The school

Four metres below street level lies a half oval of brick, the last remaining piece of the gladiator school that once stood here. The Ludus Magnus was the largest of four schools around the Colosseum, built under the emperor Domitian, with its own practice arena in the middle and rooms on several floors all around it where the fighters lived and slept.

That small arena was ringed by stands for a few thousand spectators, because people came to watch the training too.

From here a tunnel ran straight into the cellars of the Colosseum, so that gladiators and equipment could reach the arena beneath the street without stepping out into the city.

What you see is less than a quarter of the whole complex. The rest lies under the houses and the road across the way, uncovered in the nineteen thirties and then left buried again.

The remains along the edge show up best from the railing on the west side, where the oval of the practice arena still traces a curve through the greenery.

We head back to the square by the Colosseum and make our way to the corner near the Arch of Constantine.