On Thursday, we went to the Coliseum and the Palantine hill...they're pretty ridiculous and amazing.
When our tour guide was talking about the Coliseum, you understand that most of it is like what is portrayed in Gladiator (are you not entertained?)...but the story behind it goes much deeper than a big stadium and its ingenuity.
The Colisseum reflects the story of a budding empire and the beginnings of modern civilization. This stadium can seat about 50,000 people and was built in 8 years. That's very quick if you put into context that this was done only about 100 years after Christ's death. How'd they accomplish this? Slaves, right?
Wrong. Actually they didn't use slaves to build the Coliseum, they used ingenuity and reason. Our tour guide, Gaston, also made the argument that they didn't use slaves because they were a civilized society. When Octavian (the first Emperor) commissioned the Coliseum, he actually hired 4 separate contractors to build each section of the building; the teams that finished first would receive a large bonus.
The thought that with regards to this building is amazing. Not as much cement was used in this building as you'd imagine, either. Most of the stones that make up the Coliseum are attached simply using small copper pins. Further they also didn't use small bricks that make up much of what we see in the Coliseum today (those are manifestations of restoration attempts) but used much larger stones like in the pyramids.
Further more, they planned the stadium well. Simulations estimated that the building could be fully evacuated in 18 minutes...compare this to contemporary stadiums which take 8 minutes. Not too bad.
In this picture you can see many holes in the supports of the building. That's where the copper pins were. As time went by, people would chisel away at these supports in order to take the copper and use it elsewhere (this is also why the building started to fall apart).
The white stone in the picture above is an example of the original, while in this next picture you can see lots of red brick. This is brick used in later restoration efforts. You can also see some white stones at the top of the building, too...probably original stones.
The Romans were proud of their qualities that put them a step above the "barbarians". (I know these are the people who continuously solved political problems with murder, but they were the first major step in "our" direction). A common misconception is that the Romans would persecute and kill Christians in mass in the Coliseum. This is not true (...they did that elsewhere in Rome). The Coliseum was the location for the Imperial Games. The showcase to the citizens of Rome exhibited the magnificence of their rule.
To further enforce this idea, the Coliseum was used as a ground for the public execution of the most vile criminals--those who killed their mother and children, etc. This served as a reminder that as citizens of Rome, you do not conduct yourselves in such a manner.
More than executions, the games were day-long events building from trained animal shows to human vs. animal competitions to the gladiator matches. To switch between these different shows, the scenery could be hidden under the floor and quickly changed to a new setting in a matter of minutes. The Romans were showcasing their ability to accomplish anything. They could conquer everything: Man over nature.
The Coliseum was a brilliant display of this Roman magnificence and grandeur. The stadium wasn't just as it looks today, but actually covered in marble. Imagine the entire stadium as if it was made of marble. The stones that are left are simply a skeleton for the building...marble was used to cover the entire stadium, floor and walls.
Yes, that might seem extravagant, but it clearly shows the mindset of the Roman Empire...Greatness...and making sure that everyone else understands this.
If you're wondering what happened to all the marble in the Coliseum, simply at St. Peter's basilica. When the papacy rose to power in Rome, they searched for material to make more churches. So they systematically tore the marble off the walls (and tore down the walls themselves, in some cases) of all the relics of the Roman Empire and crushed them to use as cement. (It's why Circus Maximus is now nothing but a dirt track).
This is also why a section of the outer wall of the Coliseum that faces Rome is missing. The reason they left the section of the wall that is facing out of the city is that the Pope realized that the Coliseum was one of Rome's most impressive features, so he instructed his workers to leave intact the wall that faces the main road leading into the city, so as to impress (and intimidate) Rome's visitors.
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