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Published: August 3rd 2012
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Sunday morning we get up and check out of our hotel and leave to go catch our Colosseum tour. Our flight doesn't leave until the evening, but our tour will run later than our checkout time, and since we only have a backpack for the weekend, we end up carrying our backpacks through the tour. Thankfully, they were relatively light!
We meet up with our tour group right outside the Colosseum. It's an odd paradox to see such ancient structures along the busy streets of Rome, one feeling very out of place, but I'm not sure which, the old or the new. The ancient and the modern certainly sit side by side and at the same time, it's an impressively beautiful scene and certainly unlike anywhere else that I know.
Beautiful, however, is an odd and unfitting word to describe the Colosseum. Impressive, dramatic, imposing, remarkable...and there are certainly beautiful photos of the Colosseum and the architecture is phenomenal. But the Colosseum history, especially with visible artifacts, makes it an eerie reminder to a very barbaric past that you can't help but feel when you walk the hallways and steps. Although Rome is considered the birthplace of civilization, it
was certainly far less than our concept of civilized in many ways. You can easily imagine the bussle and the noise that would have been present and the underlying cries of caged animals and roaring crowds.
The entries to the Colosseum were through the arches which are marked with Roman numerals, much as our arenas are marked to indicate your seating area. The steep steps to the various levels are designed at a 35 degree angle to slow the push to your seating and control the masses and likewise, upon your exit, to hurry you along and out the door. There are four tiers of seating based on your social class with the lowest class being the obvious, highest level. I've heard the capacity estimates range from 50,000 to 87,000 people, but in either case, it's quite large!
The Colosseum or Flavian Ampitheater as it was called, took 10 years to build and was completed in 82 A.D. At its opening, the inauguration of Titus, a 100 day celebration accounted for the killing of over 5000 wild animals and 2000 gladiators. A typical day at the Colosseum might have seen a parade, a bit of circus type acts
The Palace of the last King of Italy
this palace is only about 150 years old and mock fighting in the morning as a teaser to the end of the day gladiator fights, then starved and frightened wild animals fighting in the morning, sometimes against each other, sometimes against a trained fighter, executions of criminals at noon by any number of torturous designs, various hunts or comical fights or re-enactments of battles, and then later the highlight of the day with the gladiator fights. And I use the word comical very lightly, as in dwarfs, or blind-folded, or without weapons, or with armour but with no eye holes for vision. It's a brutality that most of us have a very difficult time even imagining, let alone finding enjoyment in watching!
Gladiator combat and the barbaric sports declined with Constantine and the official declaration of Christianity, although they didn't actually end entirely until the end of the 4th century. The Colosseum fell into disrepair and eventually became used as a quarry for the marble and building materials it contained, even some stones reportedly used in building St. Peter's Basilica. Pope Benedict declared the site a religious site in 1744 and effectively ended the looting and began the restoration and preservation of the Colosseum.
Today, ironically
Morning streets of Rome
and the clock on the right reads just after 9. The city doesn't get moving until 9:30 or so. enough, it stands in direct opposition to its barbaric and violent history as a symbol of Italy's declaration against capital punishment. The night illumination of the Colosseum is typically in white light, but when a death sentence is rescended or an abolishment of the death penalty occurs anywhere in the world, the Colosseum is bathed in golden light showing Italy's support of a global ban on capital punishment.
An interesting aside, Tuscany was the first civil state in the world to do away with capital punishment in 1786. It was banned in the entire country of Italy in 1889, except for the period of 1926 to 1947, and reinstated in January 1948.
Leaving the Colosseum, we walk up the road to the Roman Forum. Here, all the important meetings and gatherings took place, celebratory marches into the city of Rome, public speeches and elections, and all the main political and religious buildings gradually surrounded this area. A number of ruins remain, and one of the most prominent being the House of the Vestas. It was quite an honor and position of power to be selected as a Vestal Virgin and you were eligible for election by the age
Leading to the Colosseum
there were ruins everywhere along the way of 6. The highest Vestal became the respected priestesses of the Roman empire. If selected, you took a vow of chastity until you had served for 30 years, after which time you could marry if you chose. If you were found to have broken that vow, you were buried alive and the man was stripped and run through the streets of Rome until he was whipped and beaten to death.
We also went through the Senate House, saw the place where the body of Julius Ceasar was burned after his murder, and saw remains of other temples and arches in the middle of broken columns and marble rubble. Continuing on to Palatine Hill, we saw the ruins of the palaces of Augustus (and the ruins of his wife's house...guess she didnt live in his house lol), Tiberius, and Domitian. Much of this area called the Flavian Palace was more of a residential complex of sorts for the various emporers with many palaces and structures being built and expanded upon. You could almost see the entire city of Rome from the top of the hill.
There is still a great deal of excavation going on in some of these
areas and not all are accessible. Any construction being done in Rome often runs into ruins that must be evaluated for historical significance, so progress of any new construction, including transportion systems, is slow and labor intensive. We actually saw a site under excavation that listed the University of Michigan as a partner in a joint archeological effort so that was pretty neat. Made me wish I had stuck with archeology as a major many years ago!
I think the most amazing part about Rome in general was seeing the physical evidence of stories you've heard all your life and just the intense awareness of the historical importance this area had (and still has) on our civilization, our politics, our religion and our world really as a whole. It's almost more than your brain can wrap around. It's a dynamic city that gives rise to a host of emotions.....it has seen the best and the worst of humankind....and it's as full of vibrant life today as it was thousands of years ago....not only a must see, but a place of unending discoveries and a city I'd return to again and again.
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Lee Anne Zeb
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The Colosseum
Your last paragraph and my previous entry say it all!*.... <3