 Hey everybody, this is Darius, Arya, or Ancient Rome Live. Today what we're going to do is we're going to take a walk around the neighborhood, the valley of the Colosseum. So, the key feature here is the Colosseum, the Flavin Amphitheater built between 70 and 80 AD. Well, we're going to take a look at a lot of structures around here to get a sense of the neighborhood and what we call the valley of the Colosseum. So, we have this iconic facade, the restoration work, the brick work that preserves the broken fabric of the external wall. That's put in 1827 by Valetier. Now, we'll stand that feature. And antiquity was the Colossus. The Colossus was originally on the valley of Hill, but it's moved over here by Hadrian. And we're told in the ancient sources they use 24 elephants to move this from the valley of Hill a couple hundred meters over here. So, when you see people sitting on this right here, this rectangular space covered with a couple of trees, this is identified as the actual base of the Colossus. So, we have to think standing right here with legs spread out about the height of the Statue of Liberty was the Colossus. And the reason why you're going to move the bronze statue that's about 120 feet high is because you're building this structure right here. So, this entire wall that we see here, the people are seated and waited. That wall with all those little niches were storage for the crane and all kinds of contraptions used in the games of the Colosseum. That's acts the podium of the Temple of Venus. So, we want to consider as we walk around here that the Colosseum today we kind of experience it in isolation. But in reality if we look around there are several other features that draw you into what was once an incredible experience of going to the Flavian amphitheater. So, again, we've already seen the remains of the Temple of Venus and Rome first built by Hadrian. He moves the Colossal Statue to make room for this temple which is built on the valley of Hill and he moves that Colossal Statue right here. So, we don't have the Colossal Statue but this framework is such this rectangular area is created because the excavators find the remains of the base of the Colossal Statue. It disappears sometime in the Middle Ages. We can walk over here to another area which is part of the Archaeological Park of Parco Colosseum. So, right over here in this patch of grass we can get these views of a series of walls as we walk along here. So, these are truncated walls. They've been cut down to the nub and these rooms right here one and two and three and so forth are actually a series of rooms that once surrounded the stagnum of Nero. So, in our walk around the Valley of the Colosseum we can also consider what came before the Colosseum. What came before the Colosseum was that expansive sprawl of the Domus Aurea going all the way from the Palatine Hill, that hill in the distance, coming down here into the Valley of the Colosseum. So, from pavilions and portions of the palace of Nero built after the fire of 64 down here you had the stagnum. So, the stagnum is simply a large pool and there's going to be a lot of natural runoff coming into this natural valley. And around that stagnum you had the construction of pavilion spaces. This is a place for pageantry. This was a place to have your guests come and be entertained focused on this large pool where you could boat around or you could swim. So, when you get the construction of the Colosseum famously we know that the stagnum is drained and the space is then going to be used as the foundation for the creation of the amphitheater. What you then have is no longer the use of these pavilion spaces. So, the walls are literally shaved down and buried. So, it's just enough to be hidden away on the ground level then for the entrance into the Colosseum for the people in ancient times. It's the excavators that are poking around here that ultimately rediscover these walls. And that's why they're slightly below the ground level, not just up to date but the ground level of antiquity. This is a huge, huge piece of information that brings us close to the time of the infamous Nero. It brings us close to the time of the Domus Audia. Of course, the Domus Audia continued beyond the stagnum and on the Esquiline Hill you have the portion of the Domus Audia that you can visit today. And that's underneath, it's buried, so it's underneath the Baths of Trajan on the Esquiline Hill. So, portions of the Domus Audia are going to be erased over time. And this one right here is part of that cycle of work to erase all signs of the Domus Audia. Beyond the Domus Audia, we can see right over here a bit of a round wall. And that round wall is the outline for the Metasudons. And the Metasudons, that basically means the sweating turning post. So, a meta is a turning post, you see them in the Circus Maximus around which the Cherries would race. But here we are at what we call a critical juncture, a religious juncture point. You're going along the Palatine Hill and at this point you were turning to go up the Via Sacre. You're turning to go up into the Roman Forum. Think about all those religious processions. Think about the triumphal procession. So, this was a marker. And the Domusianic fountain stood, at least in its brick remains. So, it was stripped of its marble. What it stood here all the way into the time of Mussolini. Only then was it erased. Only then was it dismantled. But excavations by Tina Panella revealed that underneath there's an earlier Metasudon. And that was built in the time of Augustus. So, we have a very important area, a very important point in the city of Rome. And that's going to remind us then of that Metasudons, of that legacy. And of course, it's dismantled, but the imprint is still visible in the grass today. So, again, in this area of the Colosseum, the Valley of the Colosseum, there are so many other things that are going on here. Let me point out the, basically the conclusion of an archaeological dig. And what we have here then is mostly covering. But what they've done in the recent months is the archaeologists managing the Colosseum itself. They say, look, that outer wall there continued over here. So, we're missing the outer wall on this side of the Colosseum because it collapsed due to earthquakes. And the building materials carted away. We know some of them are documented. Some of the blocks of stone are carted away to make the facade of St. Peter's. So, what we have here now is a recent study of this area. And what they want to do in the conclusion of this study and small excavation. And this is several hundred meters that's being revealed and studied. They want to distinguish the pavement here. So, the pavement today outside here is these little San Pietrini. This is the pavement of the modern city around many structures in Rome, including St. Peter's, but also for the Colosseum. They're going to distinguish it when they cover this up. And the pavement will be different because the archaeological governing body of the Colosseum wants the general public to know that actually beyond this fence right here, that was originally you were inside the Colosseum. So, there's definitely going to be a lot of work that's conducted in future months for this project. And I think that the end-all result is going to be really interesting and it's going to really improve and enhance the experience of the tourist that's coming to the city. We can pivot over here and we can see better now to the right, the Temple of Venus in Rome. And we look down the street and we see the Arch of Titus where the Colossus would have been. And then we have the Palatine Hill and then we're looking here at the final arrival, the last monument in the Valley of the Colosseum which is the Arch of Constantine. And the Arch of Constantine is famous because so much of the artwork will come over here. So much of the artwork is going to actually be borrowed from other monuments. This is one of these famous standout triumphal arches. And it's going to be constructed by Constantine once he defeats Maxentius. So, it's a late addition but like the Medesudans is here at that critical juncture, you go through this arch and then you turn left and go up to the Palatine Hill. So, you can take a look at some of the features right over here. So, let's take a look at the Arch of Constantine. This is the last great imperial arch that's constructed. And what we have here is several features, several bits of artwork that will be reused for this arch. We have just to re-carve the head of the emperor for these panels originally attributed to an Arch of Marcus Aurelius. We have barbarians. And Constantine in defeating Maxentius doesn't defeat barbarians but here they are quite possibly from the form of Trajan which celebrates the conquest of the Dacians. And those are Dacians that we have in the attic. We have dedicatory inscription which does not mention the Christian god that later Constantine will boast of helping him defeat Maxentius but we do have this important inscription that details a divine force that did assist him in his victory. And down we have these roundels that actually show the emperor hunting. This is attributed to a monument of Hadron. And again, all you need to do is re-carve the face of the emperor to make it then a product of Constantine. But it's this narrow relief that we see here beneath the roundels. Here is the Battle of the Milvian Bridge and here's the victorious moment of Constantine. This is going to be contemporary. This is going to be carved for Constantine. And this particular freeze then winds its way around the entire arch. We've got reused columns that frame these scenes. And down below you have the pedestals and we took a close look. They're actually going to be temporarily carved and depict victory tooria with her wings. In the inner arcade we have something on a grand scale. The victorious emperor, this is quite possibly attributed to the time of Trajan. So we've got great art work in this arch that adds to the grandeur of the area of the valley of the Coliseum. Up on this hill you'd have the remains of the temple of Claudius the god on the Caelian hill. So we're getting a great 360 view of the valley of the Coliseum. Here is our Palatine hill and we can sneak a view again of the temple of Venus and Rome. Extra joining me for this walk around the valley of the Coliseum. 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So we hope you join us. I'm Darius Ari. I'm an archaeologist. We have a great team and we're happy to share all this history with you within the public spaces, within the private access spaces, within contemporary life in Rome and Italy.