3 September 2026 · /p/2026-09-03
The Exits Still Have a Job
Convenience is whether the plan gets in the way of use.
A public work fails convenience when the plan gets in the way of use. Vitruvius writes that test in De Architectura 1.3.2: convenience when the arrangement presents no hindrance to use. The Colosseum still has to meet it. Visitors still walk in. They still have to walk out.
The technology is the frame that carries the seats and then empties them. Britannica describes the Colosseum as a freestanding structure of stone and concrete, with barrel vaults and groin vaults. The facade and main frame are travertine; the secondary walls volcanic tufa; the inner bowl and arcade vaults concrete. The same encyclopedia’s article on the arcade gives the count on the face: eighty arcaded openings on each of the first three stories. Britannica’s article on the amphitheatre says the seating galleries were divided into wedge-shaped sections by radial walks that led to the many exits, the vomitoria. A separate Britannica note is plainer still: ancient Roman vomitoriums were “entrances and exits to stadiums.” The word is Latin and comes from a verb for spewing out; Macrobius (Saturnalia 6.4.3) says people still used it of the spectacles, where the crowd pours into the seats. The passages poured the crowd through.
Teaching is that page, handed to someone who will only keep one sentence. The sentence is the word on the building. A vomitorium is a passage that empties the seats. The exits still have a job.
PRIMARY SOURCES
Vitruvius, De Architectura 1.3.2, Morgan 1914: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0073%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D3%3Asection%3D2
Macrobius, Saturnalia 6.4.3, Latin text, LacusCurtius: https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Macrobius/Saturnalia/6*.html
SECONDARY SOURCES
Britannica, “Colosseum”: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Colosseum
Britannica, “arcade”: https://www.britannica.com/technology/arcade
Britannica, “amphitheatre”: https://www.britannica.com/technology/amphitheater
Britannica, One Good Fact: https://www.britannica.com/one-good-fact/what-exactly-happened-in-ancient-roman-vomitoriums