The Vivarium was the location where the ancient Romans kept wild animals used in their entertainments

Colosseum

The Colosseum, or the Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre , is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire...

. It was near the Prenestina Gate

Porta Maggiore

The Porta Maggiore , or Porta Prenestina, is one of the eastern gates in the ancient but well-preserved 3rd-century Aurelian Walls of Rome....

 of Rome. During the first siege of Rome in the Gothic Wars, the Goths broke part of the wall of the Vivarium in an attempt to enter the city. This attempt failed because the regular city wall

Aurelian Walls

The Aurelian Walls is a line of city walls built between 271 and 275 in Rome, Italy, during the reign of the Roman Emperors Aurelian and Probus....

 manned by Byzantine soldiers was behind the Vivarium wall and Belisarius

Belisarius

Flavius Belisarius was a general of the Byzantine Empire. He was instrumental to Emperor Justinian's ambitious project of reconquering much of the Mediterranean territory of the former Western Roman Empire, which had been lost less than a century previously....

 attacked the rear of the Goths near the Prenestina Gate.

According to the writer Charlotte Anne Eaton, a second, smaller vivarium was located near the Colosseum and was connected to it via a low vaulted passage. This vivarium was located below the convent of St. John and St. Paul on the Cœlian Mount

Caelian Hill

The Caelian Hill is one of the famous Seven Hills of Rome. Under reign of Tullus Hostilius, the entire population of Alba Longa was forcibly resettled on the Caelian Hill...

. This vivarium was a practical necessity because of the considerable distance between the Vivarium by Porta Maggiore and the Colosseum.