Inauguration of the Colosseum

The emperor Vespasian began a vast stone amphitheatre on the drained lake of Nero's palace, paid for partly with spoils from the Jewish War, and his son Titus opened it in AD 80 with a hundred days of games. Holding perhaps 50,000 spectators, it staged gladiator fights, animal hunts and executions as free public shows for more than four centuries.