Guide To The Colosseum and Games of Ancient Rome

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                Roman Leisure

12924                               Guide To The Colosseum In The 21st Century

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Colosseum, also known as the Flavian Amphitheatre. Today I will be telling you all about the Colosseum, and its previous uses. I will be bringing the gladiator fights, and the ancient times back to life.

As you can see, the Colosseum is huge, and I have no doubt it impresses you. Yet even though it still looks marvelous, it is but a fraction of its former glory. As a result of fires, earthquakes, and plunder, two thirds of the original building has been destroyed.

The Colosseum was originally built by Vespasian’s son, Titus. It would have taken a lot of planning and hard work, considering it was built in a valley in which there had previously been a lake, and also how quickly it was finished. The Colosseum started being built in 70 AD, by slaves. It was finished in 80 AD. It was capable of seating 45,000 spectaters, and a further 5,000 standing. There were many entrances, eighty in total. Nowadays you can only see a few of them left standing. The Romans were extremely good at dispersing large crowds quickly. People could access their seats via a Vomitaria, which is Latin for ‘rapid discharge’. The English word ‘vomit’ is derived from it. They could get everyone out in a matter of minutes. If you look above, you can see the remainders of a velerium, a retractable awning. It was made of canvas and ropes, and covered almost two thirds of the Colosseum, which is a big achievement considering its size.

There was a section for each type of citizen. The bottom row was for Roman senators, behind that, were middle class citizens, then lower class, then foreigners, and at the very back, were the slaves. The best seats were raised about two metres above the arena, for safety. Also, the animals and gladiators were kept in by a fence. Spectators would have found their seats through arches numbered I - LXXVI (1-76). The four main entrances were not numbered. This is all shown clearly in the seating plan to my right.

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The arena would have been covered in about 15cm of sand, to absorb blood. There would also be many trap doors in the arena, to let animals leap up. Sometimes, people were hired to make the Colosseum look like a real jungle, or a similar scene, using elaborate scenery, and often real plants. This would allow a theme to be put to a killing, which would make it all the more exciting.

The main thing shown in the Colosseum was the Gladiator shows. However, there were also things like animal hunts, and sometimes sea fights.

Gladiators ...

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