Colosseum
Elliptical Roman amphitheatre built for gladiatorial games, seating tens of thousands of spectators.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Colosseum in Rome sets you inside its opening games in the year eighty, a hundred-day spectacle staged by Emperor Titus for a city still shaken by plague and the eruption of Vesuvius. It follows two veteran gladiators, Priscus and Verus, so evenly matched that neither could land the finishing blow, and the tens of thousands of spectators who rose to demand they both be spared. Listen for what the poet Martial, watching from the stands, said had never happened under any emperor before.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Circus Maximus
Chariot-racing oval that hosted the ancient city's grandest public spectacles for over a millennium.
Roman Forum
Open-air ruin of the ancient world's greatest civic center, home to Caesar's cremation altar.
Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana
Arcaded travertine palace built as the centerpiece of a fascist world's fair that was never held.
Via dei Fori Imperiali
Broad fascist-era boulevard lined with Imperial Forum ruins and bronze statues of Roman emperors.
Baths of Caracalla
Ancient Roman thermae standing near full height, with walkable underground tunnels and rare mosaics.
Parco Regionale dell'Appia Antica
Preserved ancient road of basalt slabs, flanked by imperial tombs, catacombs, and umbrella pines.