The Colosseum

The Colosseum and the Forum

The Colosseum, or the Flavian Amphitheater, was built in the late 1st century A.D.  It was used to display gladiator games, races, naval battles, and other (frequently gruesome) displays.  It was used for 400 years before it became to old to use (something the builders of the MetroDome might want to keep in mind).  It was an engineering marvel.  People who plan sports stadiums and arenas today still use the Colosseum as a good example of how to arrange exits and pathways so that people can exit quickly--an important issue both in the case of fires or emergencies, and in trying to handle large exoduses at the ends of games and concerts.

An overhead view of the Colosseum from Google Maps.  The people look mighty little!

Sunday morning, after breakfast, I headed toward the Colosseum and the Forum.  I didn't actually go into the Colosseum, although I did walk around it.  It was really expensive to get into the Colosseum.   Then, if you wanted to get onto the upper levels, you had to pay extra for a tour.  That just didn't seem worth (and also I was tired, and hot, and kind of cranky by that point).

You can see the size of the levels, compared to the size of the people.

The Roman paving system is really quite impressive.  I believe that the lava paving stones here are the authentic, two thousand year old road surface.  So, like I said, it is pretty impressive, compared to the speed with which pot-holes show up in the modern road.  However, they are really kind of hard to walk on.

The Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine.  The people standing around in groups there, are all standing in the little spots of shade created by those few trees on the right.  There really wasn't shade any where else.  And it was hottish.

I did take some pictures of the interior of the Colosseum through the different entrance archways.  I thought that made for some interesting pictures.  I was a little bit jealous of the folks standing in the shady archways, but it didn't look like much fun to be climbing the stairs or to be standing in the middle of the Colosseum in the direct sun.

This short video has rather annoying music but it is interesting because it shows the interior of the Colosseum, as well as close ups of the Arch, from a high point.

The Flavian Amphitheater/ Roman Forum from Josh Glowicki on Vimeo.

The History Channel has little short clips (one or two minutes each) on different parts of Roman history--I think that they are clips from a show.  You have to watch a short commercial, but the videos are quite interesting.  This video talks about the building of the Colosseum.  This one talks about the Games.  They are both quite interesting.