The Colossus Of Rome

Dalu Jones discovers what happened to the largest amphitheatre in the world after the brutal public fights and barbaric contests ceased.

The Colosseum is, without doubt, the most popular ancient monument in Rome – a must-see sight for around four million tourists a year from all over the world. But they are often quite oblivious, or indifferent, to its function in the past as a slaughterhouse for both people and animals who were tortured and killed to amuse a large 50,000 to 80,000-strong audience.

With its deplorable propensity for regular, well-attended spectacles featuring gory gladiatorial contests and deadly fights between men and beasts, this amphitheatre represents the dark side of Roman mores. It was the central venue for a popular form of prolonged, violent ‘entertainment’ that cannot be brushed aside and conveniently forgotten in favour of a more palatable appreciation of Roman achievements.

So it is highly appropriate that, in recent years, the Colosseum has become a visible symbol of the international campaign against capital punishment – which was abolished in Italy in 1948. When a person condemned to death, anywhere in the world, has their sentence commuted or is released, or if a jurisdiction abolishes the death penalty, the colour of the light illuminating the Colosseum at night is changed from white to gold.