Every now and then we receive some feed back messages asking
questions. The mail helps us to improve the site.
You also may benefit of some of the answers on this page.
CREDITS
HI!! I need to place this web page into my bibliography. To do so, I need the authors of
this wepage, the name of page, the date of posting, the name of institution and any
organization affiliated with this site. Thank you. This web page is very helpful. I hope
you email me because this info is very important for my project. Ciao......
Dear …
I have to thank you. At first I was a little pissed off with all those requests, but then
I thought that it is not the first time people ask for that kind of info, so I got down to
it and put all this in a page. You'll find it all under the other/credits menu.
Ciao
Andrea
MODELS
I am interested in creating the most accurate 3-D model of the colosseum that I possibly
can, but am faulting at the first step. I have not been able to locate any remotely
interpretable floor plans that i can use to create this model. I also need a list/drawing
showing the structure and function of the mechanisms below the floor of this building. If
you can help me in any way, please contact me. Thank you.
Spud
Dear Spud,
I don't think you can find detailed drawings of the floor plans on the net. Get books. Try
these. They are in the source page anyway
PARKER (John Henry ), The Flavian amphitheater, Oxford, 1996.
PEARSON (J.), " Arena. The story of the Colosseum ", BSEAA, 48, 1977, pp.
521-522.
PLATNER (Samuel Ball), ASHBY (Thomas), A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, Rome,
l'ERMA, 1965, (1ere édition Oxford-Londres, Oxford University Press, 1929), QUENNELL,
Peter. The Colosseum; Nesweek, New York, 1971.
RICHARDSON (Lawrence Jr.), A new topographical dictionary of ancient Rome, Baltimore, John
Hopkins University Press, 1992 (1ere édition Oxford-Londres 1929), pp. 7-10.
As to underground machinery there is no certainty about mechanisms, but this I can tell:
surely there were central ramps in the arena, 2 at least.
Probably there were elevators in the niches around the arena, operated with ropes and
counterweights, to lift animals and people on the battlefield. Their exact number and
functioning imo hasn't been explained credibly enough.
Surely coreography machines and materials were kept in the underground and pushed/pulled
along the ramps at the right moment. Read Martial De Spectaculis to get an idea of the
shows (it's only a few pages anyway)
Let me know about your progress
Andrea
I would like to know where you obtained the very accurate 3D model of the Colosseum?
And if it is possible to get a copy of the file in 3D format?
Chris
Dear Chris;
you ask about the 3d model. If I understand well, you are referring to the picture of a
model made in the 19th century, which is in France, I think. There is a similar model of
the Colosseum in the amphitheatre itself. I don't know if one can get a 3d picture. I say:
get the real picture, come to Rome and see it.
Ciao,
Andrea
I have a question for you. I am very interested in the exact architecture of the
coliseum. I have been there and loved every second basking in its glory. I am a 3D Modeler
and I am wanting to recreate to exact detail the coliseum. Do you know of any resources
that show the blueprints for the coliseum. Or do you yourself have any blueprints for it?
Thanks.
Brett
Dear Brett,
we have no blueprints of the Colosseum, but I have found a site that may
help you: http://www.greatbuildings.com/models/Roman_Colosseum_mod.html
.
Yours sincerely,
Daniele Pepe
I LIKE IT WHEN PEOPLE SAY THANKS!!!
Thank you so much. That does help. I hope you and your family have a happy holiday season.
Brett
MORE MODELS
Hello, I am doing a research project on the Colosseum. I've found your site very helpful
and i was wondering if there was any other information that you think could help in my
paper. The topic is very vage, but i wanted to really concentrate on the architecture. If
you have any pictures or descriptions of the interior, especially the very center, that
would also help. I was also wondering if you had any ideas on how i could make a model of
the colosseum. Something not too large because i'll have to find a way to get it to
school. But i really want it to be realistic and show as much detail as possible. And i'm
willing to spend a lot of time on it. The project is due on December 18 so i have a few
weeks to work on it. Thanks you so much, Samantha
Dear Samantha,
the Colosseum is very big, and even a model is a great challenge; I think you have seen
the page on models under the architecture menu.
I thought about your problem, and what I suggest is that you use polistyrene foam, which
is cheap and can be easily cut in shape by means of a hot wire (they sell such instruments
in hobby shops) and that you build only a section of the Colosseum, even less that a
quarter of the structure, and that you slice it and show how it was built.
You can find some plans in the page www.the-colosseum.net/architecture/numeri_en.htm
. Look at the image sect.jpg ; you may just paint the inside instead of making real holes
for the arches. Try to show a plan of the underground chambers where the shows were
prepared.
Good Luck
Let me know how it's gone
Ciao
Andrea
MODELS AGAIN
Your website is great. I was wondering if you had more of the information I needed. I am
making a scale model of the colosseum as a math project. There are not enough measurements
for me to do so. If you could supply me with the information, it would be much
appreicated.
Thank You,
Cheng
Dear Cheng,
I'll give you all the measurements I have (in metres).
Ellipses:
external 188 x 56
internal 87,3 x 54,3
ellipse of the arena: 75 x 44
Circumference: 527
Max height (external wall) 48,5
The arches are 4.20 m. (13’9") wide and 7.05 m (23’1") high on the
ground floor, while on the upper floors they are only 6.45 m (21’2")
Ciao
Andrea
UNDERGROUND TOUR
Would it be possible if one of your staff or someone else give me a tour of underground at
Colosseum? It is for my history project at University of Hawaii at West Hawaii campus. I
am a student...Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Aloha,
David
Kona, Hawaii
Dear David,
it is not possible at the moment to visit the underground of the Colosseum.
It is closed to the public. You may ask through your university the permission from the
Soprintendenza or the University in Rome (Archeology Faculty).
A letter from one of your teachers would be helpful...
Ciao,
Daniele and Andrea
WHO OWNS THE COLOSSEUM?
I am doing a college research paper on the Colosseum. My question is "Who owns the
colosseum? Is it the Italian Government?". I need information about this wonderful
building today. I was lucky enough to visit Rome in April, but did not know I would be
doing this research. There are not many books available on the subject.
Thank you,
Pat
Dear Pat,
the Colosseum is part of the state assets.
Hope you enjoyed your stay here in Rome,
Yours sincerely,
Daniele Pepe
HOLA!
Hola amigos!,
Soy de Honduras y estudio arquitectura y les agradeceria mucho si me pudieran ayudar a
conseguir unas imagenes del Coliseum Romano donde pueda ver unos contrafuertes que le
colocaron en las paredes internas y externas para afianzar su estructura, o si pueden
darme referencia de una direccion en internet.
gracias. Esta excelete su pagina de la web.
Lourdes
Hola Lourdes!
Para los externas contrafuertes see the images in the home page and in the page
history/rediscovery. Look also under other/imagegallery. I don't know of any suitable site
on the net.
Auguri per i tuoi studi,
Ciao
Andrea
CREDENTIALS
Would you please send me a list of your credentials. I need to use your website for a
school project and my teacher wants me to have proof that the seite that i am using is
trustworthy and reliable.
Dear Kevin,
My "academic" credential is a degree in political sciences at Rome University. I
love my city and the arts, and I did the site as a hobby. My references for the site are
other books, like for anyone doing a study of this kind. In the field of history or
archaeology, where all is left to interpretation of hints, generally the credibility of a
theory cannot be proven by scientific evidence. While reading about the subject I have
understood that much of what has been written on the Colosseum is based on some
interpretation of the hints we have.
I understand your teacher: the problem of the sources and their reliability/credibility is
an old one. If you go deep in any subject, you soon realize that the problem of the
"original" sources is the most disturbing one. If we take the Colosseum as an
example, the original literary sources are few (they appear in the source page in latin),
and they have generally been taken as gospel.
Example: the fact that Martial says that naval battles were held in the arena has
compelled many archeologists to read literally his words and explain that some structures
of the Colosseum are a proof of that, but some other studies say that naval battles
couldn't be held at all in the arena, because of the architectural structure of the
monument. Were naval battles held in the Colossem or not? Who knows. There is now a new
explanation of it: Martial did not really mean the Colosseum when he wrote about naval
battles, but he meant another place or another kind of show, different from what is
generally intended as naumachia. Can now Martial, the original source, be taken as gospel?
This should teach us that the truthfulness and reliability of books and papers (and all
information) on the Colosseum (and I imagine on every subject) is as good as we can
control it.
In other words: Mr. X makes a statement. If he indicates his sources I can go and check.
He may have misread or be interested, for some reason, to prove some theory. If his theory
is supported by a citation of some other author, should we take it for granted or go and
check that author as well? I tried to go as back as to the Latin sources. They are very
few. You also can start from those, and form your opinion.
By the point of view of academic credibility, my site does little more than try to report
in a concise way the views of some of the available literature on the subject. I hope your
professor will be satisfied.
Good chicken hunting,
Andrea Pepe
WOW, IT WAS HELPFUL!!!
thanks, this will help me more than i thougt it could
SHALL PROFESSORS APPROVE?
I would like to have some information about who the creators of this website are and what
back ground you have for the creation of this site.
One of my students is using your website as a resource for her paper and I would just like
to make this preliminary check before I approve this site as a valid resource.
Thank you,
Dott.ssa Lisa Cesarani
NYU in Florence
Dear Dr.ssa Cesarani,
you'll find some information on the credentials in the "disclaimer" page of the
menu. Click on the link "disclaimer" in the main page in English (the first page
that appears with the menu).
Best Regards,
Andrea Pepe
SAMPLES
Dear Sir/Madam
Hello, I am S. from Korea. Your homepage looks fabulous and makes me interested in some
pictures in the homepage. Fistly, I saw one particular page which was about the structure
of Colossevm. Moreover, there was some pictures of Samples of Colossevm which I was deeply
impressed.
So, may I ask whether you have some more pictures of Samples and I wonder I can have some
unshown pictures, please.
Anyway, I deeply appreciate for reading my mail and I am looking forward to hearing from
you.
Yours Faithfully
S.
Dear S.,
thanks for the compliments. The picture in the homepage is mine, like many in the site. In
the Italian homepage there is the same picture but treated in a pictorial way.
A lot of pictures have been reproduced from other sources. There is an image gallery where
you can see most of the images. Click on the menu "other" and then "image
gallery". I do not understand exactly what you mean for Samples of the Colosseum.
Models, maybe ?
Ciao,
A. Pepe
SOMETIMES PEOPLE HAVE NO MANNERS ... BUT I’M PATIENT
name: XXX
Hi! I was wondering f I could ask you some questions if so my questions are: How is the
Roman Colosseum maintained and repaired? If people still do events there? Who was the
architect? If your wondering why I'm asking you all these questions I'm doing a school
report on the Roman Colosseum. Answer back soon!
Hi XXX,
the word "please" would have been welcomed, anyway...
- it is the State that pays for the maintenance of the Colosseum
- yes they have started recently to have shows in there
- the name of the architect is unknown.
You could have found the answer to all of these questions in my site. Check
the FAQ page.
Ciao
Andrea
WHO MADE IT?
How many people built the Colosseum and who were they.
We don't know exactly how many people built the Colosseum. Some estimates have been
done of several thousands of workers, also considering that it took only 10 years to build
it. Some shortcuts have been taken: the stone pieces of the arches are modular. i.e. have
the same size, so that they could be mounted in any arch.
We don't know much either about who the workers were. Legend is that Titus used jewish
slaves, prisoners from his wars in Palestine, but we must consider it a rumour, because
the ancient sources do not report at all such a thing. The majority of the scholars
believes that, given the quality of the construction, mainly made in blocks of limestone
and tuff, cement vaults and bricks, most of the work force must have been quite skilled.
Therefore if slaves were employed they probably were not a majority. Ciao
Andrea
SOMETIMES THERE ARE FUNNY STORIES...
I was just reading a news article about the gladiators wanting to get their jobs back at
the colosseum and I would like to share with you what one of them did to me last summer. I
have battled a weight problem for most of my life. In June, my wife and I were on a Globus
tour and were visiting the colosseum when one of the gladiators stuck a plastic sword to
my stomach and yelled out, "TOO MUCH SPAGHETTI!" Everyone started laughing and
I've never been so embarrised in my life. My wife and I paid over $7000 for that trip and
that one incident ruined the whole trip for both of us. It is something that should never
have happened. If that is the way these gladiators treat people, then I don't think they
should have their jobs back. I know that I would have had a much better trip if I'd never
seen them.
SITE MAP
I love your website, it helped me on my research paper. I just wanted to suggest adding a
Site Map. Because you have so many links, and at times it gets confusing . A site map that
has links organized into sections, to help navagite through the website better. It was
just a suggestion :)
Dear Balal,
there is already a site map (I know it's quite a vast site and it gets confusing). You can
find it under the menu Other > Site Map.
But if you didn't find it many others haven't so I'll try to make it more simple to find.
Thank you for your comment,
Daniele Pepe
NAVAL BATTLES
My friend tried to tell me that the roman coliseum was filled with water so ship battles
would occure. Is this true and if so give referances. thank you
Dear Tyrone,
the story of naval battles held in the Colosseum is matter of fierce debate. Martial,
latin writer, mentions some show like that maybe took place in the Colosseum, but the
archaeologists are very doubtful about it, given the structure of the arena, drains etc.
The text below can be found at the page "disclaimer"; see also the page on
naumachiae under "games".
Ciao
Andrea
... For example, the fact that Martial (De spectaculis) says that naval battles were held
in the arena has led many authors to find an explanation as to how the arena could be
filled with water and then emptied. Some other studies now say that naval battles couldn't
possibly have been held at all in the arena, because of the architecture of the building.
Were naval battles held in the Colosseum or not? We are not sure anymore.
And then we meet a new explanation of it: Martial did not really mean the Colosseum when
he wrote about naval battles, but he meant another place or another kind of show,
different from what is generally intended as naumachia. Can at this point Martial, the
original source, still be credible? Can we find another meaning in his writings? And
again, can we trust the edition of Martial's works? Which edition? Is the translation
adequate? Is it the only version and/or interpretation of the original parchment codex?
Because there might be another codex that reports a slightly different text ... And so
on... What do we do then? With limited time and cultural resources, we generally stop in
front of printed paper that looks credible enough. The credibility threshold rises with
the degree of knowledge.
SECURITY AND SHOWTIMES
How was security handled at the colosseum during the empire?
What time would the games start and end?
Security in the Colosseum was held by the army, probably praetorians as the other
armies weren't allowed to enter Rome, and by vigiles, a kind of police.
The games started in the early morning, around 8 a.m. and continued non-stop until dusk.
Daniele Pepe
THE NAMES OF THE GATES
What were the names of the main axial entrances? North - ? South - ? East - Gate of Death?
(exit only?) West - Gladiator Entrance? Thank you.
Kendall
Dear Kendall,
my knowledge is that every amphitheatre identified these gates:
libitinensis (named after the Roman goddess of the underworld, Libitina) for the dead gladiators;
sanavivaria for the ones who saved their lives,
triumphalis, for the winners.
The main axis of the Colosseum is oriented more or less SE-NW; the libitinensis gate is identified with the NW one on the main axis, which is also natural since that is the direction of the ludi. The sanavivaria should be on the opposite side. I don't know which is the triumphalis one. If I have read it I don't remember it.
VESTALS
What role did the vestal virgins play in the ceremonies and where would they sit? Thanks.
Vestals (from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/colosseum/qanda/#23):
There were 18 Vestals at a time: 6 novices chosen as young girls of 10-11 years from the best senatorial families, families without stain in their backgrounds. 6 were the practicing Vestals, and 6 were "retired" and acted as teachers for the novices. Probably the Vestals themselves would have suggested names of novices, but the Pontifex Maximus would have had to make the final decision. The work of the Vestals was to tend the sacred fire of the hearth, symbolic of the home. They also had to prepare sacred ground grain for sacrificial rituals and to function as models of moral behavior, since they had to remain virgins for their 30 years of service. After that time they could marry, but few did. For breaking their vow of devotion to the order, they could be buried alive. They lived in palatial quarters in the Forum behind the round Temple to Vesta where the sacred fire was kept. They had their own box at the Colosseum, and witnessed from their ring-side seats the games, along with the rest of the audience.
I add: originally women were not admitted to the games; later on this prohibition fell into disuse and the amphitheatres provided opportunities for meeting the other sex. After this period of permissivess, reaction came: August assigned special seats to all the classes, guilds and authorities, and relegated the women to the higher tiers. The Vestals were an exception: they were the only women who had a box in the amphitheatre. I don't think they had any role on the occasion, except that of showing themselves in public, like VIP today do at the stadiums.
SORRY, WE ARE NOT A GIFT SHOP
We just returned home from Rome and it was a wonderful visit. While at the Colosseum we
wanted to make a purchase at the gift shop upstairs but forgot. Do you know of a way to
contact them to try and get something sent to the US?
Hi Bob,
I read on http://www.museidiroma.com/colosseo.htm
that the telephone number of the shop is +39 0639967700.
Try and contact them directly.
Ciao
Andrea
MODELS
Hello, I am doing a research project on the Colosseum. I've found your site very helpful
and i was wondering if there was any other information that you think could help in my
paper. The topic is very vage, but i wanted to really concentrate on the architecture. If
you have any pictures or descriptions of the interior, especially the very center, that
would also help. I was also wondering if you had any ideas on how i could make a model of
the colosseum. Something not too large because i'll have to find a way to get it to
school. But i really want it to be realistic and show as much detail as possible. And i'm
willing to spend a lot of time on it. The project is due on December 18 so i have a few
weeks to work on it. Thanks you so much, Samantha
Dear Samantha,
the Colosseum is very big, and even a model is a great challenge; I think you have seen
the page on models under the architecture menu.
I thought about your problem, and what I suggest is that you use polistyrene foam, which
is cheap and can be easily cut in shape by means of a hot wire (they sell such instruments
in hobby shops) and that you build only a section of the Colosseum, even less that a
quarter of the structure, and that you slice it and show how it was built. You can find
some plans in the page www.the-colosseum.net/architecture/numeri_en.htm
. Look at the image sect.jpg ; you may just paint the inside instead of making real holes
for the arches. Try to show a plan of the underground chambers where the shows were
prepared.
Good Luck
Let me know how it's gone
Ciao
Andrea
SPELLING
Hi i am doing a porject on the colosseum and i was wonder how to site your website because
i can not find the correct information so please e-mail me back as soon as possible thank
you.
Megan
Dear Megan,
you'll find some info on this page: http://www.the-colosseum.net/around/disclaimer-en.htm
Good Luck for your porject, and remember to check the spelling ...
Ciao,
Andrea
GUIDED TOURS
COMMENTS : Is there an official Colosseum web site where I can reserve tickets for a
guided tour? I am bringing a group of 53 pilgrims with me, and I want to make sure we have
tickets before we leave on 5 February. Thank you for whatever help you can provide. Happy
New Year, Brian
Dear Brian,
the "official" site of the Colosseum is from the Roman Museums http://www.museidiroma.com/colosseo.htm
but they do not sell tickets.
I don't think it is necessary to have the tickets before you leave. You can book anyway
for the whole group by calling the Colosseum at the tel no. + 06 399 677 00 Mon-sat from 9
to 5 (though they are closed for lunch from 1.30 pm to 2.30 pm).
Check the time gap before calling.
Happy New Year and Good Luck
Andrea
