The Colosseum

Day 4, Continued

Now that I'm rested, let's go to the Colosseum! 

First, a little history. Following the siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD, Emperor Vespasian brought roughly 50,000 to 100,000 Jewish captives to Rome. These captives were forced to build the Colosseum and transport stone from Tivoli to Rome. The massive, rapid construction (roughly 8-10 years) is often attributed to this immense, forced labor force.  The construction was largely financed by the spoils (treasures) taken from the Second Jewish Temple, the one rebuilt after the Babylonian capture (586 BC) by King Nebuchadnezzar. Many years later, King Cyrus of Persia came to power and made this proclamation in Ezra 1:2-4

“This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with them. And in any locality where survivors may now be living, the people are to provide them with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.’”

In this way, the Israelites pillaged the Babylonians! However, during Rome's capture of the Israelites, Emperor Vespasian took all of the Israelites' treasures and used them to build the Roman Colosseum.

The Colosseum is a short distance from the forum. We were first met with the gate above. The Jewish slaves put their "signature" in a variety of places throughout the Colosseum. In the last photo below, you can see a menorah in the scene, one way of proving it was built by Jewish slaves.

Next we walked through the gate below. There are gates at each end of the Colosseum, a Winner's Gate, and a Loser's Gate. This is the Winner's Gate, where the emperor entered, and the winning gladiators exited the Colosseum.

There are gates at each end of the Colosseum, a Winner's Gate, and a Loser's Gate. This is the Winner's Gate, where the emperor entered, and the winning gladiators exited the Colosseum.

The gate in relation to the Colosseum.

This is what the Colosseum looked like.

Here we are inside the Colosseum, the largest amphitheater in the world. Just walking in gives you pause - we were walking in the same halls where millions of people have walked for the last 1,954 years! The original name was the Flavian Amphitheater, named for Emperor Vespasianus Flavius, who built it in 8 years. An interesting fact is that the Romans used gigantic cranes to build the stadium. The stones used to build it weighed between 20 and 50 tons, so they tied two massive tree trunks together, connecting them to a gigantic wheel. With a hook, they strapped one end to the object being lifted and the other. to the top of the trees, making a sort of pulley to pull them up.

The Colosseum was originally held together by an estimated 300 tons of iron clamps and bronze pins, not mortar. These metal fastenings secured the massive travertine stone blocks together. The iconic holes seen today are the result of medieval scavengers digging out this iron and metal to melt down and reuse, creating a "Swiss cheese" appearance. 

We began the tour down, down, down underneath the stadium floor, where the animals that 

fought (lions, tigers, bears, (oh my!) hippos, rhinos, elephants, and leopards) were held, and the gladiators were preparing. We got to see examples of the armor the gladiators wore. 

Do you see that dagger-looking sword at the bottom of the picture on the right? It's called a gladius. Only the fighters who used that type of sword were called gladiators. Other types of fighters were Bestiarii, who fought wild animals; gladiatrices, who were female fighters; and venatores, who were trained "hunters" who staged more elaborate hunts with animals, often displaying specialized skill rather than just a fight to the death. There were also Damnaty, who were prisoners or criminals sent into the arena without weapons for execution.

You can kind of get a glimpse of the immensity of the stadium in the first photo above. It held between 50,000 and 80,000 people! That's about the same as Empower Stadium at Mile High. Crazy! I wonder if Empower Stadium was built well enough to last 2,000 years? Hmmmm... things to ponder. The second photo is partof a pulley system that was used to bring animals up to the stadium floor to fight.

The pathways below went on forever! Bryan is showing us one of the 240 arches that are built into the Colosseum. Italo told us arches are what give the structure the stability it needed to stand the test of time.