What really gets me is he carves their names into a structure and adds the date. The date was 23... As if 23 means anything to a structure that was built by people who were around in the actual year 23.
After the institution of the Roman Empire, regnal dates based on the emperors' terms in office became more common. Some historians of the later republic and early imperial eras dated from the legendary founding of the city of Rome (ab urbe condita or AVC).[32]
So it'd be more like the ninth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius.
Italy's culture minister says a tourist who was filmed carving his and his girlfriend's names into the Colosseum in Rome should be "identified and sanctioned".
If only he left behind some permanent evidence of his identity.
Tbf, Italy (or rather Rome) did not take care of the Colosseum for the most part of its history. Heck, carving your name and/or a penis into it pretty much has a tradition now, and as much as I hate destruction of historical or cultural objects the Colosseum is probably one of the monuments where it hurts the least. That still doesn't make it legally or morally right, but it's not as bad as it could be.