that an arena capable of seat!
             ing thousands of Roman people would have to be constructed. The idea for the Colosseum was planted and the erection of this amphitheater gave the city of Rome one of its most famous structures.
             The construction of the Colosseum proved to be one of the most ambitious endeavors carried out in Roman history. Construction commenced in AD 70 by the emperor Vespasian and lasted about 10 years. The structure ranks as one of the finest examples of Roman engineering and architecture (Hennessey 850). Once the Colosseum had been built, it served as the prototype for all later amphitheaters (Wiedemann 21). Titus, the son and heir of Vespasian, ascended to the emperorship in AD 80 and commemorated the opening of the Colosseum wih 100 days of carnage involving more than 10,000 fighting men and hordes of animals, 9,000 of which perished (What Life... 142). The Colosseum was built primarily for the staging of such blood fests. The Colosseum proved to be safer for spectators; incidents of spectators being injured or killed were ver
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