Colosseum

The Colosseum in Rome is a grand amphitheater built during the reign of the the Emperor Vaspasian in the 1st century A.D. Vespasian became emperor in A.D. 69 after a period of civil war and construction began in A.D. 72. The structure has only been known as the Colosseum since the Middle Ages, and in the Roman period was simply called The Ampthitheatre.