The Flavian Amphitheater: Actual Name?

[Medusa]

Katherine Welch mentions in her aforementioned book that the name Colosseum was first attested in the 8th century and is either derived from the colossal size of the building or more probably from the Colossus of Nero which stood nearby.

 

A dedicatory inscription calls the building "amphitheatrum novum" which reads in full:

 

I[mp(erator)] T(itus) Caes(ar) Vespasi[ans Aug(ustus)]

amphitheatru[m novum (?]

[ex) manubi(i)s (vac.) [fieri iussit (?)]

 

"The Emperor Titus Caesar Vespasianus Augustus had the new amphitheatre built from the profits of war."

 

G. Alf

[Ingsoc]

Martialis in de Spectaculis first and second poems refer to it as the Amphitheatrum Caesareum (original Latin and the English translation).

Those verses actually referred to the inauguration of the Colosseum; the alluded Caesar was Titus.

Typically, that denomination was not a formal proper name, but just an unspecific poetic possessive phrase using a regular genitive declension (-reum); ie. the

[sylla]

Thanks, Medusa.

I recently read about Caesar's "hunting theater" in Katherine Welch's book "The Roman Amphitheatre". She lists the following sources for this:...

Dio Cassius, 43.22-3

This is the relevant quotation spotted by Ms Welch (more specifically Dio 43,22,3)

"He (Caesar) built a kind of hunting-theatre ( θέατρόν τι κυνηγετικὸν ) of wood, which was called an amphitheatre ( ἀμφιθέατρον ) from the fact that it had seats all around without any stage ..."

 

Then, it seems that Dio (or his epitomizers) used here this term ("hunting-theatre") simply as a technical description to help his Greek readers understand what a Roman amphitheatre effectively was.

I'm aware of no evidence that this term was ever actually used in the daily life to describe these buildings, not even by the Greeks.

 

I do know Latin and you are indeed correct however Latin doesn't have definite article so it might as well be translated as THE Amphitheater of Caesar...

Absolutely; the inclusion of determiners to translations from Latin to English and other languages depends essentially on the context.

 

...not so unlogical idea since it was the greatest amphitheater in the city and empire. Anyway it's just a suggestion to a name that might was in use at least for a short time.

These verses form Martial were praising the incumbent Emperor for the contemporary construction of this building; it was literally the Amphitheatre of this Caesar (ie, Titus), and if any other amphitheatre would have even been built by any other Emperor in Rome, in all likelihood the buildings would have been distinguished by simple possesive phrases; after all, that was the case for the Roman public baths, like the Baths of Titus (Thermae Titi), and that was the case of Suetonius too regarding his retrospective historical quotation on the ancient Amphitheatre "of Taurus".

 

In general terms, utterly pragmatic as they always were, it seems the Romans baptized things only when and wherever it was absolutely necessary for them; as Klingan rightly pointed out at the beginning of this thread, virtually no name was ever required for which was always essentially the only building of its category within the city of Rome (deliberately ignoring the relatively tiny Amphitheatrum castrense).

Needless to say, I have not found any evidence yet on the purported use of the term Amphitheatrum Flavium by the Classical Romans.

Edited October 13, 2009 by sylla

[Klingan]

Katherine Welch mentions in her aforementioned book that the name Colosseum was first attested in the 8th century and is either derived from the colossal size of the building or more probably from the Colossus of Nero which stood nearby.

 

A dedicatory inscription calls the building "amphitheatrum novum" which reads in full:

 

I[mp(erator)] T(itus) Caes(ar) Vespasi[ans Aug(ustus)]

amphitheatru[m novum (?]

[ex) manubi(i)s (vac.) [fieri iussit (?)]

 

"The Emperor Titus Caesar Vespasianus Augustus had the new amphitheatre built from the profits of war."

 

G. Alf

[sylla]

Katherine Welch mentions in her aforementioned book that the name Colosseum was first attested in the 8th century and is either derived from the colossal size of the building or more probably from the Colossus of Nero which stood nearby.

 

A dedicatory inscription calls the building "amphitheatrum novum" which reads in full:

 

I[mp(erator)] T(itus) Caes(ar) Vespasi[ans Aug(ustus)]

amphitheatru[m novum (?]

[ex) manubi(i)s (vac.) [fieri iussit (?)]

 

"The Emperor Titus Caesar Vespasianus Augustus had the new amphitheatre built from the profits of war."

 

G. Alf

[Klingan]

Katherine Welch mentions in her aforementioned book that the name Colosseum was first attested in the 8th century and is either derived from the colossal size of the building or more probably from the Colossus of Nero which stood nearby.

 

A dedicatory inscription calls the building "amphitheatrum novum" which reads in full:

 

I[mp(erator)] T(itus) Caes(ar) Vespasi[ans Aug(ustus)]

amphitheatru[m novum (?]

[ex) manubi(i)s (vac.) [fieri iussit (?)]

 

"The Emperor Titus Caesar Vespasianus Augustus had the new amphitheatre built from the profits of war."

 

G. Alf

[sylla]

Katherine Welch mentions in her aforementioned book that the name Colosseum was first attested in the 8th century and is either derived from the colossal size of the building or more probably from the Colossus of Nero which stood nearby.

 

A dedicatory inscription calls the building "amphitheatrum novum" which reads in full:

 

I[mp(erator)] T(itus) Caes(ar) Vespasi[ans Aug(ustus)]

amphitheatru[m novum (?]

[ex) manubi(i)s (vac.) [fieri iussit (?)]

 

"The Emperor Titus Caesar Vespasianus Augustus had the new amphitheatre built from the profits of war."

 

G. Alf

Edited October 13, 2009 by sylla