They had their own box at the Colosseum, and witnessed from their ring-side seats these abhorrent "games", along with the rest of the audience. Question for Goldman: How long was the Colosseum in use, and why did people stop using it? The gladiatorial games, which became abhorrent to Christian conscience, disappeared in the year This was the last time there were gladiatorial games, although the staged animal hunts went on for another 50, 60 years.
They really died out from lack of money to keep them going. It was an enormous expense to import animals from Africa. These poor beasts were deadly sick as they were transported across the sea, and then nursed back to health, but deliberately starved before they would go into the amphitheater to fight against each other or against gladiators.
Tremendous expense, and the money just gave out. And that's really, I think, why they died out: not so much from Christian conscience as from lack of funds to keep them going. Question for Goldman: Did you consider the fact that bullfights are scheduled at p. This would support the first theory of sails and beams.
And the bullfights do start late in the afternoon, and the cheap seats are the ones that are still out in the sun, and the expensive seats are the ones that are in the shade, just like they used to be in the ballparks in the United States.
The bleachers were in the sun, out of cover, and the people who could afford it sat in the covered part of the stadium. Question for Goldman: The Colosseum is so enormous—is it know how they handled crowd control? The arch and area was indicated on a piece of broken pottery giving the proper deck and wedge-shaped section, assuring complete crowd control for entry and seating. Then for exit, these same ramps and stairways would assure a quick and easy egress with no mixture of classes.
Outside there would have been a barrier consisting of chains between bollards to keep people out before the opening. There were 80 arches in all, but the ones at the main axes were for the entrances of the gladiators, the emperors and magistrates and Vestal Virgins, and the one next to Ludus Magnus was the gate of death through which the corpses of men and animals were removed. All very well organized. Question for Roberts: If you got a chance to do this experiment again, would you do it differently?
While there last year and with excellent help from the students on the course, I built to one-fifth scale, three different arrangements for furling the vela. The major future refinement would be a pruning down of the supporting rig and having greater faith in the natural flexibility of the horizontal yard to withstand destructive bending forces. Having performed the calculations on this it is clear that much longer yards could be used in a full-size situation without the need for support other than at the masts.
The students also tried to improve on the other system suspended across the amphitheater but despite careful modelling could not get it to work. It would seem to be a blind alley if ancient materials are used. Question for Roberts: I believe that the Romans used the archways in the Colosseum to string parallel ropes across the top. The fabric would then be attached to the ropes using rings. This design would cover the entire building and would fit all of the descriptions.
Could this have been the way? The trouble is, we're working here with a circular building, and you could certainly support ropes from the tops of the arches. All of these ropes would You have panels of cloth which would have to be tapered in order to fit between these radials, these spokes of rope. And you then have a problem that if you try to slide them back, because the inward end of the cloth is narrower than the wall end of the cloth, then you start drawing it back, it's not wide enough, in fact, to slide back along the ropes.
The whole thing would start to pull in. This problem has been looked at. Whether we've used arches or whether we'd use masts, we'd run into the same problem, unfortunately, and there is no need, anyway, to cover the whole arena with a canvas because the walls are high and the sun moves around and where just a certain area of the arena is covered, it casts sufficient shadow for the people who are watching there. Question for Goldman: Is the Colosseum ever used for events now, other than as a tourist attraction?
When the Colosseum became a public monument, the Cross was moved to the side podium, the stations of the cross removed, the chapel closed, all the shrubbery, trees, and plants which were growing inside and splitting the walls removed, the solid floor of the arena excavated, and the substructure laid bare, as you see it today.
About 10 years ago there was an exhibition of modern technology on a narrow wooden walkway constructed over the long axis of the arena, and the cry of outrage was so loud, even though the show brought in a hundred thousand dollars the first week, that I doubt that such use will ever be repeated. The Pope still celebrates a memorial to the victims in a symbolic march around the exterior each year. Question for Goldman: Was the Colosseum the original "sports stadium"?
Were there other big gathering places? When the formal race-course was built with starting gates, permanent stone viewing stands, private boxes for the officials and a more private imperial box high up in the palace area on the Palatine for the royal family, the Circus Maximus could eventually accommodate , spectators at one sitting, more than 5 times the number that could be accommodated in the Colosseum. Nero built an enormous Circus next to the Vatican Hill where St.
Peter was martyred, and the obelisk from Nero's Circus was eventually moved to where it now stands in the embracing arms of the piazza in front of St. Domitian, Vespasian's younger son, built a smaller race-course, probably for foot-races, in the area known today as the Piazza Navona in Rome, and the shape of the Piazza echoes the shape of the race-course.
Question for Roberts: There may be a combination of both ideas. Use the booms to suspend the canvas as in the first experiment to give retractable characteristics, then stretch ropes across to the opposite boom to extend the canvas to the desired distance, depending on the weather, wind, etc. It would be a nice way of controlling the booms in that position—there's no argument about that—by linking the ends of them with ones opposite with a rope that goes across.
So you have the center of a spider's web, I suppose, at the middle, and what we found, the argument that would go against that is that we found that it was very convenient to be able to rotate the booms in towards the walls where the masts were supported in order to be able to work on the booms themselves.
Now, that facility wouldn't be possible if we had rope linking across the arena from the ends of each of these booms. It's a facility for maintenance that would be essential, because everything, all the material that was used, would need constant maintenance. It's just like working a ship. With a ship, you are always checking ropes, checking for wear, and you need to be able to get at the stuff. Now the other way we can do it, the way we found to do it, was just swing these booms in until we could reach them, and I think that's probably what was done in antiquity.
So I don't really like the idea of linking them across, just in order to try to extend the canvas. We can make the booms more than long enough, because the trees are long enough for this.
And you don't have to have very thick wood towards the end of the boom, the inner end of the boom, because it's a good thing there to be thinner, because you're losing weight all the time; it's strong enough for the job. You could have very long booms and have them able to cast more than sufficient shadow over the arena.
So I'm not totally happy about joining down the middle. It looks attractive at first glance, I must admit. Question for Roberts: How complicated was the rigging that you did for the bullring roof compared to rigging that sailors of that time would have done?
What was combined was the rig needed to support the yard, which was suspended like the sprit of a Roman sprit-sail rig, and the awnings furling lines or brails in evidence on the Roman square-sail rig. All gear would have been familiar to any Roman sailor who might have come to haunt us.
Question for Goldman: What type of wood were the masts made of, and where were these trees found? And Rainer Graefe has made studies of the height that these trees have grown, and in his book, Velu Erunt, "There Will Be Sails" —and that's a good title, because that inducement was added on the graffiti "billboards" that were put up announcing that there were going to be gladiatorial games.
In his book, "There Will Be Sails," Graefe describes how he studied the heights that trees grow to so that he could figure out how long the booms could be. They were usually conifer trees.
Question for Goldman: Do you think the blood and gore shows that took place in the Colosseum have any parallels to today's extreme sports, or violent talk shows? There seems to be an appeal in human nature something we try to hide under the carpet, but surely there to the violent aspect of human activity. Look at the number of murder mysteries written and presented in the public media in film and television.
One of the statistics in the Newsweek book on the Colosseum says that a young person will have witnessed 27, violent deaths on television and in film by the time he or she is an adult. Look at the slowdowns on the opposite side of the expressways when there is an accident. People are fascinated by death, and the ancient Romans had this terrible flaw in their character that they made the killing of captives, criminals, slaves, or anyone who bucked the system, a source of entertainment.
Look at the popularity today of the Demolition Derbies, the fights in the hockey games, the wrestling match absurdities. Question for Goldman: What was the most populated event that took place in the Colosseum? By the way, the games went on all day, so this business of the cast shadow in late afternoon does not apply, because the games did begin early in the morning; people stayed the whole day—there were criminals, condemned criminals who were put to death in the morning.
There were animals that were brought in, exotic beasts both to be paraded around and then to fight against each other or hunted, caught, and killed. Then there were the gladiatorial games in the afternoon, where teams of men who had been trained in a particular kind of warfare—these had been men who had been captured in war who were then put into training camps to refine their war skills in the particular way in which they fought from the countries they came from or to learn new skills—they were teamed up against each other to fight.
And then the climax of the day, and I think the most popular event, would be when the most famous gladiator who fought in one style was pitted against another gladiator who fought in a different style. For instance, there was a style of costuming where the gladiator was completely armored, covered, protected who fought against the almost nude Retarius, the man who fought only with a net and trident. And to have these unequal gladiators fight against each other would have been the climactic event, and these gladiators became so popular, they were like the screen stars—the women swooned over them.
The popularity of them extended to the gambling, the betting that was put on on one or the other winning. The popularity made them the idols of the day. They had short, happy lives.
Question for Goldman: Which of the solutions shown in the program to cover the Colosseum is best supported by archaeological evidence? Whether the horizontal timbers to support the "sails" were there, as described by Graefe, is not so documented, and my own opinion is that that system would have been cumbersome, difficult to install, expensive although for the emperors, nothing was too expensive , and would not have covered the most important members of the audience, the nobles who sat down front, closest to the arena, except when the cast shadow gave shade, as it does today in the modern bull-ring when the sun is lower on the horizon.
Greafe's extensive work on all amphitheaters has to be considered with respect, and he is best of all authorities to document the feature on the cast shadow and on the length of timbers from trees. My own theory is that the rope oculus system is more practical, although we did not have time in the film to see the longer sails retracted, as the literary evidence implies, for the poets write about days when the winds are so strong that the "sails cannot be put out.
One of my Italian architect friends in Rome reminds me that in a building in use for over years, there might have been many different versions of the awning changed to suit the times. Question for Goldman: How long did it take to build the Colosseum and how much did it cost? It was probably begun about A. Titus only ruled two years and Vespasian's second son Domitian is said to have added the bronze shields at the top and the substructures after which there never could have been mock naval games for dressing rooms, dens for animals, storage for sets and scenery, elevators and ramps.
No one will ever know how much in cash was poured into the project, but it was money well-spent, since it assured the popularity of the ruling family, and the royal treasury had not bottom.
Vespasian had a limitless work force, having brought back from the Jewish War an estimated , slaves, probably put to work in the quarries at Tivoli, for there were , cartloads of travertine estimated alone for the exterior.
There is evidence of skilled work done in stone yards for pieces brought already cut and finished to be installed, as is done today in modern construction projects.
Question for Goldman: How did the elevators work that brought animals from the underground passageways? If you think of the stage props and how the scenery goes up and down, there are weights on one side that are made heavier by stones or bags of sand, and they were made so heavy that they raise the box, if you imagine the elevator as a box or cage, that would contain the animal on the other side. A simple system of weights and pulleys. Question for Roberts: One post on top, like on the show—both theories—then another post toward the bottom; wood span between the two posts like a bridge.
Canvas is strung between the posts on top, furled to the posts on the bottom, and fastened along the way. This way, the rich are shaded; the poor are, too, but they get a crummy view because of the downward slope of the support posts and fabric. That's okay, though; they're poor. Back to the design system—"keep it simple. I think, really, that we've seen a much simpler system. If we look at the way vessels were rigged, ships were rigged, boats were rigged, you don't see more equipment aboard than is necessary to handle the actual sails which they're setting.
More complication means more work, more maintenance, and I think probably that isn't a good way to go. Question for Goldman: If canvas awnings used in your experiments were uncolored, would the Romans, in their lavishness, have dyed these cloths into decorative hues? A poet talking about a theater maybe 75, years before the Colosseum was built, talks about awnings that were made of purple, red, and yellow, and they dyed the audience underneath in these colors when the light of day shone through them.
So we know that it was possible to dye the cloth. We do not think that in the Colosseum itself, which demanded an enormous amount of cloth, that the cloth was dyed.
But in Nero's amphitheater, which preceded the Colosseum, we're told about awnings of silk that had the picture of the emperor driving a chariot woven into the silk. The vomitoria were the passageways that ran along the entire building behind and and beneath the seating tiers, to help with the flow of spectators.
Because of the vomitoria , The Colosseum could be filled or emptied in 15 minutes. There were 36 trap doors in arena allowing for elaborate special effects. You can take a tour of the Colosseum underground , and you will see this trapdoor, along with the tunnels and more details about how things worked when there were games in the Colosseum. And, if you visit the Colosseum at night, you can see the arena floor, the trap door, the Hypogeum, and all the workings underneath, without the crowds!
Myth or Facts about the Roman Colosseum - were Christians fed to the lions? Or at least not specifically because they were Christian. There is no historical evidence that Christians were condemned to be eaten by lions, or otherwise executed in the Colosseum, purely for their faith. But by now, the Colosseum has become a symbol of Christian martyrdom, and every Easter, the Pope walks the Via Crucis , finishing at the Colosseum.
The last gladiatorial games were held in CE. The last animal hunts stopped in CE, despite a ban on animal sacrifice more than years prior. It simply became too expensive to procure these wild animals, to house and train gladiators and to continue putting on the sometimes elaborate spectacles.
In researching when the last gladiator games were held in the Rome Colosseum, I found two dates: January 1, , and the year The first date, January 1, , is part of a Christian story about a monk, Telemachus, who was horrified by the bloodshed he witnessed, and tried to stop a contest between two gladiators. The enraged crowd stoned him to death. The Christian Emperor Honorius, touched by the monk's actions, banned gladiator fights from that day. The monk Telemachus subsequently became a saint. The second date, the year less precise as to the exact date , is when the Emperor Valentinian III banned the games permanently.
It may also be that both are correct, and that it took more than one emperor to finally ban the games for good. The underground hypogeum was filled in, and for a few centuries, the Romans used the Colosseum as a place to live, grow gardens, conduct business, run workshops , and quite a few other things. One of my favorite odd facts about the Roman Colosseum is that in the late 16th century, Pope Sixtus V tried to turn the Colosseum into a wool factory to give prostitutes other employment.
He died in , and the project never got off the ground no pun intended. One of the more curious facts about the Roman Colosseum is that it's an important place of study for botanists. A lot of plant life flourished inside the Colosseum, certainly after it was no longer used for games. In , botanists began cataloging the plants inside the Colosseum and found several hundred different species of plants growing there.
There are fewer species now but it's still a unique flora ecosystem. The Colosseum was built from travertine stone and tufa , both local, limestone-based stones. Mortar was not used - iron clamps held the stones together instead.
The outside would have been impressive, covered in marble. The niches held statues. An estimated tons of iron clamps were used. In the middle ages, all that iron was simply pilfered, and used for other things, mostly weaponry. Trying to figure out how to organize your visit to Rome? I've got the perfect 3-day itinerary for first-time visitors or those who have not been here in a while. It works for a 2. Visit my page with the best 3-day itinerary in Rome for first-timers.
Over the centuries, there were quite a few natural disasters, including fires and earthquakes, that caused destruction of the Colosseum. Earthquakes in CE and CE caused most of the damage you see today. And in those days, there was no reason to rebuild it. On the contrary, it further helped provide people with building material for other projects, as pieces of the Colosseum fell to the ground during the quakes.
When they were looking around for material to build the new Saint Peter's Basilica in the 15th century, they figured the Colosseum was the closest "quarry. So when you visit Saint Peter's today , you are also visiting part of the Colosseum.
Looking for places to stay near the Colosseum? Visit our dedicated page here. Other than the Vatican which is not part of Italy , the Colosseum is the most visited site in Italy, and the most visited monument in Rome, with million visitors a year.
Want to avoid the huge lines at the Colosseum? Go here. Want to book a tour of the Colosseum? Want to visit the Colosseum at night for a really spectacular experience? But the thousands upon thousands other holes were made by workers pilfering the iron so to use it on other structures or for weaponry. When the Colosseum was built, workers used iron clamps in between the heavy bricks to secure them together instead of mortar.
It was this metal material, estimated to be over tons of it, which became highly valued and scarce after the fall of Rome. Visitors are able to place their hands in these holes and feel the hollows where the metals have been taken out. Much of the other materials, which was used to make the Colosseum one of the most impressive structures of its time, were pilfered as well.
Stones, and all of the outer and decorative marble from the amphitheater were taken to help build St. Although fire and earthquakes had damaged the Colosseum through the years, it was mostly the activity of reusing its materials that causes the Colosseum to appear as it does now. The ancient Roman structures were a prime source for building materials during medieval times.
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