Condos and Colosseums

The Emperor Vespesian opened the Colosseum with a great deal of pomp in the year 80. Gladiators fought pitched battles upon the floor of the mighty building, animals were slaughtered in their hundreds, and all this unfolded as 10s of thousands of spectators watched the primeval struggles unfold, while they ate, drank and made merry!

It was Rome at its finest (or worst depending on your place in history).

The Colosseum was abandoned for gladiatorial combat when the Empire shed its pagan ways and became an amphitheater of sorts. But even what dignity that brought the mighty structure ended in about the year 800, for the monks who controlled it turned it into a giant condominium, renting out space to lackless Romans. Her arena was soon turned into a market place to sell all the food and animals and trivial this's and that's.

Thus the mighty must always fall. More here.