![]() The amphitheater was a central component of the imperial policy of “bread and circuses,” as the poet Juvenal described it, which aimed to control the citizens of Rome. This crowning attic story contains the bracketing elements that originally supported masts from which a great awning was stretched like a sail to provide shade. The outer facade is arranged on four levels, and presents the canonical arrangement of the Classical orders the first three levels are formed by arcades framed by half-columns from the Doric ground floor, through the Ionic and Corinthian, and terminate with the flat surface of the attic story with its Composite pilasters. Entry and exit to the building influenced its design: the 76 arcaded and numbered openings- vomitoria-on the ground-floor exterior corresponded to stair ramps that brought spectators directly to their seats on the different levels of the 157-foot-high (48 m) building. The Colosseum was the prime venue for gladiatorial contests and venations-wild beast hunts-and it could accommodate around 70,000 people. Entirely clad in travertine blocks, it filled a nodal position at the intersection of the Imperial Forum and the Sacred Way. It was built for the Flavian emperors on a site previously occupied by a private lake adjoining the luxurious palace-villa of Nero. Its elliptical form covers a surface of 617 feet (188 m) by 512 feet (156 m) on its major axes. One of the most impressive monuments surviving from the Roman Empire, the Colosseum is the largest of all the Roman amphitheaters. Built in less than a year and intact to this day, Caius Cestius’s funerary monument has proved far more enduring than anything he achieved while alive. Inscriptions on its eastern and western faces record the names and titles of the deceased as well as the circumstances relating to the construction. The strength of the materials-brick-faced concrete overlaid with white marble slabs on a travertine foundation-made possible a truly firm construction, built at a much sharper angle than any of its Egyptian counterparts. Discovered during excavations in 1660, it was found to contain the ashes of Caius Cestius, magistrate, tribune, and epulonum (member of the septemvirate, one of Rome’s four great religious organizations). The fact that a single citizen was able to build a personal tomb worthy of a pharaoh says much about the wealth of ancient Rome.Īlready considered one of antiquity’s most significant monuments back in the 1400s, this Roman pyramid has a burial chamber inside once adorned with vibrant frescoed panels of female figures. That victory had made the monuments and funerary practices of the powerful province very fashionable indeed. The tomb’s pyramidal form is a reflection of the “Cleopatra fad” that swept through the empire’s capital after the conquest of Egypt just a few years earlier, in 30 BCE. This white mausoleum, built in the 1st century BCE during the last years of the Roman Republic, looks incongruous at first glance. SpaceNext50 Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space!.Learn about the major environmental problems facing our planet and what can be done about them! Saving Earth Britannica Presents Earth’s To-Do List for the 21st Century.Britannica Beyond We’ve created a new place where questions are at the center of learning.100 Women Britannica celebrates the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, highlighting suffragists and history-making politicians. ![]() COVID-19 Portal While this global health crisis continues to evolve, it can be useful to look to past pandemics to better understand how to respond today. ![]()
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