COLOSSEUM BUILDING INSCRIPTION

Géza Alföldy is a specialist in reconstructing ‘ghost’ inscriptions from the pin holes that once held bronze letters on inscriptions. This article (in German, but with some excellent illustrations to support the thesis) argues that the original building inscription of the Flavian Amphitheatre (a.k.a. the Colosseum or Coliseum) reads:

Imperator Caesar Vespasianus Augustus ordered this new amphitheatre erected from the spoils of war.