Worldart - Research Paper Example

The construction was completed in 80 AD under Titus, one year after the death of Vespasian (DuTemple). The building is elliptical in shape and the measure of the axis of the ellipse is 188 m and 156 m and a height of 48 meters makes it a huge building. The seating capacity of the Colosseum was very large even by present day standards (Kleiner). The 55,000 spectators could enter the building through 80 entrances distributed round the building. The building was primarily used for staging gladiator fights; other usages include display of animal hunts, public execution and dramas based on classical mythology.

The various levels of seating in the Colosseum were reserved for people with different social stature with the senators occupying the lowest level seats with the best sight (Aicher). Almost all of the construction has been carried out with travertine stone without the use of mortar. The marble stones were carved near the quarry and were put in place by iron clamps. Colosseum is still an important tourist attraction today with thousands of visitors each year. The Colosseum is of enormous interest to architecture and history students due to its unique style of construction and the history associated with it.

The study of various parts of Colosseum has revealed various astonishing facts about the culture of ancient Rome (Hopkins and Beard). The Arch of Titus is situated at the highest point of Sacra Via southeast of Forum Romanum (the Roman Forum). Domitian who succeeded his brother Titus constructed it to honor Titus’s conquest of Jerusalem. The construction was completed in 82 AD, shortly after the death of Titus. The arch is the oldest surviving arch of the Roman civilization. The arch is a large structure with a height of 15.

4 m and width of 13.5 m. The depth of the arch, 4.75 m is also very large as compared to the arches of that time. The structure mostly consists of pentelic marble obtained from the mountains northeast of Athens. The inside