From Nero’s Lake to the Arena

On the site of the lake of Nero’s Golden House the Flavians build an amphitheater; in AD 80 Titus opens it with games lasting a hundred days.

Transcript

Rome, the valley between the Palatine, the Caelian and the Esquiline. Under Nero, the artificial lake of his Golden House lies here. Vespasian builds an amphitheater on this spot. On the bed of the old lake, a stone oval rises.

The poet Martial writes: here, where the amphitheater rises, was Nero’s lake.

Seventeen centuries later an engraver shows it from above. It still stands today.

But in AD eighty it is new. Titus opens the amphitheater and the baths beside it.

What was once the delight of one master, the poet writes, is now the delight of the people.

The games last a hundred days.