So, what exactly took place in this baying atmosphere? Gladiators are by far the Colosseum’s most famed contestants. Here you will realise the grandeur of the Colosseum’s events seen by entranced senatorial eyes. Much like a Colosseum arena tour, your experience begins by gazing below at the hypogeum from the ampitheatre’s sand floor. This marvel, which stood outside the Colosseum, was ordered to be created by Nero on his Golden Palace and it was here that Vespasian and his son, Titus, erected the arena in the 70s AD.Ĭolossus Statue of Apollo Looking from the arena floor Known originally as the Flavian Amphitheatre, the spectacle’s name differed to what we know today in reference to the ‘Colossus’, a 35-metre bronze tall statue of Apollo. Your guide will tell of how these games (and the Colosseum in general) were intended as a societal pacification, as emperor Flavius Vespasianus looked to curtail a tumultuous period kickstarted by the power vacuum left behind by emperor Nero’s tyrannical rule. Over 9,000 exotic creatures passed through the 32 animal holding pens, which can still be seen today, on their way to entertaining the 50,000 – 80,000 eager spectators.

The underground network, known as the hypogeum, played an essential role in the Colosseum’s inaugural games (80 AD). Try to imagine the landmarks seen in a Colosseum and Gladiator’s Gate small group tour shining in a similar way before being battered by 2,000 years of earthquakes, fires, and lightning strikes.

Add a suffocating darkness and appalling smell and you can truly sense the horrors that the Colosseum’s awaiting participants endured.įormed in white travertine, the Colosseum Underground Tour paints a picture of the amphitheatre’s bright appearance to onlooking Roman eyes. Why? Because the brightest Roman minds had decided this was the best way to aid in the disposal of the blood and excrement that seeped from above. This labyrinth of passageways also contained a complex water and drainage system.

Bartolomeo calls colosseum crowd gross