Wednesday we set out on a self-guided history walk. It was incredibly toasty that day so we tried to find shade as often as possible. We began at Largo di Torre Argentina, the site of Julius Caesar's assassination in 44BC. We wandered our way over to a unique Egyptian obelisk statue being carried by an odd elephant, and then on to the Pantheon. Unfortunately because it was St. Peter's Day, the Pantheon, built in 27BC and converted to a Christian church in 208AD, was closed to visitors. We were disappointed to not be able to go inside, but admired this building, considered to be the best preserved monument in Rome, and discussed it's significance a bit while taking a break from the heat. Across the street from the Pantheon we had fun indulging Mom in some of her goofy photo ideas as we refreshed with some cool water. We explored other piazzas and streets, walking around this fun city, and that evening we went to the Campo de Fiori area to wrap up our day with a unique tapas-type cafe and walking the evening market alongside the water and stopping to catch the score of the soccer game when available.
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| Pantheon, built in 27BC, considered one of Rome's greatest architectural achievement for it's cupola and dome. |
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| Fountain funnies |
Being a family of mostly boys means that anything Roman is interesting, and even better if it involves gladiators. We booked a tour of The Colosseum which allowed us to get below the main level and into the dungeons. The Colosseum has 4 levels and is 52 meters tall. It was opened by Titus in 80AD. Today only 20% is original and the rest has been restored. It's fairly easy to see where they have restored various parts when one is close to the building. One interesting tidbit we learned was that the entire outside was actually a dark grey from soot and pollution as traffic used to pass alongside of it, and a private investor paid $25M to steam clean the entire structure making it the white everyone is familiar with today. In exchange for this price tag, this individual gets to sell tickets for private concerts and events inside The Colosseum. We could tell our guide was not too thrilled about the "privatization" situation, and the fact that they had had a concert the night before meant we did not get to walk on the little bit of floor that remains because they were tearing down the concert equipment.
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| Excited to learn about The Colosseum |
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| Touring the area on the main floor where those of privilege would've had seats |
At the height of Rome, The Colosseum could seat about 65,000 people and is supported by a system of self supporting arches. You can see many "holes" in the blocks which at one point were used to house iron supports which helped hold the whole system together. As Rome began to fall, the iron was stolen for weapons. They also believe just before the final fall, The Colosseum was used as a place of shelter with locals destroying the stairwell and holing themselves up inside for protection from invaders.
The games ultimately were about entertainment and a good Caesar was one who put on a grand show. The games typically lasted about 100 days and the cost of the games themselves was astronomical. One of the largest businesses in Rome at that time was importing wild animals from other continents (lions, tigers, wolves, panthers, leopards, giraffe, hippopotamus, elephant, deer, ostriches and more). The games required over 1000 workers each day and was an event so looked forward to as the meat and luxury items were a rarity for most people in that day, and they were in abundance during the games. The Colosseum had a man made retractable roof that required about 100 men to work a system of cantilevers and hoist up a cloth roof with a hole in the middle similar to how a sail works.
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| View down into The Colosseum from the top level |
A typical day of festivities involved the family coming out to be entertained by the killing of animals in the morning, criminals at lunch, and then the children would often go home as the gladiator fighting in the afternoon was considered too gruesome for them. The men fought each other instead of animals, as the animals were too expensive. The stage was an ellipse, which meant that because there were no corners, the fighter/victim couldn't be trapped and provided continual suspense. The animal fighting in the morning was not natural as these animals were not used to one another, and so they often had to be enticed and forced to fight. There was a net to protect the lower levels of seats from the animals, the net had tusks on it, but occasionally an animal would find its way up into the seating. When this occurred, The Colosseum had the best evacuation system ever, and the inhabitants could all exit within 8 minutes!
At age 13 or 14 it was common for boys to be bought as slaves and trained to fight as a gladiator. The life expectancy at this time was roughly 43 years, the people were small and didn't have much food, and they often died of colds. Girls started families around age 13 and it was not uncommon for them to have over 10 children, with roughly 10% of babies dying at birth. Girls were not valued, after a family had 5 children, if a girl was born, she would typically be abandoned. The men would serve in the military for over 20 years and were often paid with a farm in a distant land such as Spain or Africa. By the time they were done serving their county, they would not have any teeth left. If the men couldn't provide for their family, it was not uncommon or thought poorly of them to abandon them. So taking the living conditions into consideration, gives an interesting perspective on why they didn't view execution as ruthless as we think of it today. If a fighter lost a hand or eye in a fight, he would be outcast with nothing to live on and a miserable existence trying to survive. Considering all of that, it is estimated that only 10% of the gladiators lost their lives, roughly 11,000 men. The deadly fighting ended in the 3rd or 4th Century.
It was interesting to learn that slaves from Jerusalem, brought here after the destruction of Jerusalem, were the builders of The Colosseum foundation. Before the fall of Rome, the citizens sealed up this underground area, and it wasn't until the early 1900's that it was excavated. Because of this it is still intact and we were able to imagine what life must have been like down underground where light and oxygen were scarce. It was eery to think about being surrounded by scared and drugged animals in the dark, and with the smells that come with all of that. Many of the keepers and even fighters died from infections due to animal scratches. Underground were three galleries and one area would house 20 animals, there was an amazing system of ramps, elevators and trapped doors to move all of the animals around. It was also interesting to learn that they would put 80 meters of sand on the ground of The Colosseum as sand was the easiest to clean up the spilled blood. The sand also allowed the trap doors to be covered up and it was more stable for the gladiator's feet when they were fighting; however thrown sand into the slit of a gladiator wearing armor, would be his ruin.
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| SJ in front of the gate where the gladiators came through |
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| Underground in the Colosseum |
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| Kids in the hallway below. Our guide described it as 'a place where life and death was prepared.' |
We all enjoyed this tour and imagining what it would've been like in its glory days. We walked past the Arch of Constantine, the largest of Rome's surviving triumphal arches, and on the Palestine Way to visit the Forum overlook area where the Imperial Palace once stood. The Forum was the administrative center of the Roman Empire and the place where the Pope lived before the Vatican.
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| In front of the Arch of Constantine |
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| Sj in front of the area of the Vestal Virgins |
Again, we learned of how women were treated in this society as Augustus's daughter was given in marriage to 5 different men, none of her own choice, but for her dad's political gain. After bearing 8 children, she married a man of her choice, this displeased her dad, who then banished her to a remote island and ultimately had her buried alive!
We visited Julius Ceasar's tomb where he was cremated in 54BC. We threw in a coin, because apparently that is just what you do, offer anything from a bite of pizza to a coin. It is fascinating to realize that 50% of the current European Union is because of his impact.
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| Julius Ceasar's unremarkable tomb |
We also saw the podium where Mark Antony made his well known speech 'Friends, Romans, countryman.'
Our tour ended at this point, but our guide was excited as he had access to a chapel that had recently opened for the first time in decades, so we joined him to look around. According to him, inside this chapel was some of themes important art history items in Rome. We were able to observe three levels of fresco that was painted on top of each other during the different reigns of people groups. We enjoyed this piece of history and education.
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3 levels of fresco - Madonna & Child on left, at the top of Mary in the right
corner is a Saint, and to the right is the Annunciation |
We grabbed a bite to eat before heading to the Capitoline Museum where we saw the Capitoline Wolf and remembered the story of Romulus and Remus and the founding of Rome. We also observed the humongous body parts of the once 12 meter high statue of Constantine, and discussed the story behind the painting Rape of the Sabine Women.
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