Table Of Content‘A racy and occasionally confrontational book … revels in the accretions of
detail and myth … first-class scholarship and an engagingly demotic style’
Michael Bywater, Independent
‘A rollicking good read … the authors’ lively style does full justice to their
rumbustious subject matter’ Guardian
‘The authors wear their eclectic learning lightly … exemplary prose … quiet,
confident and thorough, this is a fine English book in the best sense of the
word’ The Times
‘A work of scholarship written with the general reader in mind … a pleasure to
read’ Spectator
‘Supported by an impeccably marshalled but never obtrusive evidential base …
beautifully written and highly readable’ Times Higher Education Supplement
‘The authors’ educated guesses tend to be more fascinating than the familiar
Hollywood portrayal … it enriches our appreciation of the Colosseum’s
magnitude and significance’ Independent on Sunday
‘This is a volume to take on any journey; it will tell you as much about the
perception of ruins as it does about Rome itself’ BBC History Magazine
‘This lively book carries the reader painlessly through a complex record of legend
and history. A delightful and instructive account’ G. W. Bowerstock, Institute
for Advanced Study, Princeton ‘A splendid monograph’ Irish Catholic
‘Anecdotal, lively and enlightening, Hopkins and Beard’s book is hugely
worthwhile’ Italian
‘A small gem of a book … the most engaging and entertaining biography of the
site available’ Minerva
‘This lively, engaging and scholarly book brilliantly conveys the complex
significance of this potent monument and of the spectacles that took place
within it’ Royal Academy Magazine
KEITH HOPKINS was Professor of Ancient History at the University of
Cambridge and Vice-Provost of King’s College. He was one of the most radical
re-interpreters of Roman history and culture of the last fifty years, and author of
Conquerors and Slaves (1978), Death and Renewal (1983) and A World Full of
Gods (1999). He died in 2004.
MARY BEARD is a Professor of Classics at Cambridge and a Fellow of
Newnham College. She is general editor of the Wonders of the World series
and has written widely on classical culture and its reception in the contemporary
world. Her books include Classical Art from Greece to Rome with J.
Henderson (Oxford, 2001), The Roman Triumph (Harvard, 2007), Pompeii:
The Life of a Roman Town (Profile, 2008), It’s a Don’s Life (Profile, 2009),
and The Parthenon (Profile, 2010).
WONDERS OF THE WORLD
THE COLOSSEUM
KEITH HOPKINS
AND
MARY BEARD
This updated paperback edition published in 2011
First published in Great Britain in 2005 by
Profile Books Ltd
3A Exmouth House
Pine Street
Exmouth Market
London ECIR OJH
www.profilebooks.com
Copyright © Keith Hopkins and Mary Beard, 2005, 2006, 2011
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Typeset in Caslon by MacGuru Ltd
[email protected]
Designed by Peter Campbell
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Bookmarque Ltd, Croydon, Surrey The moral right of the authors has been
asserted.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above,
no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written
permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978 1 84668 470 8
eISBN 978 1 84765 045 0
CONTENTS
Preface
CHAPTER 1 The Colosseum Now …
CHAPTER 2 … and Then
CHAPTER 3 The Killing Fields
CHAPTER 4 The People of the Colosseum
CHAPTER 5 Bricks and Mortar
CHAPTER 6 Life after Death
Making a visit?
Further reading
List of illustrations
List of figures
Acknowledgements
Index
PREFACE
The Colosseum is the most famous, and instantly recognisable, monument to
have survived from the classical world. So famous, in fact, that for over seventy
years, from 1928 to 2000, a fragment of its distinctive colonnade was displayed
on the medals awarded to victorious athletes at the Olympic Games – as a
symbol of classicism and of the modern Games’ ancient ancestor.
It was not until the Sydney Games in 2000 that this caused any controversy.
British newspapers – most of which did not know that the Colosseum had been
gracing Olympic medals for more than half a century – enjoyed poking fun at
the ignorance of the antipodeans who apparently had not grasped the simple
fact that the Colosseum was Roman and the Games were Greek. The
Australian–Greek press took a loftier tone; as one Greek editor thundered, ‘The
Colosseum is a stadium of blood. It has nothing to do with the Olympic ideals
of peace and brotherhood.’
The International Olympic Committee wriggled slightly, but stood their
ground. They had already prevented the organisers of the Games replacing the
Colosseum with the profile of the Sydney Opera House, so they presumably had
their arguments ready. The design, they insisted, was traditional and it was not,
in any case, the Roman Colosseum specifically, but rather a ‘generic’ Colosseum:
‘As far as we are concerned, it’s not important if it’s the Colosseum or the
Parthenon. What’s important is that it’s a stadium.’
1. The Sydney Olympic medal (2000) displays the distinctive form of the
Colosseum behind the Goddess of Victory and a racing chariot. ‘The Ultimate
Ignorance’ complained one Greek newspaper in Australia.
Unsurprisingly, the Colosseum motif had been replaced by the time the
Games went (back) to Greece in 2004. The ponderously titled ‘Committee to
Change the Design of the Olympic Medal’ came up with a new, Greek and
much less instantly recognisable design: a figure of Victory flying over the
Panathinaikon stadium built in Athens to host the first modern Games in 1896.
But the questions that this argument raised about the Colosseum itself still
remain. What was its original purpose? (Certainly not the racing signalled by
the miniature chariot also depicted on the medal.) How should we now respond
to the bloody combats of gladiators that have come to define its image in
modern culture? Why is it such a famous monument?
These are just some of the questions we set out to answer in this book.
Figure 1. Plan of the Colosseum.
1
THE COLOSSEUM NOW …
COLOSSEUM BY MOONLIGHT
In 1843 the first edition of Murray’s Handbook to Central Italy, the essential
pocketbook companion for the well-heeled Victorian tourist, enthusiastically
recommended a visit to the Colosseum (or the ‘Coliseum’ as it was then
regularly spelled). Many aspects of Rome, it warned, would prove inconvenient
or disappointing. The Roman system of timekeeping was simply baffling for the
punctual British visitor; its twenty-four-hour clock began an hour and a half
after sunset, so times changed with the seasons. The local cuisine left a lot to be
desired (‘A good restaurateur is still one of the desiderata of Rome’, moaned the
Handbook, somewhat sniffily). Accommodation too could be difficult to find,
especially for those with special requirements – the invalids who were
recommended to search out rooms with ‘a southern aspect’, or the ‘nervous
persons’ advised to ‘live in more open and elevated situations’. Yet the
Colosseum was guaranteed not to disappoint. In fact, it was even more
impressive in real life than its reputation might suggest: ‘There is no monument
of ancient Rome which artists and engravers have made so familiar to readers of
all classes … and there is certainly none of which the descriptions and drawings
are so far surpassed by the reality.’ No need then to promote its virtues or guide
the visitor’s response. ‘We shall not attempt to anticipate the feelings of the
traveller,’ the Handbook continued, ‘or obtrude upon him a single word which
may interfere with his own impressions, but simply supply him with such facts
as may be useful in his examination of the ruin.’
A brisk account followed, with plenty of dry dates, dimensions and figures.
Building work started under the emperor Vespasian in AD 72, with the opening
ceremonies under his son Titus in 80; the last recorded wild beast show in the
arena took place in the reign of Theodoric (who died in AD 526) – unless you
count a bull-fight staged in 1332. The whole structure covered some 6 acres and
was built of travertine stone (mixed with brick in the interior). Its outer
elevation comprised four storeys, to a total of 157 English feet, with eighty
Description:The Colosseum was Imperial Rome's monument to warfare. Like a cathedral of death it towered over the city and invited its citizens, 50,000 at a time, to watch murderous gladiatorial games. It is now visited by two million visitors a year (Hitler was among them). Award winning classicist, Mary Beard
