The Crowds
The crowds of the Colosseum were massive. The Romans commenced building the Colosseum after Nero [December 15, 37 AD - June 9, 68 AD] died. Nero turned mad and bad as an Emperor and the people ended up hating him. Surrounding the Colosseum, there were a series of gates in which certain people could enter through. There were a few sets for the business men of Rome [equestrians] and 76 gates for the ordinary citizens of Rome and the lower class citizens of Rome. There were also four unmarked gates that were called the ‘Grand Entrances’. These were where the Emperor and his councillors entered through. If you were a lower class citizen of Rome, you would have to climb a series of steps to get to your seat at the very top. These people only got to sit on wooden benches. The ordinary citizens of Rome were crowded onto the stone benches that made up the majority of the seating in the Colosseum. It would have been very squishy on those benches, but the crowds didn’t care. The Colosseum could hold up to 50, 000 grown men. That’s a lot of people to have in one place! The Emperor of the time even had a tunnel built under Rome from the Imperial Palace to the Colosseum! The Emperor Vespasian thought up the idea for the Colosseum. Emperor Vespasian was the emperor after Nero, only because he had been a general for Nero and the people of Rome liked him. Vespasian died as the Colosseum was three quarters of the way finished. His son Titus opened the Colosseum in 80 A.D. A year before that, the workers were told that the Colosseum was to be opened in a year’s time. That seemed like an almost impossible task to complete. More workers were brought in to finish the stone work and add the final touches. On the day that the Colosseum opened, the crowds were phenomenal. Everyone rushed to see the opening of this grand amphitheatre. It was the biggest one anyone had ever seen. Titus was applauded by thousands of cheering and clapping people.