Sometime in the fifth or sixth century A.D., a Roman consul named Decius Marius Venantius Basilius paid out of his own pocket to have the Colosseum repaired. Several columns in the stands that circled the arena — at least 20 of them, maybe more — had collapsed, crushing bleachers and balustrades. Sections of the underground chambers had been destroyed. Decius commemorated his contribution with an inscription on a stone that can still be seen not far from the monument's entrance. The damage, he wrote, had been caused by "the violence of a terrible earthquake."
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