colosseum

plural colosseums · plural rare colossea · alternative coliseum · alternative colossæum

1. alternativeAlternative spelling of coliseum.

   The colossea, games and temples declined.

   1997, David Nicholas, The Growth of the Medieval City: From Late Antiquity to the Early Fourteenth Century, Addison Wesley Longman Limited, →ISBN, page 45

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   This design was also adopted for their amphitheatres, such as the colossea of Rome and Capua, the plan of which resembles the cavea of two theatres set together so as to enclose an oval space.

   1888, The Encyclopædia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature, 9th edition, volume XXIII, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, page 224, column 1

   The temples and banking halls of Rome were turned into churches, and the deserted shells of the great monuments, the baths, the stadia and colossea, were used as quarries for buildings to come.

   1971, The Canadian Banker, page 6

1. The largest stadium in the Roman empire, located near the center of Rome.

   The Colosseum’s elliptical shape is 617 feet long, 512 feet across, and 159 feet high.

   2007, Luciano Mangiafico, Italy's Most Wanted™: The Top 10 Book of Roman Ruins, Wonderful Wines, and Renaissance Rarities, page 36

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   The Colosseum (known at the time as the Flavian Amphitheater) in Rome was the empire's greatest amphitheater. A marvel of Roman engineering, the Colosseum could hold up to 70,000 spectators.

   2002, Tracey Ann Schofield, Rome, page 39

   Perhaps no classical Roman ruin evokes the excesses of the late Empire like the Colosseum.

   2009, Holly Hughes, Frommer's 500 Places to Take Your Kids Before They Grow Up, unnumbered page