This name appeared for the first time in a famous prophecy of the medieval monk Venerable Beda: “Rome will exist as long as the Colosseum does; when the Colosseum falls so will Rome; when Rome falls so will the world”. Perhaps he got the name from the enormous statue of the Emperor Nero, “the Colossus” 35 meters high, which stood right next to the amphitheatre and has now been completely destroyed.