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Colosseum

The Ancients

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The Myth of Nero's Palace

The Colosseum was built as a response to Nero and also paid for by the money from the destruction of Jerusalem in the sack of the Jewish temple. Vespasian had to address this palace but do so in a way that kept the common people happy. It's been described by one author as a kind of amusement park in downtown Rome. The amphitheater is on the one hand a retort to Nero but an alignment with the good emperors of the past, specifically Augustus Claudius.

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