What happened
The Colosseum, the Flavian Amphitheatre, was built in Rome between about AD 72 and 80.
Background
It was begun under the emperor Vespasian and inaugurated by his son Titus, funded partly by spoils from the Jewish War. The largest amphitheatre of the Roman world, it held on the order of 50,000 spectators, though estimates vary.
Consequences
It hosted gladiatorial games, beast hunts, and public spectacles for centuries. Later damaged by earthquakes and quarried for stone, it survives as an icon of Rome and Roman engineering and a major monument today.