The Colosseum and Surrounding Area

The Ludus Magnus

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The Ludus Magnus was the largest school for gladiators in Ancient Rome. It was part of a larger complex that supplied the Colosseum and was connected to the amphitheatre by an underground tunnel. Other buildings in the complex included the:

Spoliarium (where the corpses were taken after the show)

Castra Misenatium (where sailors for the naval battles lived)

Summum Choragium (where machinery was stored)

Saniarium (where wounded gladiators were taken)

Ludus Matutinus (where venatores (animal hunters in shows called venationes were trained)

Ludus Daciens and Ludus Gallicus were named after gladiators who lived there.

The Colossus of Nero

The Column Base of the Colossus of Nero

The statue after which the Flavian Amphitheatre is popularly named was made of bronze and originally stood on the site of the temple of Venus and Rome. It stood 199 feet high, and was modelled after the Colossus of Rhodes by the sculptor Zenodorus.

Vespasian changed the statue to a representation of the sun god Helios and it remained so until Commodus changed it to Hercules (and perhaps himself).

The Colossus was moved by the Emperor Hadrian to make room for the Temple of Venus and Rome by using a cart pulled by 24 elephants.

The base of the colossus was finally destroyed in 1933 at the same time as the Meta Sudans.

The Domus Aurea

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The Valley of the Colosseum lies between the Caelian and Palatine Hills and the Oppian spur of the Esquiline Hill. The valley was inhabited at the foundation of the city and was thought to hold the Curia of Romulus (now lost) as well as later being thought of as a sacred area because the Emperor Augustus was born there. The whole area was destroyed by the famous fire of AD 64 during the reign of the Emperor Nero.

The architects Severus and Celer on the orders of the Emperor Nero designed the Domus Aurea. In July AD 64 a great fire had swept through Rome. Of the 14 regions of the city, three were totally destroyed and seven were severely damaged. Nero used the fire as an excuse to appropriate a large amount of land for his “Golden House”. The house was massive! It stretched from the Palatine Hill to the Velian, and from the Oppian Spur, to the Caelian Hill covering 125 acres of ground (The Vatican covers 75). The valley between the hills was enclosed by the villa and was transformed into a giant park with a central lake and a giant statue (Colossus) of Nero that stood 119 feet high.

Although his contemporaries recognised the house as a “magnificent undertaking” it aroused a great deal of envy and hatred. The land he had taken led to rumours that Nero had started the fire. He diverted attention away from himself by blaming it on a little known religious sect called the Christians. His increasingly unpopular decisions, personal cruelty, and dissolute lifestyle led to a military crisis and Nero was forced to kill himself in AD 68 after the Praetorian Guard rebelled and declared their support for the Governor of Spain, Galba. Following the civil war during the year of the 4 emperors, Vespasian ordered the Palace destroyed. The lake was filled in and work began on the Flavian Amphitheatre, which was later known as the Colosseum after the statue of Nero that still stood next to it. The Meta Sudans was built in the valley, and on the Oppian Spur, the Baths of Titus were built on top of the Domus Aurea with a colonnade that stretched to the new amphitheatre.

The Arch of Constantine and Meta Sudans (click link to go to page)

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