Colosseum
The Colosseum (Flavian Amphitheater) is still the largest amphitheater in the world today, it was commissioned by the emperor Titus Flavius Vespasian who to build it chose the area between the Palatine, Esquiline, and Celian hills, previously occupied by the artificial lake of the Domus Aurea of Nero. Its construction began in 70 AD and ended in 80 AD under the empire of Titus, son of Vespasian.
The building, intended for fights, games between gladiators (munera), simulations of hunting ferocious and exotic animals (venationes), and naumachia (naval combats), is composed of four overlapping architectural orders; the first three are made up of eighty arches framed by semi-columns, the fourth is divided into panels interspersed with windows. In the last order, masonry and wooden supports were inserted to support an immense tarpaulin (velarium) which served to shelter spectators from the sun and rain.
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