Five tunnels led into the Colosseum. Four were utilitarian passageways, used to convey gladiators, animals, and equipment in and out of the amphitheater’s bustling underworld. But the purpose of the fifth tunnel – elaborately decorated, and built later than the rest – is mysterious. Many scholars believe that it was the emperor’s secret entrance. This, however, is just one theory…
Further Reading
Amanda Claridge, Rome: An Oxford Archaeological Guide (2nd ed.) (London, 2010), 312-19
Nathan T. Elkins, “Locating the Imperial Box in the Flavian Amphitheatre” The Numismatic Chronicle 164 (2004), 147-57
Nathan T. Elkins, “The Procession and Placement of Imperial Cult Images in the Colosseum” Papers of the British School at Rome 82 (2014), 73-107
Rosella Rea, “Amphitheatrum” Lexicon Topographicum Urbis Romae I, 30-35
Rosella Rea, “The Architecture and Function of the Colosseum,” in Ada Gabucci (ed.), The Colosseum (Los Angeles, 2001), 99-160