or Coliseum, in the ancient architecture, an oval amphitheatre, built at Rome by Vespasian, in the place where stood the baton of Nero's gilded house. The word is formed from colosseum, on account of the colossus of Nero that stood near it; or, according to Nardini, from the Italian colico. In this were placed statues, representing all the provinces of the empire; in the middle whereof stood that of Rome, holding a golden apple in her hand. The same term, colosseum, is also given to another amphitheatre of the emperor Severus. In these colisea were represented games, and combats of men and wild beasts; but there are now little remaining of either of them, time and war having reduced them to ruins.