The greatest of the most famous building that was put up by the Vespasian in the Flavian period [COUGH] was the so-called Colosseum. Which he bagan in the year 70 AD, so contemporanious to the To the construction of the Claudianum but it wasn't finished until after his death. He died in 79, he was emperor for nine years died of natural causes. It wasn't completed until his son Tides became emperor, and Tides completed it and dedicated it in the year 80. We see a view of the Colosseum from above, a Google Earth image of the Colosseum, from above. It was a very large amphitheater that could hold 50,000 people. It was made of concrete, as we shall see. And this aerial view is very helpful because it shows its relation it shows its scale, its size. It shows that in Rome today it serves as a kind of giant traffic circle, as you can see here. The Romans love the Colosseum because it is an icon of their civilization but at the same time they hate it and they're always say it would, would that it we could just get rid of it so that traffic would be smoother. In this part of Rome. And in fact there was a scheme a number of years ago now, probably several decades ago by now, there was a Texan who was actually interested in buying the Colosseum and bringing it to Texas. To display on his ranch. And fortunately, Italy gave some though to that but they decided, obviously, that they were not going to part with the Colosseum. And fortunately, it has stayed intact, and I don't think the Romans would have been too happy about that at the end of the day, despite the fact that they curse it out on a fairly regular basis. But we see it here, and it's useful view because it shows it in conjunction to so many of the other buildings and complexes we've been talking about thus far this semester, we're looking back from it toward the later arch of Constantine that we'll look at at the very end of the course, the Palatine hill in the upper left. Roman Forum beginning over here, with the Temple of Venus and Roma that was done in the second century; we'll talk about that also later. Here the great Via dei Fori Imperiali, designed at the behest of Mussolini. And on the right side, of course, the Imperial Fora, with the Forum of Julius Caesar and the Forum of Augustus That we have also looked at this semester. So here, here you see it here. And then I'm going to show you once again the site plan of Nero. Because it's important to know one of the most important things to know about this monument is where it was sited. And where sited shows us again how incredibly shrewd Vespation was when it came to establishing a political agenda and when it came to trying to court the favor of the public. He decided to raise, we, I mentioned this before. He raised to the ground nero d'avola Destroyed it. Destroyed it, despite the fact that it had been done by these great architects, despite the fact that it had revolving ceilings. Would have been a really cool place for him to live himself. Think about it. He and his dynasty. But he decided to raze it to the ground for political reasons to discredit Nero, and, and he hoped to gain favor with the populace. And what he did smartly. Was to say, What I am going to do with this property? I'm going to return this property to the Roman people. I'm going to build on it something that they would really like to have. So what he does is he fills in the artificial lake, and he uses the area on which the artificial lake was originally Located to build the Colosseum. He puts the Colosseum right on the location of the artificial lake. And the message is clear. What did the Roman people want more than anything else. They wanted another, they wanted an amphitheater. Where they could go to a large amphitheater where 50,000 of them could pack in and watch animal and gladiatorial combats. There is no better way to gain favor with the Roman populous than to build a building like this, and to build it on top of Nero's pleasureable artificial lake, pleasureable only for himself, was a huge coup on the part of Vespasian. And we see that happening here and right in proximity. to the Temple of Divine Claudius. Notice the fact also that the, the location of the Colosseum very close to the Colossus. The name of the Colosseum was really the Flavian Amphitheater, after the family name Flavius, the Flavian amphitheater, that's how it was known in antiquity. But it is, it, it came quickly to be known as the Colosseum, not because of it's colossal scale which is most people think, but because of the Colossus, because of this statue Of of Zenador that stood nearby and by the way, the other thing that Vespasion did was to have the features of Nero erased on that portrait and to make them into the more generic features of the sun god Saul himself. So the statue continued to stand. But it was fixed up it was redone, remade. So it would look like Saul and not like Nero. But again the Colosseum takes its name from that. So if you were in any, we used to have a Colosseum here [LAUGH]. In New Haven. But if, if, if you were in the future in any arenas that are called Colosseums you'll know that, that name goes back to the colossal. Of Nero the Colossus of Soul, not to the Colosseum itself ultimately. Although I think those who named those arenas were obviously thinking about the Colosseum in Rome. So the location of this, of the Colosseum, extremely important. And a, and a political statement on, on Vespasian's part and we see the, this man, this Emperor of Rome Vespasian Very cleverly using architecture to, to to further his own personal and political agenda. This view, also, this plan, cross section and assymetric view that all come form Ward Perkins are also very helpful in us getting a sense of this building. And I think, you can see very quickly That like all other amphitheaters, it had an oval or elliptic plan. It was built up with concrete, a series of barrel and an annular vaults. And those, that elliptic plan included essentially radiating barrel vaults that, barrel vaulted ramps and passage ways and a series of annular vaulted corridors. That provide lateral circulation and that are buttressed by the thrust of the seeding. So it's a scheme that we know already from the amphitheater at Pompeii. We know it also particularly well from the Theater of Marcellus in Rome. The Theater of Marcellus in Rome was just down the street practically. I'll show you an aerial view later to show you its proximity. To the Colosseum, not right next to it but within striking distance. And it clearly the experiments, the architectural experiments of the Augustan period at the theater of Marcellus were very important in terms of this particular design. It basically follows the same general scheme. The major difference of course is that since the theater of Marcellus was a theater. It was semi-circular in plan, whereas amphitheater architecture is always elliptical in plan. And that is the case also for the Colosseum. If we look at the, I mentioned that there are annular vaulted corridors. We're looking at the corridor on the first floor. Of the Colosseum. And you can see very quickly that it is of course made of concrete. How else would you get these annular vaults that you see here. They're very well preserved. They're easy to study. And you can see that those, those annular vaults rest on great stone piers. These stone piers made out of travertine. And you can see that extremely well in this particular view. On the, that's the first floor. On the second floor, however, we see something entirely innovative and that is The introduction of a new form of vault that we haven't seen before. This is the so-called groin or ribbed vault. Spelled exactly as you would think it would be, g r o i n. A groin vault or the ribbed vault. And you get when you, when you take two barrel vaults and make them intersect, the angles that you get create this kind of groin vault. And I show you a diagram here, which makes that clear, I think, to you. And then a view of the second story corridors to show you these actual groin vaults, these ribbed vaults that you see here which are very interesting and add something, I think to these structures and they become very, very popular after they begin to be used in the Flavian period. They become very popular and we'll see the proliferation of groin walls from this time on. So. We talked, I talked at the beginning about what, you know what, what is consu, what, what, what is, are the innovations of Nero's domus aurea continued under the Flavians. Well we know that they, the architects of Nero did not use groin vaults. But they were very interested in the free flow of space and that interest in the free flow of space continues here as does experimentation with concrete, and we see it in the use of these groin vaults on the second story of the Colosseum in Rome. When you visit the Colosseum in Rome today, you'll note that it does seem quite stripped bare, unfortunately. But it's important for you to be aware of the fact that it too was highly decorated with so many other Roman buildings. And we do have engravings that were made. Engravings and paintings that were made when the Colosseum was in better condition and when some of that Stucco and painted decorations still existed. And I show you two Drawings here that give you some sense of that, and you can see that all the surface was covered with stucco. And then with figural decoration, all of which was painted. Both the the vaults themselves as you can see above, and the corridors all of that a very elaborately decorated in ancient Roman times. This is obviously an exterior view of the Colosseum in Rome, the exterior of the building is actually quite well preserved. And I think as you gaze out at it, you certainly are struck by the similarity of the scheme to the scheme of the Theater of Marcellus in Rome. In this case, the Theater of Marcellus appears to have had three stories, only two of which are currently Preserved this had four storeys, four tiers, as you can see here. Again the structure itself is concrete, the facing is travertine. We see these great arches, these great arcades, just as we saw them in the Theater of Marcellus And then also just like the scheme of the theater of marcellus columns that are placed in between those arches on the first three stories. The columns in between those arches on the first three stories just as the theater of marcellus have no structural purpose whatsoever. They do not hold the building up as they would have in a Greek or Etruscan context. They are, the building is held up by the barrel and the annular, the barrel and annular vaults that are made out of concrete. So these, these columns Have no structural purpose whatsoever. And they are here, essentially, as the icing on the cake. As ornamentation, or decoration, but ornamentation or decoration that has certain meaning to it. A meaning that certainly, Conjures up ancient Greece, because you can see here that they have used all the Greek orders. The Doric order, the Ionic order in the second story, the Corinthian order, all of these are engaged columns. The Corinthian order in the third story. And then on the fourth story we see they use pilasters. These are Corinthian pilasters once again. So Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Corinthian again at the uppermost part, columns that have no structure that are used here as pure decoration but decoration that again has ideological connection. At the very top, you can see the detail of the pilasters. Between them you see some Travertine [COUGH] excuse me, blocks, that are brackets that stick out. Those were to support the wooden poles. That you'll remember from our conversation about the amphitheater at Pompeii supported the awning that was used when there was rain. Two more views of the exterior of the Colesseum, a little bit closer up. Where you can see very well here the Doric order in the first story. Travertine facing. The ionic order in the second story, and then the Corinthain engaged columns here and the Corinthian plasters and then also the brackets extremely well preserved. On the Panth-, on the Colosseum in Rome.
