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The Quintessential monument of ancient Rome, The Colosseum (70-80 AD), known in ancient times as the Flavian Amphitheatre, commemorates the dynastic name of emperor Vespasian (69-79 AD) who began the project and his son Titus (79-81 AD) who completed it. The current name of the amphitheatre first appears in the writings of the Venerable Bede (c. 673-735 AD), who quotes an Anglo-Saxon pilgrim's prophecy: 'While the Coliseum stands, Rome shall stand; when the Coliseum falls, Rome shall fall; when Rome falls, the world shall fall.' The amphitheatre was constructed, as most ancient roman structures were, with a core of brick tufa (an indigenous stone of Rome) surrounded by a shell of travertine. The exterior wall has four stories, of which we see pictured here the second and third. The lower three stories have rows of arches decorated with engaged columns of the three classical orders: Doric on the lowest story, Ionic on the middle and Corinthian on the top. The exterior dimensions of the wall are 188m length, 15m breadth, circumference 527m and height 50m
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