The Colosseum

The Roman Colosseum is likely one of the most photographed and recognized structures in the world.  It's ancient, it's big and it's full of history. Maybe not "great" history. Or "nice" history, but it has history all the same.

I've stumbled onto multiple ways to spell it (much like Majorca in Spain I found out) but I've decided to stick with Colosseum for now. Blogger doesn't like it. Word doesn't like it. But I really don't care much.

The Roman Colosseum - also known by it's lesser name Flavian Amphitheater - was started in 70AD and completed in 80AD.  It's mainly built of concrete and stone and at one time had some impressive marble on it. The Vatican "recycled" that marble and is now housed at the Vatican on some wall some where.

 

Side note: The Vatican, it turns out, "recycled" a lot of marble from multiple locations throughout Rome and other countries.

The Colosseum was, in it's day, a sporting arena. In fact, the word "arena" comes from the days from which the "games" were played there. The floor was essential covered in sand, "arena" in Latin, and thus the modern word arena is created. We learned about a lot of words we use today that basically came from Latin and back from the ancient times. Fascinating stuff, I tell ya. The Colosseum could hold up to 80,000 spectators and like many things during that time, your station in life, or wealth, dictated where you sat.

This cross shows where the emperor would sit. Essentially 50 yard line on the field. Slaves and others with a lesser lot in life would stand on the top floors. The Colosseum had 4 levels and as you got higher, the less wealthy you were. Not a lot has changed in 2000 years.

The floor is now completely gone. Exposed is the two-level subterranean network of tunnels and cages where gladiators and animals were held before the contests began. Eighty vertical shafts provided instant access to the arena for caged animals and the like. They've built a small portion of the floor out to give everyone a better understanding of what it may have looked like back then. I tried to get a photo of the floor with people on it to better show the scale of how large this place was.

The Colosseum is probably most popular for the Christian games they played there.  The tour guide we had didn't go into much detail, but she did recount that it was, at the time, a great spectacle for a Christian to fight either a beast of some sort (usually a lion) or one of the army's best gladiators.  The crowd would often decide if the "contestant" lived or died. Brutal things went on here in the form of entertainment.  Something we really can't comprehend in our time.

They have unearthed several artifacts from the Colosseum and have them on display.  As we walked through the halls (with thousands of our closest friends) I was struck, again, with just how talented and skilled the people in Rome were.  They built masterpieces with their bare hands and had little technology to do so.  It fascinated me to see the beauty in their work.



This piece below had just recently been discovered and put on display.  They aren't quite sure who was riding this horse, or why it was in the Colosseum, but it's another magnificent piece of history.

This photo they had next to it kinda showed the process they went through in digging it out and restoring it.

 The outside of the Colosseum had many statues of important people of the time, Popes, Emperors etc.  These heads were all that were found of those statues.

Misc artifacts that were found throughout the Colosseum during much of the excavation.  At one point the Colosseum was filled with water. One of the emperors wanted a lake and so flooded the area with water and much of the Colosseum and a good part of the forum were under water. In fact, in one of the temples in the forum you can see lines on the columns where chains were put and the conquers (I can't remember who) tried to pull down the temple by toppling the columns. They were unsuccessful.

I don't have any photos of the Colosseum from my trip 28 years ago. I'm really unsure as to why. It seems like even back then a photo of that building would have been important to me. But who knows. I have plenty now.

This little shadow reminded me of Marvin the Martian for some reason. I had to take a shot of it.

Tomorrow I'll regale you with stories and photos of the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. Lot's of ruins and stories (most of which I don't remember) to share.