The Colosseum: Rome’s Arena of Death
Join award-winning historian Tom Holland for a talk exploring Rome’s Colosseum at Dorset Museum & Art Gallery on Friday 31 January, 6:00pm – 7:00pm.
When the Colosseum was inaugurated in AD 80, it was not only the largest permanent arena in Rome, but the only one. Why had it taken the Romans so long to erect such a monument in the heart of their capital? What were the origins of gladiatorial combat, and why had they inhibited the construction of a stone arena in Rome for centuries? How did the inaugural games staged in the Colosseum offer to spectators a vision of the heavens? And why, as viscera spilled out into the sands of the great amphitheatre, did the watching emperor pray that the dead of Pompeii and Herculaneum would be content with the offering of blood?
This event is part of the public programme supporting the British Museum Partnership Exhibition with Colchester + Ipswich Museums: Gladiators of Britain (open 25 January – 11 May 2025).
Tom Holland is an award-winning historian, translator and broadcaster. His most recent book, Pax, covers the heyday of the Roman Empire. His translation of Herodotus was published in 2013 by Penguin Classics, and his translation of Suetonius comes out in February this year, also published by Penguin Classics. He is co-presenter of the world’s most popular history podcast, The Rest is History. He has written and presented several TV documentaries, on subjects ranging from the Islamic State to dinosaurs. He is a trustee of the British Library, an honorary fellow of Queens’ College, Cambridge, and has been described in The Times as “a leading English cricketer.”
Image: Copper alloy coin featuring a view of the Colosseum in Rome, Italy, AD 223 © 2024 The Trustees of the British Museum. On display as part of the British Museum Partnership Exhibition with Colchester + Ipswich Museums: Gladiators of Britain (open 25 January – 11 May 2025).
