We all know the Colosseum in Rome, and we all know that it was the main amphitheater in the entire Roman world. For a local tour guide like me, the Flavian Amphitheater is nothing more than the office, where we go every day to work, practically. But, despite being a world famous monument, visited by around 8 million people a year, and the protagonist of even brutal events in the past (as in this case), there is still a lot to discover about the Colosseum. Let's think about what happened over the centuries, at the end of Roman civilization...

It is true, in fact, that from the end of the Western Empire in the 5th century AD, little by little the memory of Rome faded, remaining clinging only to the large and monumental vestiges that visually reminded the Romans of the Middle Ages and beyond. Unfortunately, however, the historical memory of much that belonged to ancient Rome was truly lost, due to widespread ignorance among the population and the extraordinary human ability to forget the past. For this reason, it should not surprise us that only in the fifteenth century did we really begin to understand the true function of the Colosseum as conceived by the Romans, that is, a grandiose amphitheater in which wild beasts and gladiators fought, and in which the emperors loved to bask in giving magnificent shows to the public ( like, perhaps, an impressive naumachia). And during the Middle Ages? What was the Colosseum for the Roman citizens who lived centuries and centuries after the fall of the Empire? A beautiful clue is given to us by a Bolognese notary named Armannino who, in 1325, composed a collection of myths and legends regarding Rome and beyond. Among them, he wrote his personal opinion on the origin of the term Colosseum. Even before him, the Flavian Amphitheater, as an extraordinary pagan symbol that it was, carried with it the reputation of a place inhabited by demons. But Armannino went further, stating that Colosseum derived from the Latin words Colis eum , which translated means "Do you venerate it?". In what sense? In the sense that according to him the Colosseum was nothing other than the largest pagan temple in the world! So important that the priests involved in the rites used to proclaim and invoke various demons, often showing the effigy of the most powerful to the faithful. And when a follower approached the priest and the effigy, the minister asked the fateful question: "Colis eum ?".

It's interesting to know how today we take many things for granted but how, in reality, our current knowledge derives from a millenary evolution and from a painstaking search for the right historical sources to look for. Even a very famous building like the Colosseum has its dark side, after all, not necessarily linked to the bloody events that were proposed there. Perhaps, however, precisely because of its fame, the Flavian Amphitheater in Rome has become the perfect model for legends of various kinds. Like this one I just told you!