Naval battles in the Roman Coliseum?

The great Roman Colosseum was a masterpiece that allowed Emperor Vespasian to maintain the splendor of the Roman Empire even after the crisis left by Nero and his eccentric and crazy ideas.

The coliseum began to be built between 70 and 72 AD under the Emperor Vespasian and was completed after his death by his son Titus around AD 80. However, over the years the following emperors made modifications such as the construction of the hypogeum under the reign of the younger son of Vespasian named Domitian.

Great and terrible spectacles were held in that stadium; what was seen there went from executions to combat between men and beasts. There was no doubt that the coliseum was in that time one of the most recurrent places in the Roman Empire, used for more than 500 years in which most times spectacles were celebrated for many days.

The Coliseum was flooded

The technology used for its construction even these days leaves archaeologists with many questions. One of them was naval battles which are only known through writings of ancient historians who tell us about this show, in the death of a large number of prisoners who arrived which could be up to 4000 per show. Even in modern times it would require cutting-edge technology to flood a stadium like that, even though these shows only occurred in the first years of the coliseum, before the aforementioned modifications. However, under the coliseum there were canals that were filled with water from the nearest rivers and that allowed the coliseum to flood in a matter of hours. To help the boats stay afloat with little depth the Romans built boats with flattened bases thus making the show possible.

The technology and ingenuity of the Romans continue to surprise the world even these days and will continue to do so for a long time.