Colosseum opens to Commodus Passage – History Blog

For the first time, the Colosseum Archaeological Park has opened to the public the Passage Commodus, an underground vaulted walkway that leads directly to the royal box of the Flavian Amphitheatre.

This passage connects the royal box at the southern end of the Colosseum’s short axis with the exterior. According to production marks on the wall tiles, the walkway was built during the last years of the reign of Domitian (81-96 AD) and Trajan (98-117 AD), when major modifications were made to the Colosseum’s plumbing system and underground structure.

The corridor is not a straight line. It has three branches: two short branches running east-west and a north-south channel connecting them. It has skylights at intervals for lighting and ventilation. The eastern branch leads to an unknown destination, perhaps a place where gladiators trained. It is richly decorated with ornate stucco boxes and marble slabs, and the walls and ceiling are covered with frames and bases for the walls, creating an architectural effect.

Later, the marble was removed and stucco decorations with plant, animal, gladiator and mythological motifs were added. There are scenes depicting Ariadne’s abandonment by Theseus and her marriage to Dionysus; arena scenes, including boar hunting and bear fights.

Its connection with Commodus does not lie in its construction, as its construction predated his reign (180-192 AD). According to King Herod roman history On 1.8.4-6, Commodus was attacked by assassins in this passage, a plot instigated by his sister Lucilla, who was ostensibly jealous that Commodus’s wife had precedence over her in the palace.

Commodus also allowed his sister to retain imperial honors. She continues to occupy the throne of the theater, and the sacred fire is brought before her. But when Commodus married Crispina, custom required that the front seats of the theater be assigned to the queen. Lucilla found this intolerable and considered any honor to the queen an insult to her. But knowing full well that her husband Pompey was loyal to Commodus, she said nothing about her plans to seize control of the empire. Instead, she tested the affections of a wealthy young nobleman, Quadratus, with whom she was rumored to have secretly slept. She complained constantly about this problem of imperial priorities, and soon persuaded the young man to launch a conspiracy that would bring destruction to himself and the entire Senate.

While selecting allies among the distinguished senators, Quadratus persuaded Quintianus, a bold and reckless young senator, to hide a dagger under his robe and find the right time and place to stab Commodus. As for the rest, he assured Quintianus that he would settle the matter by bribery.

But the assassin, standing at the entrance to the amphitheater (it was dark there, and he hoped to escape detection), drew his dagger, and shouted to Commodus that he had been sent by the Senate to kill him. Quintianus wasted no time making short speeches and brandishing his dagger. As a result, he was caught by the emperor’s guards before he could strike, and died due to the folly of prematurely revealing the conspiracy. Quintianus therefore discovered the cause of his death beforehand, and Commodus was alerted by this forewarning.

The Strait of Commodus was discovered in 1810-1814, when Rome was ruled by Napoleon of France. It was fully excavated after the unification of Italy in 1874 and has been studied continuously ever since. In 2020-2021, the Colosseum Archaeological Park launched a stucco restoration project, and in 2024-2025 a wider project to repair damaged and collapsed vaults, walls and decorative surfaces. Now it is stable enough for the public to visit safely, thanks to new metal supports, accessible walkways and a new lighting system that uses projectors to simulate the natural light that originally illuminated the Emperor’s path through skylights.

The channel will be open from October 27th. Opening hours are 1:00-4:00 on Mondays and Wednesdays, with fixed guided tours at 1 pm for Spanish, 2 pm for Italian, and 3 pm for English.

The park has produced a fantastic video with footage of the newly reopened passage and a digital recreation of the ancient passage.