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Emperors and the Colosseum
The
Great Fire of Rome occurred during the reign of Nero in 64AD
destroying the Amphitheatrum Neronis and other
amphitheatres. Vespasian needed to gain the support of the
people so commissioned the Flavian Amphitheatre to be built.
The name never caught on a people referred to the new arena
as the Colosseum as it had once been the site of a colossal
statue of Nero. Vespasian Died before the building of the
Colosseum was completed.
Emperors and the Colosseum
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Titus
"The Emperor who destroyed the
temple in Jerusalem"
The oldest son of
Vespasian, Titus became the next Emperor. He presided over
the inauguration games at the Colosseum in 81AD. The
inauguration games lasted for one hundred days and during
this time over 9,000 wild animals and 2000 gladiators were
slaughtered. Titus had fought in the Jewish War and had
conquered Jerusalem. The spoils of Jerusalem and the 100,000
slaves captured in the war enabled the spectacular Colosseum
to built. The engineering was so advanced that the Romans
were able to flood the arena and show simulated
Water Battles
at the Colosseum.
Emperors and the Colosseum
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Domitian
"The evil emperor who murdered
thousands of Christians"
The Emperor Vespasian's
second son the
Emperor Domitian added the top tier of the Colosseum and
a vast network of rooms, cells, tunnels and passages under
the Roman Colosseum called the
Hypogeum. The addition of the Hypogeum meant that any
other water battles at the Colosseum would not have been
possible. Domitian styled himself to be the "Lord and God,"
of the Romans and was worshiped with divine honors.
Christians who refused to adhere to the gods of the Romans
were murdered in great numbers during the reign of the
tyrant Domitian.
Emperors and the Colosseum
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Commodus
"More savage than Domitian, more foul than Nero".
The Emperor Commodus
actually fought as a gladiator in the Colosseum ordering his
fights to be inscribed in the public records and announced
in the city-gazette. It is said that he engaged in
gladiatorial bouts 735 times. Such was his prowess in the
slaying of wild beasts, that he once pierced an elephant
with a pole, pierced a gazelle's horn with a spear and
killed huge, wild beasts with a single blow. Commodus then
ordered the people to worship him as a second Hercules on
the ground that he had killed wild beasts in the
amphitheatre. He allowed statues of himself to be erected
with the accoutrements of Hercules and sacrifices were
performed to him as to a god. Commodus commissioned the
building of a tunnel which connected the Imperial palace to
the Colosseum. Commodus was the Emperor featured in the
Russell Crowe movie Gladiator.
Emperors and the Colosseum
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Elagabalus
"He married a Vestal Virgin and then took a
husband..."
Elagabalus divorced his
first wife and enraged Roman society by marrying one of the
Vestal Virgins, only to divorce her a year later. The
marriages were sham as it appears that Elagabalus was
homosexual. He had the hairs plucked from his body in order
to appear more female he appeared in public wearing make-up
and women's clothing. His most stable relationship appears
to have been with his chariot driver, a blond slave from Caria named Hierocles, whom he referred to as his husband.
Emperors and the Colosseum
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Trajan Decius
"One of the most cruel persecutors of the
Christians"
Decius is remembered as one
of the most cruel persecutors of the Christians, many of
whom would have died cruel deaths in the Colosseum. The
innocent victims of his rage were subjected to torture and
suffered from the unrelenting severity of this persecutor.
Emperors and the Colosseum
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Carinus
"The debauched Emperor suspected of incest..."
Carinus was completely inept as a ruler. He led a life of
vice and debauchery and spent enormous amounts of public
money on festivals, spectacular games to entertain and gain
support of the 'mob'.
Emperors and the Colosseum
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Diocletian
"The Emperor who split the Roman Empire..."
The Emperor Diocletian mounted some of the fiercest
Christian persecutions of the early Church especially in the
East of the Empire. Diocletian passed laws or Edicts to
force people who lived in the Roman Empire to worship the
ancient gods of the Romans.
The persecution of Christians
began A.D. 303, and continued for nearly ten years during
which time countless Christians died in the Colosseum and
other arenas throughout the Roman Empire..
Emperors and the Colosseum
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Ioannes
"Captured, mutilated and while still living, set
upon an ass in the Roman Circus and finally
killed..."
Emperor Theodosius II refused to recognize Ioannes
as ruler of Gaul and Spain and he was captured, mutilated and while still
living, set upon an ass in the Roman Circus and finally
killed.
Emperors and the Colosseum
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Honorius
"The End of the Gladiators and the Sack of Rome..."
The Gladiatorial games at the
Colosseum ended during the reign of the Emperor Honorius.
This Emperor issued a decree that the gladiatorial games
were to stop. Chariot races and games went on, though the
good and thoughtful disapproved of the wild excitement they
caused; but the terrible sports of death and blood were
ended for ever. The last known gladiatorial fight in the
Roman Colosseum therefore took place during the reign of
Honorius.
Emperors and the Colosseum
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