The Hunger Games, Roman Style

The crowd cheers. Your opponent stands in a ready position. The emperor watches. The sword glistens in your hand. You charge your opponent, swinging your sword and as metal hits metal he blocks your attack. All you do is think ‘I’ll be free soon.’ This is what I imagine would happen during a Gladiator fight in the Colosseum.

The Colosseum was built in 70 AD for the emperor Vespasian Titus and was completed in 80 AD. The purpose for the Colosseum was to entertain the emperor and the people of Rome. Sometimes they entertained the people by filling the bottom of the Colosseum with water so that they can have naval vessel fights. However, the Colosseum is mostly known for battles to the death: prisoner vs prisoner fights, prisoner vs wild animal, and the Gladiator fights.

The idea of having Gladiator fights started at funerals. The Romans believed that the souls of the dead were kept happy with sacrifices, so prisoners or slaves of poor quality were sacrificed.  Later, the Romans decided to have the prisoners or slaves fight at the funeral, so they were trained in the use of weapons and at the end of the funeral they would fight to the death.  This idea of having a live fight at the end of the funeral became so popular, that it led to the creation of Gladiator schools called Ludis and the building of stadiums such as the Colosseum.

While we were inside, we were able to find the VIP seating in the Colosseum. It was near to where the emperor usually sat. The VIP section was all white marble, and the VIP guests got to scribe their names into where they sat and stayed cool. The VIP section stayed cool because they had shade provided by a canvas roof. The other seating however, got very hot in the sun. The emperor used this seating because when he invited people who he didn’t like, he’d make them sit there in the hot sun for hours. Since nobody is allowed to leave until the emperor does they had to sit there and stay quiet. The emperor got to sit in the shade while he amusingly watched them suffer.

The VIP seating in the Colosseum

Original stadium seating

Original stadium seating

Underneath the arena, there was a basement where the animals, gladiators,  prisoners,  and the employees slept. When it was time for the Gladiators to emerge from the basement they went into an elevator to rise through the sand.

A view below the stage.

Corridors under the stadium floor.

One of the most fascinating things about the Colosseum is that it could hold 50000 people at a time! What is even more fascinating is that it could be emptied within 20 minutes! We can’t even get everyone out of the Rogers Center in 45 minutes! Talk about running for the hills!

The arena in the Colosseum reminded me of the time I watched Gladiator. In the movie we got to see what the basement of the Colosseum looked like. Also, when they fought, they fought on sand, and when the sand got filthy with blood they’d shovel it up. They also did that back in the ancient civilizations. The Gladiators were all slaves before the killing started. They trained the slaves to become well trained Gladiators, the only problem was it cost a lot of money so every time one of the Gladiators died the Lanistas had to spend more money to turn a slave into a Gladiator.

The Colosseum also reminded me of the Rogers Center and the Hunger Games. Like the Colosseum, everyone gathered in an arena and watched their favorite teams or tributes. When one of their favorite teams or tributes lose they all get mad or sometimes cry. The only difference is that when a Gladiator died everyone cheered.

My opinion for the Colosseum is that it is an amazing structure and I personally think everyone needs to see it. I think this because you’ll learn so much information and you’ll get to see ancient ruins that are from 2000 years ago! It is really fascinating by getting all of this knowledge about a structure that has been around for so long.