Roman Colosseum

The Roman Emperor Titus finished the construction of the Colosseum, so named because it stood on the spot where the Emperor Nero had earlier erected a colossal statue of himself. Seating some 50,000 spectators, with the most important men granted the best seats in the lower rungs, it was used for gladiatorial combats and other forms of public entertainment. A giant awning stretched out from the topmost level of the seats to protect spectators from the sun. The ruins today reveal in the center the underground rooms and corridors used, for one thing, to house wild animals that were raised by manual elevators to the sandy floor above to be killed in bloody hunts. (© Alinari Archives / The Image Works.)