Was the coliseum in Rome ever flooded?

Question

To have a show with ships battling inside the coliseum.

Answer 1

Yup, for exactly what you said... I have been there.

Answer 2

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RE:
Was the coliseum in Rome ever flooded?
To have a show with ships battling inside the coliseum.

Answer 3

Apparently it was flooded, but some historians, scholars and archaeologists think this is a legend. The floor of the Colosseum was of wood, and the water may have drained out through the boards if it was flooded.

Some scholars think the 'ships' were fake ships on wheels, rather than real ships floating in water.

So, the jury is out as to whether this is true or not.

Answer 4

The Colosseum was designed from the beginning to be flood-able. Scenery could also be raised from the arena floor, making "forests" for animal hunts, or "islands" for naval battle.

The Colosseum was indeed flooded for naval battles as part of its opening games, but naval battles were never as popular as the run of the mill duels, and by Commodus's time the flooding feature really wasn't used.

Answer 5

There has always been a debate about whether the Colosseum itself was ever used for sea battles. I think that after Domician added the substructures, which would be after he came to the throne in A.D. 81, there never could be sea battles in a flooded naumachiae-- that's the Greek word for sea warfare. There never could have been, again, the flooding of the Colosseum. But before that substructure was added, the poet Martial says that the amphitheater could change from dry land to the sea very quickly, and we know that there were water courses which run through that valley because there is still water running under San Clemente today, so that very easily the engineers could have induced water into it, and they could have emptied the water by the same channels that took the original lake that was drained in order to install the Colosseum in the first place. So yes, in the first two years there could have been sea battles there.



The naumachiae were reproductions of famous naval battles and were staged in a suitable place, that could be flooded. The actors were generally criminals already condemned to death. These shows - which were apparently held only in the city of Rome - were extremely expensive, because the ships had to be complete in all their details and manoeuvred like real ships in battle. The Romans called these shows navalia proelia (naval battles), but they are commonly known by the equivalent Greek term naumachia, which came to indicate at the same time the show and the basin built for it.

The naumachiae often wanted to reproduce famous historical battles, like the Greeks winning at Salamina against the Persians, or the Corcyreans destroying the Corinthian fleet. The shows must have been imposing: in one naumachia a fortress was built in the middle of the basin so that the "Athenians" could land and take the "Syracusan" stronghold. The original phases of the battle had to be followed, and the public was thrilled to see the skill of the soldiers and the war apparels.

Criminals were set to fight one another; but sometimes there were troupes, like in a historical pageant, and sometimes real sailors and soldiers. Martial tells us that in the Colosseum naumachiae were staged in the first years after the inauguration, but modern archaeologists (Lugli, The Flavian Amphitheatre) state that they were later abandoned, because "a great deal of preparation was necessary to make the arena watertight to a sufficient depth (about 5' or 1.5 m) to float the ship". One can wonder how the openings could have been closed in order to flood the Colosseum, and this led some archaeologist to think that the underground of the arena was excavated only some years after the inauguration, under Domitian.

The first naumachia was financed by Julius Caesar to celebrate his triumph in Egypt. It was held in Rome, in a temporary basin axcavated in the Campus Martis, and it recreated a fake battle between Egyptians and Phoenicians. The Romans enjoyed the show immensely, therefore Augustus organized more naval battles in the Septa, a monumental complex with an open space of 300 x 120 metres, surrounded by porticoes and decorated with works of art from all the conquered countries. It os obviouus that Augustus would like to celebrate the Roman navy, because his supremacy depended upon the victory in a naval battle at Actium, where the admiral was his son in law Agrippa.
For the first time since Gaius Duilius, who had won the naval battles against Carthage, an admiral was more celebrated than a general of the army.

In Rome, Augustus and Domitian had basins excavated only for the naumachie. Augustus' basin measured 598 by 393 yards, and an aqueduct 22,000 paces long was constructed in order to bring the water from the lake today called Martignano, near the lake of Bracciano. Thirty ships and three thousand men participated in the inauguration of Augustus' naumachia, that was still in use at the time of Nero and Titus. Later Domitian built another naumachia, whose exact location is still a mystery.

Claudius had a naumachia in 52 AD on the Fucino lake, in central Italy, for the inauguration of the drainage tunnel of the lake, that drove its waters to the nearby valley through a mountain. It was a very impressive feat of engineering, that worked until the IV century AD (the lake was drained again only in the 19th century). In that naumachia rafts full of praetorians were set all around the action, to prevent escape. 19.000 gladiators made the show, and an immense crowd congregated on the mountains around to watch. On that occasion - but it doesn't seem to have been very common - mercy was promised to the survivors.

Answer 6

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Capable of seating 50,000 spectators, the Colosseum was used for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles. As well as the gladiatorial games, other public spectacles were held there, such as mock sea battles, animal hunts, executions, re-enactments of famous battles, and dramas based on Classical mythology. The building ceased to be used for entertainment in the early medieval era. It was later reused for such purposes as housing, workshops, quarters for a religious order, a fortress, a quarry, and a Christian shrine

Answer 7

Yes! And from 1500 to 1700 Piazza Navona was always flooded for ships battling
http://www.amath.washington.edu/~kutz/navona.jpg

Answer 8

Naumachiae

Answer 9

Yes. I saw it, several times, on the History channel and Discovery channel TV documentaries.

Wikipedia probably has a good write-up on this.

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Answer 10

Yes it was. It was an amazing feat of engineering, they would just block up all the entrances and flood it completely! It would have been amazing!

Answer 11

Yea actually it was flooded!!! My teachers have some video on it!!! Just found that out!!!