THE COLOSSEUM FROM LATE ANTIQUITY TILL THE END OF THE MIDDLE AGES : A CASE OF LOST IDENTITY

From the moment the Amphitheatrum Flavium was finished it was felt that it surpassed the other monumental buildings of Rome. Martial, who witnessed the building process during the principate of the Flavians and the inauguration in 80 A.D., emphasises the towering presence of the Colosseum I and rates it higher than established world wonders like the Pyramids, the marvels of Babylon and the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus.2 More than 17 centuries later another poet, Lord Byron, gives expression to the awe the Colosseum, though reduced to half of its original bulk by forces of nature and human hands, still inspired in the 19th century, as it does today: