When Was the Colosseum Built? Between 70 and 82 CE

An idea of Augustus, a site of Nero’s

The plan was older than the building. According to Suetonius, when Vespasian began “an amphitheatre in the heart of the city”, he was carrying out a project that Augustus had cherished. What made it possible was the place. After the great fire of 64 CE, Nero had built his Golden House across the centre of Rome, with an artificial lake in the valley just east of the Palatine. Vespasian, who came to power after the civil war of 69 CE, drained Nero’s private lake and put a public amphitheatre in its place. The message was clear to every Roman: what one emperor had taken for himself, the new dynasty gave back.

The money came from war. The building was paid for with the plunder of Jerusalem, sacked by Titus in 70 CE, and built largely by enslaved Jews brought from Judaea.

Ten years, three emperors

Work started between 70 and 72 CE, and it was Vespasian’s son Titus who dedicated the building in 80 CE. The opening games were memorable even by Roman standards. Suetonius says Titus showed five thousand wild beasts of every kind in a single day; the historian Cassius Dio counts nine thousand animals killed, women among the hunters, a sea battle staged after the arena was suddenly flooded, and shows that went on for a hundred days.

The third Flavian, Domitian, completed the work. Around 82 CE he added the uppermost storey, the attic. He also rebuilt the service rooms under the arena: for the inauguration they had been made of wood, and Domitian replaced them with masonry, creating the underground complex you can visit today, described in the guide to the underground and the seats.

How was it built?

As a free-standing ring. Earlier amphitheatres were nearly all dug into hillsides for support; the Colosseum stands free, on a ring of barrel vaults and groin vaults. Its main frame and outer façade are travertine, the secondary walls are volcanic tufa, and the inner bowl and the vaults of the arcades are concrete. The oval measures 189 by 156 metres and held some 50,000 people. Three storeys of arches on the outside are framed by half-columns, Doric, Ionic and Corinthian from bottom to top, with Domitian’s attic above.

After the Flavians

The building’s history did not stop in 82. A fire in 217 CE badly damaged the whole monument and closed it until 222. Gladiatorial games were abolished by order of the emperor Valentinian III in 438, though other shows went on until the end of antiquity. In the twelfth century the Frangipane and Annibaldi families turned it into a fortress; later it served as a quarry, and some of its stone went into St Peter’s Basilica. Its familiar name comes from a colossal statue that stood nearby. Preservation began in earnest in the nineteenth century.

So when was the Colosseum built? Between about 70 and 82 CE, by Vespasian, Titus and Domitian, and it took the rest of Roman history, and then the Middle Ages, to give it the shape it has now. Rome wanted it for three reasons at once: spectacle, politics and rank.

Where to see it

The Colosseum is part of the Parco archeologico del Colosseo. In October 2026 the basic ticket (Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine) costs €18, or €2 for EU citizens aged 18-24, with a booked entry time; the “Full Experience” ticket with the underground and the arena floor costs €24 and is valid for two days. Until 24 October the park is open 8:30-18:30 (last entry 17:30); from 25 October to 28 February it closes at 16:30. Entry is free on the first Sunday of the month. Prices and hours change, so check the official site before you go.

Sources

• Suetonius, Vespasian 9.1 and Titus 7.3 (trans. Rolfe, LacusCurtius).
• Cassius Dio, Roman History 66.25 (trans. Cary, LacusCurtius).
• Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Colosseum”.
• Parco archeologico del Colosseo, “Colosseo”; “The underground levels of the Colosseum”; ticket and opening-time pages (October 2026).