In 1992 one commentator who claimed to be able to contact Nostradamus under hypnosis even had him ' interpreting ' his own verse X. 6 ( a prediction specifically about floods in southern France around the city of Nîmes and people taking refuge in its collosse, or Colosseum, a Roman amphitheatre now known as the Arènes ) as a prediction of an undated attack on the Pentagon, despite the historical seer's clear statement in his dedicatory letter to King Henri II that his prophecies were about Europe, North Africa and part of Asia Minor.

He also had the head of the Colossus of Nero adjacent to the Colosseum replaced with his own portrait, gave it a club and placed a bronze lion at its feet to make it look like Hercules, and added an inscription boasting of being " the only left-handed fighter to conquer twelve times one thousand men ".

Immense sums, however, were spent upon public works, in carrying through the comprehensive planning that had come to fruition during his retirement, bringing water to the waterless hills in the Acqua Felice, feeding twenty-seven new fountains ; laying out new arteries in Rome, which connected the great basilicas, even setting his engineer-architect Domenico Fontana to replan the Colosseum as a silk-spinning factory housing its workers.

By the year 1000 the name " Colosseum " had been coined to refer to the amphitheatre.

Vespasian's decision to build the Colosseum on the site of Nero's lake can also be seen as a populist gesture of returning to the people an area of the city which Nero had appropriated for his own use.

In 1749, Pope Benedict XIV endorsed as official Church policy the view that the Colosseum was a sacred site where early Christians had been martyred.

Martinelli's book evidently had an effect on public opinion ; in response to Cardinal Altieri's proposal some years later to turn the Colosseum into a bullring, Carlo Tomassi published a pamphlet in protest against what he regarded as an act of desecration.

During his reign, he proceeded with several building projects in Rome, " including the Thermae Deciane or Baths of Decius on the Aventine ", which was completed in 252 and survived through to the 16th century ; Decius also acted to repair the Colosseum, which had been damaged by lightning strikes.

In the Colosseum, in what had been originally prepared for Gordian III ’ s planned Roman triumph over the Persians, more than 1, 000 gladiators were killed along with hundreds of exotic animals including hippos, leopards, lions, giraffes, and one rhinoceros.

I had seen the Forum and the Colosseum and the Vatican museum and St. Peter's.

Parts of his tale recount some extraordinary events and phenomena ; such as his stories of conjuring up a legion of devils in the Colosseum, after one of his not innumerous mistresses had been spirited away from him by her mother ; of the marvelous halo of light which he found surrounding his head at dawn and twilight after his Roman imprisonment, and his supernatural visions and angelic protection during that adversity ; and of his being poisoned on two separate occasions.

In early 2002 Dion had announced a three-year, 600-show contract to appear five nights a week in an entertainment extravaganza, A New Day ..., at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas.

Pietranik's original design had featured the Sydney Opera House on the obverse but the IOC concluded that it should be replaced by the Colosseum and a chariot rider.

) The second aureus, issued by the emperor Alexander Severus, has a picture of the Colosseum on the reverse, and had a price realized of $ 920, 000.

According to Suetonius ( Domitian, IV, 6-7 ), Domitian organised a naumachia inside the Colosseum, undoubtedly circa 85 CE, and another one in the year 89 CE in a new basin dug beyond the Tiber ; with the stone removed serving to repair the Circus Maximus, which had burnt on two sides.

This leads one to conclude that, even assuming that the Colosseum had a similar basin before construction of the hypogeum ( underground complex ), naumachiai would have been performed on only a shallow layer of water covering the surface of the arena.

The late afternoon race had its start point and finish at the Arch of Constantine, just outside the Colosseum.

He has had a long and productive career, playing with such acts as Gary Moore, Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Jethro Tull, Whitesnake, Colosseum II, Sinner, Michael Schenker, Uli Jon Roth, Rainbow, Ten, Divlje jagode and Living Loud.

Held at Tor di Valle, it was the most expensive MTV Europe Music Awards to date and the first time the Colosseum had been used for this type of event.

In antiquity, Romans may have referred to the Colosseum by the unofficial name Amphitheatrum Caesareum ; this name could have been strictly poetic as it was not exclusive to the Colosseum ; Vespasian and Titus, builders of the Colosseum, also constructed an amphitheater of the same name in Puteoli ( modern Pozzuoli ).

The name Colosseum has long been believed to be derived from a colossal statue of Nero nearby ( the statue of Nero was named after the Colossus of Rhodes ).

It appears to have been only in the 16th and 17th centuries that the Colosseum came to be regarded as a Christian site.

This seems to have been a minority view until it was popularised nearly a century later by Fioravante Martinelli, who listed the Colosseum at the head of a list of places sacred to the martyrs in his 1653 book Roma ex ethnica sacra.

In Rome, since the papacy of His Holiness John Paul II, the heights of the Temple of Venus and Roma and their position opposite the main entrance to the Colosseum have been used to good effect as a public address platform.

Naumachia in the Colosseum could therefore not have been as grand as the previous ones.

Archaeology provides no clues: the basement of the Colosseum has since been modified.

A couple of singles recorded by Episode Six for Pye Records have been produced by Tony Reeves, a renowned bassist and one of founder members of Colosseum.

Massive buildings like the Pantheon and the Colosseum could never have been constructed with previous materials and methods.

When the pair wakes up after a night on the plains, they find themselves in Rome, (" either that or these Romans have learnt to build very fast ") with their fellow villagers, who have been brought to fight in the Colosseum.

Since the papacy of John Paul II, the heights of the temple and its position opposite the main entrance to the Colosseum have been used to good effect as a public address platform.

Among those completed were the Temple of Vespasian and Titus, the Arch of Titus, and the Colosseum, to which he added a fourth level and finished the interior seating area.

* 315 – The Arch of Constantine is completed near the Colosseum at Rome to commemorate Constantine I's victory over Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge.

* July 25 – The Arch of Constantine is completed near the Colosseum at Rome to commemorate Constantine's victory over Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge.

The Flavian Amphitheatre, better known as the Colosseum, was completed during the reign of Titus and inaugurated with spectacular games that lasted for 100 days.

Construction of the Flavian Amphitheatre, presently better known as the Colosseum, was begun in 70 under Vespasian and finally completed in 80 under Titus.

It was probably in the time between these two naumachia that Domitian completed the network of rooms underneath the Colosseum that are visible today, at the same time precluding such spectacles in the arena.

His most ornate work is the lower part of the cortile of the Farnese Palace, afterwards completed by Michelangelo, a very rich and well-proportioned specimen of the then favorite design, a series of arches between engaged columns supporting an entablature, an arrangement taken from the outside of the Colosseum.

The greatest arena in the Roman world, the Colosseum, was completed around 80 AD.

It is sometimes called the feminine order because it is on the top level of the Colosseum and holding up the least weight, and also has the slenderest ratio of thickness to height.

's sat in with Creedence Clearwater Revival ( CCR ) for a jam, and were the warm up band for CCR's Jan31 Oakland Colosseum gig that became The Concert album for CCR.

A famous preacher during the Jubilee 1750, proclaimed by Benedict XIV, was Saint Leonardo da Porto Maurizio, the apostle of the Via Crucis, who set up 14 stations of the Cross inside the ruins of the Colosseum.

The Ymir, after being shot at by an armored flamethrower, ends up on top of the Colosseum.

After Colosseum II, in 1976 Neil teamed up again with ex-Gilgamesh keyboardist Alan Gowen in National Health with whom he recorded a self-titled album in 1977.

He wakes up in the Colosseum observation tower and starts roaring like a beast.

The Spartan goes through the Roman sewers and catacombs to get into the city, while the others travel on the surface to the Colosseum, where Tiberius is attending an event, at which they hope to kill him by blowing up his stand.