Day 26

Back in Rome.  It's a little weird.  Last week I was ecstatic to be back in my home away from home-away from home- Rome.  Despite having come from one of the most beautiful places in the world(Positano), one of the most fascinating(Pompeii) and one of the dirtiest(in developed countries at least, Naples).  Walking around this morning I definitely am feeling a little resentful that I'm not back in Amsterdam.  I even dreamed I was back and hanging around our square.  That's not usual of me, but I do realize how lucky I am to have traveled to so many beautiful places in the past 4 weeks.  I have no idea what I am going to do when I am back in the States and have no action to quell my thirst for adventure.

Back to class also.  At least we have an exciting day of class planned.  First things first...visit to the Roman Forum.  Unfortunately in my grumbling about it being hot out and missing Amsterdam, I forgot my camera.  So I had to steal other people's pictures for the blog.

 So here are the remnants of the Roman Forum.  This is where the daily life of Romans revolved around.  The wealthy strolled often through this part, and the kings and emperors of their day frequented this spot. Over 800 years(nearly twice as long as America has been a country) countless buildings were erected with no real sense of layout.  This means alot of the buildings were in random spots facing random directions in this area.

The remnants of pillars that you see in the middle and the platform to the right was constructed under the guidance of none other than Julius Caesar himself.

The pillars set the scene of magnificent size and grandeur leading up to a very elevated platform that Caesar, and many emperors after spoke from.  Look at the elevation they spoke from when addressing the people of Rome.

This is the arch of Septimius Severus.  As I mentioned before, Arches were erected after a major triumph.  There are very few in the forum, this is the one of few still standing.  The reason this is unique is because it was constructed around 200AD.  This is unique because construction had ended in the Roman forum nearly 215 years before, and Emperor Severus refocused attention in this historic area by squeezing the arch in.

The arch goes much further down, but from this angle the picture does not show it.

Because the forum was originally a swamp that had been drained, there was so much sediment and debris build up- by 400AD the picture above depicts perfectly the level that was viewable.  A road was even erected through the middle.

This is a painting from the 1700's, before excavation of the forum began.  If you look in the background, you can see erect houses and buildings.  This is because they literally completely had built over the forum over thousands of years.  Sound ridiculous? They were good at recycling.  So in the 1800s and especially early 1900s they destroyed the houses and started the excavation of the forum.

S.P.Q.R. So I stopped to take a minute to describe this brand that is on everything from Ancient Monuments to modern man-hole covers.

S.P.Q.R. stands for "Senatus Populusque Romanus." It is Latin for "The Senate and People of Rome."  Literally meaning that "The property for the people and public of Rome," and has been copied by many other nations and even our States.  I thought it was pretty cool that it has been stuck around for nearly 3000 years and is everywhere.

So these are the remnants of the local racetrack that was at the end of the forum.  Everything from horse racing to primarily athletic and sporting events were held here.  This is interesting because many people would think the Colosseum would be the main point for sporting events.  Not true.  It was built later and had other purposes, will explain in a minute.






So one thing that was significant 2000 years ago was that the Roman forum literally lead straight to the Colosseum.  That's where we are going next. Finally, 40% of my initial reason for coming to Rome, I get to go into!

 The Colosseum was built between 70-80AD.  The Colosseum was built by the Flavian family, that took over the reign from the Caesar family.  The last emperor from the Caesar family was Emperor Nero, who was literally erased from history.  Before the Colosseum, Nero supposedly set fire to this land to clear out the people that lived here for his own reflection lake and monument.

One the Flavian's took power, the reflection lake was filled over and they spent their own personal fortune in building the Colosseum to win back the affection of Rome.

Much of the Colosseum has been destroyed in earthquakes and natural erosion, but this is the side that stands still.  Colosseum could seat anywhere up to 50,000 spectators.  Any slope you see, would have been filled with rows and rows of seats.

People sat in the Colosseum depending on their importance and profession.  Woman generally did not attend Colosseum events, and if they did they were seated with the slaves.

The filled in part of the floor is what it would have originally looked like if the floor had not eroded.  All of the chambers and rows below were below the stage, and would not be visible.  This is where trap doors were placed for actors and gladiators to make their grand entrance.  Below the arena was made up of very complex tunnels and secret entrances, and was very elaborate for it's time.

Because of the violent nature of the games here, many Romans, especially women, opted to go to other Amphitheaters and athletic events.

When opened, there were 150 days of continuous day and night events.  Over 10,000 gladiators and 11,000 animals participated in the beginning events.  The first day possibly being the most exotic, they flooded the floor and had a real battle on water.  Complete with numerous ships and full crews, what a sight is must have been.

 The Colosseum has never been flooded again, however spectators would be in for many exotic animal fights they had never seen before.  Animals not ever seen, such as elephants, lions, bulls, crocodiles, and many more were used in the events.

In it's most impressive days, the Colosseum would have been clad completely in white marble and had impressive sculptures in every one of those arches.  The Romans of course took off the marble for other uses and the statues were either taken or destroyed.

Thankfully the Pope cited the Colosseum as a Holy Site in the 1700s to prevent further quarrying or dismantling.  The Pope incorrectly believed this was the site where early Christians were martyred, but thankfully what we have today is very much directly due to his preservation.

Extremely impressive, I was very satisfied by the tour of the Colosseum.  Also very thankful that our Professor is so knowledgeable about these things and so willing to share what she knows.  So I saw the initially most important monument to me and one of the world's most recognizable structures.  Love it.







Thank you all for reading.  Excitement doesn't end here.  Look Wednesday for the Pantheon!  The world's largest free standing concrete dome that is in impeccable condition dating back to 200 BC.