How did the Romans flood the coliseum?

Answer 1

The Romans entered the Colosseum by any one of its 64 doorways, depending upon class. The imperial party and VIPs entered by four reserved doorways, the rest of the spectators entered by the remaining 60.

Answer 2

The ancient Roman Colosseum was built for the most part for gladiator fights. The arena, however, had the ability to be flooded so that mock re-enactments of naval battles (naumachia, plural naumachiae) could take place. Gladiators were not used because they fought in the gladiatorial games, which were separate, and because much larger numbers of combatants were used for the naumachia. The various types of gladiatorial contests combats were individual, except for one and even this involved only one retarius and two secutores. Naumachiae could involve thousands of people. Because the Colosseum was limited in size and when flooded the water was shallow, mock vessels were used and the fighting occurred mostly with the combatants fighting with their feet on the floor.

Most naumachiae were not held in amphitheatres due to the size of the basin needed for full scale re-enactments. Only three were held at the Colosseum and all of them were held by two of the emperors of the Flavian dynasty, which built the Colosseum. Another one was held in another amphitheatre. Three were held in artificial basins and one was held in a lake.

The first known naumachia was given by Julius Caesar in Rome in 46 BC. He had a massive basin dug by the river Tiber which was capable of hosting full scale warships of the smaller type (biremes). It was said that it had 2000 combatants and 4000 rowers, who were prisoners of war. In 2 A.D. Augustus also had a basin dug by the river and his naumachia had 30 vessels ships, with rams, a number of smaller boats and 3000combatants. In 52 Claudius gave a naumachia with 50 ships on a lake not far from Rome. In 57 Nero was the first to give a naumachia in an amphitheatre. He had a wooden amphitheatre built especially for the occasion. It location was not specified by Suetonius. In 80, held gave two naumachiae, for the inauguration of the Colosseum in 80 AD, one in the Augustus' basin,, and the other in the amphitheatre (Dion Cassius, LXVI, 25, 1-4). Domitian held a naumachia at the Colosseum in 85 AD, and another in 89 AD in a new basin dug by the Tiber.

Answer 3

They redirected water from the aquaducts into the collesium, and eventually it would fill up. Eventually the stone would corrode.They did it for sea battle renacments.