How Roman engineers could have flooded the Colosseum

It is known that the Romans staged mock sea battles as well as gladiator contests in some of its numerous amphitheatres. However, there is much speculation as to whether it would have been technically possible to flood the Empire's largest and best-known amphitheatre—the Colosseum in Rome itself—even though contemporary reports suggest it did happen. Using a modern engineering analysis, this paper concludes that while there are a considerable number of missing links in the archaeological evidence, the central 80 m long arena could have been filled in a time of 2–5 h and drained again in a similar timescale.