (Narducci, Fognatura della Citta di Roma 65-70 and pl. 14; see
Ill. 5). The masonry of the substructures dates from the first century to
the end of the fifth.
The statement in the Regionary Catalogue (Reg. Ill), that the amphi-
theatre had 87,000 loca, cannot refer to persons but pedes, and even so, it
is probably incorrect, for the total seating capacity cannot have exceeded
forty-five thousand (BC 1894, 312-324), with standing room on the roof
for about five thousand more.
Nine published fragments of the Marble Plan (FUR 55, 69, 113 a-g)
represent parts of the amphitheatre, and there are a few others of little
importance and uncertain position (HJ 294-296).
For the history of the Colosseum, see Babucke, Geschichte des Kolos-
1 According to the restorations of Taylor and Cresy (Text fig. 1) and of Canina, which
are adopted by Von Gerkan (Mitt. 1925, 18), there was a covered portico at the top, the
roof of which reached to the summit of the outer wall. Durm’s objections to Hulsen’s
restoration (Text fig. 2) (669 sqq)—that the spectators on the roof would have been
exposed to the weather and unable to see—are thus both met.
2 Lugli assigns it to Domitian (Mem. Am. Acad. cit.).