15,697
edits
Changes
→A Lingering Colossus
While Vespasian and his successors received the favor of the Romans for this monumental contribution, a lasting remnant of Nero's disastrous rule still stood close by. That colossal sculpture of Sol had been preserved by Vespasian and moved closer to the main entrance of the Flavian Amphitheater. As time passed, this prominent Colossus became so inextricably connected to the amphitheater that soon after the name of "Colosseum" came into common parlance.
So, while the efforts to manifest the impressive amphitheater was the work of the Flavian emperors, it some regards one could suggest that the legacy of Nero also lives on with this connection to his Colossus. This massive statue, though, has long since disappeared. Last mentioned in an illuminated manuscript from the fourth century CE, it is unclear what happened to the Sol sculpture. <ref> <i>Calendar of 354</i> http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/index.htm#Chronography_of_354</ref>. It was most likely destroyed or melted down; its pedestal adjacent to the Colosseum, however, still stands today.
====References====
