The well known Coliseum or Colosseum is certainly one of the most remarkable edifices in the world. It was originally called the Flavian Amphitheatre, Flavius being the family name of the emperor Vespasian, who began it in A.D. 72. It was dedicated by Titus A.D. 80, but was finished by Domitian. It is said that the games at the dedication lasted 100 days, that 5000 wild beasts and several thousand gladiators were slain, and that a naval battle was also fought in the amphitheatre. The gladiatorial games were abolished by Honorius, adn those of wild beasts ceased in A.D. 523 during the reign of Theodoric, though a bull-fight was here exhibited at the expense of the Roman nobles in 1332. It was used as a fortress in the 11th century, and as a hospital in the latter part of the 14th century. Since that time it has furnished materials for several of the Roman palaces. Though the arena was consecrated by Clement X. in memory of the Christian martyrs, yet under Clement XI., a few years later, a manufactory of saltpetre was established here, and the outward galleries were used for rubbish and dung; and it was not till the beginning of the present century that any attempt was made to preserve or restore it. A cross now stans in the middle of the arena; 14 representations of our Lord's passion are placed round it; and a monk preaches in the rude pulpit every Friday. About two-thirds of the original building have entirely disappeared; but from what remains a good idea of the whole may be obtained. The edifice is elliptical, 584 by 468 feet in its diameters, built principally of travertine (a white limestone or marble), with large masses of brick-work in the interior. The arena is 278 feet long and 177 feet wide; and the entire arena is nearly six acres. The outer elevation consists of four stories, the whole with the entablature rising to the height of 157 feet. It is said that there was roomon the benches for 87,000 spectators, and in the upper porticoes for 20,000. But the reality far surpasses any description or drawing. The late N.P. Willis styled the Coliseum "magnificently ruined- broken in every part, yet showing the brave skeleton of what it was- its gigantic and triple walls, half encircling the silent arena, and its rocky seats lifting one above another amid weeds and ivy, and darkening the dens beneath, whence issued gladiators, beats, and Christian martyrs, to be sacrificed for the amusement of Rome."

Samuel Weed Barnum, Romanism as it is: An Exposition of the Roman Catholic System, for the Use of the American People (Hartford, Connecticut: Connecticut Publishing Company, 1871), 76-77.