#romancoliseum

November 80 A.D.

It has been over a decade since Emperor Nero’s death at his own hands. A succession of unsuccessful emperors had occurred following Nero’s death.  General Vespasian then took power to create a lasting dynasty and undo the memory of Nero’s reign. Vespasian had decided to celebrate his legacy by creating a Coliseum  conveniently located on the eastside of Palatine Hill near Emperor Nero’s palace. Unfortunately, he did not leave to see his. It was now up to his son Titus, the next successor to finish coliseum.

 The year is now 80 A.D. Titus has just finished construction of the Flavian Amphitheatre aka the Roman Coliseum this past month and in celebration has announced 100-day games event. Excitement has flooded the streets, as I hear children and adults speaking of the past day’s events. The coliseum itself it truly a sight to behold, as it encompasses a giant oval stadium arena spanning at least 6 acres, which by my estimations hold up to tens of thousands of people. An acquaintance who works in the arena invited me to take a tour of the subterranean levels and I must say I was quite impressed by the intricate design. Below the arena consisted of a network of corridors, cells, and elevators, which are used to hold prisoners, animals, and different contraptions for the day’s events.  According to their schedule, the day begins with beast hunts. I was quite surprised to see how much effort goes into the decorating the arena. For one hour the arena is just a sand pit and the next it has been fully outfitted to resemble a Forest. After the beast hunt finished, the beast fights began. As you can imagine all sorts of different animals were pitted against each other such as lion’s vs tigers or polar bear vs. seal. At this point I think they were just interested to see how a fight between beast would play out. This made me think though how much preparation had to be done and how long it must have taken to get these animals from around the world.  These displays to me were impressive in their rights but more impressive was the power of the Emperors might it displayed.

View of the Flavian Amphitheatre,  Giovanni Battista Piranesi,  Views of Rome and Environs c.1750s

Charlotte Yonge: "The doors of the pits and dens round the arena were thrown open, absolutely savage beasts were let loose upon one another--rhinoceroses and tigers, bulls and lions, leopards and wild boars--while the people watched with savage curiosity." https://americanliterature.com/author/charlotte-m-yonge/short-story/the-last-fight-in-the-coliseum