THE ROMAN COLOSSEUM

Commissioned by the Emperor Vespasian in 72 AD, the Colosseum became Rome’s greatest amphitheatre, offering space for some 50,000 spectators at a time. Admission was free for everyone. But food and drink could be bought from vendors who had stalls in the visitor’s ranks.

In the olden days, male visitors were allowed sit on the stairs to watch the deadly games, but the women spectators had to watch standing from the balconies at the top of the building as the gladiators – men fighting with swords or in Latin the gladii – tried to kill each other.

The gladiators were usually slaves, prisoners or condemned criminals. Very rarely were they professional. But it was the emperor who decided whether the loser should be spared or killed by a simple thumbs up or down.

Sometimes, a gladiator may have played dead only to jump up and flee as soon as the bodies had been carried out of the arena. But they didn’t like cheating, so the Romans introduced referees – men in black togas and masks, who would prod and punch the defeated gladiators to check whether they were actually dead. If the weren’t, the referees would finish them off themselves – with a hammer.

Fighting was just as brutal for the animals. Elephants would fight bulls or a pair of lions might attack each other. Children standing in alcoves around the arena often whipped the animals, making them aggressive enough to fight. Something similar to today’s bull-fighting in Spain.

The Italians have dubbed the Colosseum “Swiss Cheese” because it has so many holes. Some of the gaps in the brown brick work are deliberate. The builders needed them to attach their scaffolding in order to build higher up. Other gaps are the result of vandalism. Greedy visitors removed the bricks to get to the metal beams underneath and scavenge bits of the materials to make weapons.

In 442 AD, the Colosseum was damaged in an earthquake, and in the 15th and 16th centuries its ruins were used as a quarry by the popes who recycled the travertine blocks for buildings elsewhere. That has given the Colosseum its characteristic shape today!


Adapted By: Timo Steve
2007 Shaques Publishing Inc.