But some flowers growing there mystified him. They were so rare they were found nowhere else in Europe.
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DPug6chX4AEWFY5.jpg)
Deakin proposed that the plants had been brought as seeds on the fur of animals like lions & giraffes, brought from Africa to perform & fight in the arena.
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DPuhQ-UX4AAd7_Y.jpg)
Deakin opens his volume by calling the plants growing in the arena ‘a link in the memory’ that ‘flourish in triumph upon the ruins’.
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DPuhfI_WkAA_5AB.jpg)
It had served as a quarry, a fortress, a bull ring & a place of worship. It had been struck by earthquakes 5 times.
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DPuhmqkW4AA3JAB.jpg)
At the beginning of C18th, the Colosseum was officially consecrated & a hermitage was built on the stands, with stations of the cross around the outside.
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DPuh3r_WAAAV5M_.jpg)
“This spectacle of the world, how it is fallen! How changed! How defaced! The path of victory is obliterated by vines”
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DPuh_4ZWsAEiLIH.jpg)
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DPuiJMqXUAAY--y.jpg)
Here, where the dames of Rome their yellow hair
Wav’d to the wind, now wave the reed and thistle
Full poem: eapoe.org/works/poems/co…
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DPuig4IWkAEuqkH.jpg)
Plantlife was so abundant there that at certain times, peasants had to pay for permission to collect the hay & herbs that grew among the ruins.
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DPuioHKWAAAyfl7.jpg)
Pink dianthus grew down in the galleries, while white anemones grew in the stands during Spring.
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DPujEPPWAAAJAyn.jpg)
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DPujLg_WkAEj8oH.jpg)
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DPujNIHXUAAxnMb.jpg)
Meanwhile Turner’s The Colosseum, Rome, by Moonlight (1819) shows an almost tropical garden growing in the arena’s shadows.
#RuinsInArt
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DPuj__2XUAAnLJy.jpg)
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DPukERKWAAAZuwk.jpg)
He beautifully captures the abundant greenery growing in the Colosseum’s stands, as well as its lost history as a place of Christian worship.
#RuinsInArt
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DPukN7UWAAAK9RB.jpg)
The clean-but-classical design of the The Altare della Patria or "wedding cake" monument in Rome shows their desired look.
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DPukp-fX4AAhX9h.jpg)
The Colosseum's days as a wild & overgrown place came to a close.
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DPulBbOXkAEPWZw.jpg)
“Nature liked to dress poetically the venerable walls by mitigating their sternness with the graceful ornament of plants and flowers… now archaeological cupidity has destroyed everything”
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DPulSgJXUAA1_0E.jpg)
A study between 1990-2000 found 243 distinct species still growing there, although this number is scarcely half what Deakin observed in the C19th.
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DPulbDXW0AAlbQe.jpg)
But whether these came here on the pelts of lions, we may never know for sure.
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DPul2k5W0AAYJeE.jpg)
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DPumGMBW0AAd9mA.jpg)
Other parts, like the plantlife & the later historical stages of the ruin, are deemed “improper”, & are removed.
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DPumMn5WkAEqanz.jpg)
Can we undertake valuable conservation work & also keep the romance of old ruins, their use as inspiration for artists & the stories hidden in the layers of their history?
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DPumoUhXkAIACik.jpg)
Christopher Woodward, In Ruins: books.google.co.uk/books/about/In…
Richard Deakin, Flora of the Colosseum: archive.org/details/florac…
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DPunJomX4AAqdZN.jpg)
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DPuoXK6WkAAN_6u.jpg)