Flavian Amphitheater, Pozzuoli (Italy)

The Flavian Amphitheater (Anfiteatro Flavio Puteolano), located in Pozzuoli in Campania (south central Italy), shapes the third largest Roman amphitheatre on nowadays Italian soil behind the Roman Colosseum in Rome and the Amphitheatre of Capua.

Construction commenced under emperor Vespasian (69-79 AD) and apparently finished during the short reign of his son Titus (79-81 AD), likely designed by the same architects as the Roman Colosseum, over the second half of the first century AD.

The nearly intact interior features an elliptical arena that roughly measures 72 x 42m and the venue could host up to a good 50000 spectators in its heyday.

It was actually the second Roman amphitheatre to be built in Pozzuoli since there was the earlier Anfiteatro Minore, likely built in the late first century BC or early first century AD, but didn’t meet demands to stage gladiator events.

The Nemi Ships

The Nemi Ships were two large ancient Roman ships, the one bigger than the other, constructed during the reign of controversial emperor Caligula in the first half of the first century AD on Lake Nemi, hence their name, in nowadays Lazio region of central Italy.

In particular, the larger ship was an elaborate floating palace that measured about 73m long and 24m wide that contained mosaic floors, quantities of marble, statues, vines and fruit trees, heating, plumbing and even baths with hot water.

There has long been speculated that the two ships shaped pleasure barges as Lake Nemi (Lago di Nemi in Italian), apart from its small size, was held sacred so ships could not sail thereon by Roman law.

Yet, above all, both ships featured technology that many scholars ridiculed and was long thought to have developed historically much later until their recovery between 1928 and 1931 under the orders of dictator Benito Mussolini.

Unfortunately, both ships were destroyed by fire during fights between retreating German and advancing US forces on 31 May 1944 in World War II.

It has been long speculated, nonetheless, that there was at least an even larger third such ship, about 122m long, constructed under Caligula that remains sunk at the deepest part of the lake.