Keith Hopkins - The Colosseum

‘A work of scholarship written with the general reader in mind… a pleasure to read’ Spectator

‘Supported by an impeccably marshalled but never obtrusive evidential base… beautifully written and highly readable’ Times Higher Education Supplement

‘The authors’ educated guesses tend to be more fascinating than the familiar Hollywood portrayal… it enriches our appreciation of the Colosseum’s magnitude and significance’ Independent on Sunday

‘This is a volume to take on any journey; it will tell you as much about the perception of ruins as it does about Rome itself’ BBC History Magazine

‘This lively book carries the reader painlessly through a complex record of legend and history. A delightful and instructive account’ G. W. Bowerstock, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

‘A splendid monograph’ Irish Catholic

‘Anecdotal, lively and enlightening, Hopkins and Beard’s book is hugely worthwhile’ Italian

‘A small gem of a book… the most engaging and entertaining biography of the site available’ Minerva

‘This lively, engaging and scholarly book brilliantly conveys the complex significance of this potent monument and of the spectacles that took place within it’ Royal Academy Magazine

KEITH HOPKINSwas Professor of Ancient History at the University of Cambridge and Vice-Provost of King’s College. He was one of the most radical re-interpreters of Roman history and culture of the last fifty years, and author of Conquerors and Slaves (1978), Death and Renewal (1983) and A World Full of Gods (1999). He died in 2004.

MARY BEARDis a Professor of Classics at Cambridge and a Fellow of Newnham College. She is general editor of the Wonders of the World series and has written widely on classical culture and its reception in the contemporary world. Her books include Classical Art from Greece to Rome with J. Henderson (Oxford, 2001), The Roman Triumph (Harvard, 2007), Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town (Profile, 2008), It’s a Don’s Life (Profile, 2009), and The Parthenon (Profile, 2010).

This updated paperback edition published in 2011

First published in Great Britain in 2005 by

Profile Books Ltd

3A Exmouth House

Pine Street

Exmouth Market

London ECIR OJH

www.profilebooks.com

Copyright © Keith Hopkins and Mary Beard, 2005, 2006, 2011

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Typeset in Caslon by MacGuru Ltd

info@macguru.org.uk

Designed by Peter Campbell

Printed and bound in Great Britain by

Bookmarque Ltd, Croydon, Surrey

The moral right of the authors has been asserted.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 84668 470 8

eISBN 978 1 84765 045 0