The Colosseum

Lore & Background

The Colosseum was built on the site of a former artificial lake within Nero's Domus Aurea, after the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD. Construction began under Emperor Vespasian around 72 AD and was completed under his son Titus in 80 AD, with further modifications under Domitian. The amphitheatre was funded by spoils from the Jewish Temple after the First Jewish–Roman War in 70 AD. The building ceased to be used for entertainment in the early medieval era and was later reused for housing, workshops, a religious order, a fortress, a quarry, and a Christian shrine. It was substantially ruined by earthquakes and stone robbers taking spolia.

Reader's Guide

The Colosseum remains a renowned symbol of Imperial Rome and was listed as one of the New 7 Wonders of the World. It is one of Rome's most popular tourist attractions, and each Good Friday the Pope leads a torchlit Catholic 'Way of the Cross' procession starting in the area around the Colosseum. The building is depicted on the Italian version of the 5 euro cent coin. Its name is derived from a colossal statue of Nero (the Colossus of Nero) that once stood nearby. The structure's original Latin name was simply 'amphitheatrum', and the modern name 'Flavian Amphitheatre' refers to the Flavian dynasty that built it. The Colosseum's construction used travertine limestone, tuff, and brick-faced Roman concrete. It was built in the city centre, symbolically and geographically at the heart of Rome, and its construction involved both professional Roman builders and possibly slaves and prisoners of war.

Did You Know?

• Its name is derived from a colossal statue of Nero, the Colossus of Nero, which stood nearby.
• The building was funded by spoils taken from the Jewish Temple after the First Jewish–Roman War in 70 AD.
• It was used for gladiatorial contests, animal hunts, executions, re-enactments of battles, dramas, and briefly mock sea battles.

A First-Century Landmark at the Heart of Rome

The Colosseum is identified as a first-century amphitheatre situated in the very centre of Rome, Italy. Though the available records offer only a concise description of the structure, its placement at the heart of one of the world's most historically layered cities underscores its enduring cultural weight. The building belongs to a long tradition of remarkable human-made constructions that have captivated imaginations across centuries. It does not appear on the canonical Seven Wonders of the Ancient World—a set fixed in the 1572 Octo Mundi Miracula, drawing on classical sources that focused on works around the Mediterranean rim and the ancient Near East—but it has nonetheless secured a place on numerous other compilations of spectacular structures. As a first-century creation, it predates many of the other entries that share its name on later wonder lists, and its central Roman location anchors it firmly within the geography of the ancient world that so many of these catalogues seek to celebrate.

The Anachronistic Medieval Lists

The Colosseum finds a recurring home on compilations bearing names such as "Wonders of the Middle Ages," "Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages," "Seven Wonders of the Medieval Mind," and "Architectural Wonders of the Middle Ages." Yet a striking temporal disconnect is embedded in these titles. It is highly unlikely that any of these lists were actually produced during the medieval period itself. The very concept of a "Middle Age" did not gain popularity until at least the sixteenth century, and the term "medieval" was not coined until the Enlightenment era. Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable characterizes these as "later lists," confirming they were assembled well after the period they purport to evoke. In reality, these compilations emerged in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when writers sought to emulate the classical wonder tradition by crafting their own curated selections. The Colosseum, as a first-century structure, was thus retroactively slotted into a medieval framework that had no existence when the building was raised.

Company Among the Ages

On these later wonder lists, the Colosseum shares its page with an extraordinary assembly of structures spanning continents and millennia. It appears alongside the Great Wall of China, whose defensive segments stretch back to as early as the seventh century BC; Hagia Sophia, a sixth-century cathedral and mosque in Istanbul; the Leaning Tower of Pisa, a twelfth-century bell tower; the Porcelain Tower of Nanjing, a fifteenth-century pagoda on the Qinhuai River; Stonehenge, a Neolithic henge monument in Wiltshire, England, dated to the third millennium BC; and the Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa, a second-century funerary complex in Alexandria. Other structures sometimes included in the same tradition are the Cairo Citadel, Cluny Abbey, Ely Cathedral, Khawarnaq, and the Fortifications of Derbent. A notable pattern emerges: many of these entries were constructed far earlier than the medieval era the lists invoke, yet they remained widely recognized across the world. The Colosseum's first-century origin places it squarely in this category of ancient structures celebrated in later centuries.

Within the Enduring Wonders Tradition

The Colosseum's inclusion on various wonder lists situates it within a tradition that stretches from antiquity to the present day. The oldest known list of this kind is the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, a canonical set fixed in the 1572 Octo Mundi Miracula, drawing on classical sources that varied widely and focused on creations around the Mediterranean rim and the ancient Near East. The number seven was selected because the Greeks associated it with perfection and plenty, and because it mirrored the five known planets plus the Sun and Moon. Since then, the impulse to catalogue the world's most spectacular human-built and natural features has continued unbroken. The American Society of Civil Engineers compiled a list of modern engineering achievements in 1994; USA Today and Good Morning America selected a "New Seven Wonders" in 2006; and the New7Wonders Foundation ran global voting campaigns in 2007 and again from 2007 to 2011 for natural wonders. The Colosseum, though absent from the ancient canonical list, remains a touchstone within this ever-expanding family of wonder compilations.

Common Misconceptions (Editorial)

Some people believe the Colosseum was named for its size or its function, but its name actually comes from the Colossus of Nero, a giant statue that once stood nearby. Another common misconception is that it was primarily used for mock sea battles throughout its history; in fact, such naumachiae were only staged briefly before the hypogeum was built.

Why It Matters (Editorial)

The Colosseum endures as a symbol of both human engineering brilliance and the complex legacy of imperial Rome, where grand spectacles masked immense human suffering. Its ruins remind us that even the mightiest structures can fall to time and reuse, yet they continue to captivate millions as a testament to cultural memory and resilience.

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