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The Colosseum was built:

1) to provide an amphitheatre (arena) which would be the main venue for gladiatorial games;

2) as a replacement for the first part-stone amphitheatre in Rome which had been inaugurated by Augustus in 29-30 BCE and which burned down in 64 AD (the construction of the Colosseum started in 70 AD).

3) to reclaim the area in front of Nero's enormous palace (the Domus Aurea, Golden House) for public use;

3) to celebrate the Roman victory against the Jews in the revolt of the First Roman-Jewish War (66-73 AD). The project was financed with the proceeds of the spoils of war of that conflict and was built by 10,000 enslaved Jewish war captives;

4) to celebrate the grandeur of emperor Vespasian who commissioned the project.

The actual name of the Colosseum was Flavian Amphitheatre (Amphitheatrum Flavium) because Vespasian who commissioned it, Titus, who completed it, and Domitian who further developed it were emperors of the Flavian dynasty. The name Colosseum has long been believed to be derived from a colossal statue of Nero nearby (the statue of Nero was named after the Colossus of Rhodes.

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12y ago

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