Why Is It Called the Colosseum?

Its conventional scholarly name is the Flavian Amphitheatre. Ancient sources were less elaborate: the dedicatory inscription called it the Amphitheatrum Novum—the “New Amphitheatre”—while other ancient sources simply called it the amphitheatre. So why do we call it the Colosseum?

The standard explanation points to a colossal bronze statue that used to loom nearby. The nickname emerged in the Early Middle Ages, more than nine centuries after the amphitheatre was built, and by the later medieval period, “Colosseum” had become a convenient way to refer to “that big amphitheatre where that huge statue used to be.”

The statue is long gone, but somehow its name stuck.

The Building That Functioned as an Apology to Romans

The Colosseum occupies land that had once been part of Nero’s Domus Aurea, an enormous palace complex that included gardens, pavilions, and an artificial lake.

After the catastrophic fire of 64 CE, three of Rome’s 14 districts were completely destroyed and seven more were severely damaged. Emperor Nero used enormous amounts of land in the city’s heart for a new palace complex, absorbing property well beyond the footprint of his former residence at a moment when thousands of Romans had been displaced. He built himself a massive palace complex, with gardens, pavilions, a giant statue of himself, and an artificial lake that was right where the Colosseum now stands. He essentially turned central Rome into his own private estate, creating a potent symbol of Neronian excess.

Tacitus—hardly a defender of Nero—records substantial relief efforts: Nero opened public spaces and his own gardens to refugees, constructed temporary accommodation, brought in food, and reduced the price of grain. Yet rumors about the emperor’s role in the disaster persisted. The most damaging was that Nero himself had ordered the fire; another claimed that he performed a song about the fall of Troy while Rome burned. His decision to build the extravagant Domus Aurea across a vast area of central Rome after the disaster made those suspicions extraordinarily difficult to shake.

When Nero died, Rome descended into a year of civil war. The Domus Aurea became politically radioactive — a visible reminder of unpopular imperial behavior.

Emperor Vespasian’s next move, which was continued by his sons, was brilliant. They dismantled large sections of the palace, drained Nero’s lake, and built a massive public amphitheatre on that exact spot—funded largely with spoils from the war Vespasian had commanded in Judea before becoming emperor.

The Irony of the Nickname

The Flavians worked hard to overwrite Nero’s legacy in Rome. They drained his lake, demolished much of his palace, and built a monument to public access. The colossal statue was reworked (probably under Vespasian) into an image of Sol, the sun god, stripping it of its overt association with Nero.

But the standard explanation is that very statue—the Colossus of Nero—that gave rise to the nickname “the Colosseum.”

Nero commissioned the enormous bronze statue for the great vestibule of his Domus Aurea, in a large atrium that divided the city from Nero’s private villa.

The Colosseum was used for centuries, even as it was increasingly damaged by earthquakes and fires. And, after Hadrian’s move, the colossus statue stood right next to it.

By the sixth century, the amphitheatre’s centuries-long career as a venue for spectacles was ending; its last documented event dates to 523 CE. The Colossus, meanwhile, still stood nearby for at least part of late antiquity, giving people an easy shorthand for “that massive old arena.”

Sometime during the Middle Ages, the Colossus finally disappeared. Its eventual fate is unknown; it may have been melted down for bronze during one of Rome’s resource-strapped periods. But though the statue vanished, the name did not. Medieval sources began using forms of the name Coliseus or Colosseum, and at some point the name associated with the giant statue became permanently associated with the amphitheatre beside it.

By the time “Colosseum” became common usage, Nero had been dead for centuries. The Flavians had won their political battle. They’d reclaimed Nero’s land and built a monument to the people.

But in a twist worthy of a Roman myth, Nero’s statue gave their building the name that stuck.