Large site on the Roman Colosseum

[Ludovicus]

This is one of my favorite sites on the Flavian Amphitheater. It covers the monument's history from the preconstruction site through modern times.

http://www.the-colosseum.net/idx-en.htm

 

Here are two teasers:

 

"The valley collected the waters, which created a marsh or a lake, depending on the season. The small lake was fed by the waters of the Rio Labicano, a stream flowing down the Labicana valley, more or less along modern day Via Labicana. The stream can still be seen underground when visiting the Basilica of St. Clemente in Via di San Giovanni. There you can descend about 30 feet under modern ground level and walk on the cobblestones of old Roman alleys, enter shops and houses, visit a Mithraic temple and listen to the soothing sound of running water. The stream is still there and the water runs clear and fast, enclosed inside a conduct built in the 19th century in order to drain the underground of the church."

 

"The inscription on the right - dating back to 484 or 508 - commemorates the works that the Praefectus Urbi Decius Marius Venantius Basilius had had done - at his own expense - to repair the arena and the podium, damaged by an "abominandus" earthquake.Venantius' repairs of the arena meant the dismantling of the remaining colonnade, by sliding the columns and pieces down in the underground of the arena, and filling it up. In 519 Eutaricus Cilica held games in a Colosseum without the upper portico or underground, not to mention other major damages to the cavea, entrances, etc."

Edited September 19, 2009 by Ludovicus

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

Excellent site Ludovicus, Thank for bringing it to our attention.

 

I like this reflection from the author Thomas Cole........

 

"The mighty spectacle, mysterious and dark, opens beneath the eye more like some awful dream than an earthly reality -- a vision of the valley and shadow of death.... As I mused upon its great circumference, I seemed to be sounding the depth of some volcanic crater, where fires, long extinguished, had left the ribbed and blasted rocks to the wild flowers and ivy."

[Rompe]

The site of the Colosseum has been through so many different changes. Marsh lands, the passage ways and sewer/water systems, Neros Palace, then finally the Colosseum. You never find an area of land that goes through that big of a change IMO so many times without something happening (buildings sinking, tunnels collapsing etc)...especially due to that it started out on Marsh Lands.

 

Really goes to show, the Romans really knew what they were doing and had such great advances in so many ways to make an area like this not only happen and work, but stay to this day and for so many years.

[Ludovicus]

The site of the Colosseum has been through so many different changes...

 

 

For precisely that reason I find the Oxford Archaeological Guide to Rome a must for anyone visiting Rome.

[Ludovicus]

Excellent site Ludovicus, Thank for bringing it to our attention.

 

I like this reflection from the author Thomas Cole........

 

"The mighty spectacle, mysterious and dark, opens beneath the eye more like some awful dream than an earthly reality -- a vision of the valley and shadow of death.... As I mused upon its great circumference, I seemed to be sounding the depth of some volcanic crater, where fires, long extinguished, had left the ribbed and blasted rocks to the wild flowers and ivy."

 

 

Yes, yes. And for dozen centuries the ruined Colosseum nurtured "the wild flowers and ivy" brought from African in the cages and bellies of the beasts that would entertain. Domenico Panaroli made an illustrated study of the flora of the amphitheatre's floor before it was removed.

 

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Colosseum#Flora

 

"The Colosseum has a wide and well-documented history of flora, ever since Domenico Panaroli made the first catalog of its plants in 1643. Since then, 684 species have been identified there. The peak was in 1855 (420 species). Attempts were made in 1871 to eradicate the vegetation, due to concerns over the damage that was being caused to the masonry, but much of it has returned. Today, 242 species have been counted, and of the species first identified by Panaroli, 200 remain.

 

The variation of plants can be explained by the change of climate in Rome through the centuries. Additionally, bird migration, flower blooming, and the growth of Rome that caused the Colosseum to become embedded within the modern city center rather than on the outskirts of the ancient city, as well as the deliberate transport of species, are all contributing causes. One other romantic reason often given is that their seeds being unwittingly transported on the animals brought there from all corners of the empire."