Download It is an ancient building which is a national symbol of the long

It is an ancient building which is a national symbol of the long history of
Rome (an eternal city) and a long surviving building of the Roman Empire
.It was built for performances, which were a basic part of ancient Roman
.culture.
Its size, date of construction (antiquity) and central place in old culture
makes it an obvious choice as Rome's symbol.
The Emperors of the Flavian family in Rome built it and it is a theatre where
the seats are in a circle. So it's called the "Flavian Amphitheatre" as well as
the Colosseum. Many games were held there in the olden days, such as:
gladiators' fights, wild-beast displays, and events in which punished
criminals as well as, Christians, were killed. It was a symbol of the greatness
and power of Rome as a great city of the Empire, even in the eighth century
CE.
There are many aspects of the architectural design of the Colosseum,
which reflected its function, as games arena in imperial Rome one of these
aspects is the firmness, which consider the structure of the Colosseum. The
firmness depends on both the requirements of a particular function and the
technology available at the time. The requirement for the Colosseum was
very large quantity of tiered seating. Neither by using wooden benches nor
by piling up earth banks can endure the huge weight of the spectators, so
Roman used vaults. Roman concrete vaults are very strong. Building up
layers of facing material, which would hold cement in place while it set,
made them. The center of the vault was then filled with porridge like
cement, often mixed with rubble, a layer at a time. When the whole thing
had set, the resulting structure was effectively one enormous piece.
The Colosseum was used to hold different kinds of games, wild
animals fighting each other or struggling with the gladiators. Condemned
criminals and later on the Christians were put to death in this arena. These
harsh and bloody entertainments were famous and seen as a way of clearing
the society from harmful animals and dangerous criminals. They were held
in festivals, exhibitions and sacrifices, very often. The scales of these games
were large, on one day 5000 wild animals were exhibited, thousands
attended and the games lasted for several days. Many famous people such as
aristocrats, senators and rich families were amongst the audience. The most
famous games were the once involved in killing wild beasts and evil
criminals. The arena was a place for keeping order and honoring the king. It
was also a place of practicing democracy. Gladiators, who fought bravely,
were brought back to life. The crowd gave them another chance.
Every one was treated the same, life and the emperor controlled death, he
decided who should live and who should die. It was a good way of showing
the emperors power and might.
So the games were at that time more than a way of entertainment;
they were a part of the tradition and cultural values and beliefs.
All sorts of games had their share of fame during the period in
which the Colosseum was actually used for that purpose. Some of the
Romans enemies who refused to quell to the Roman order and thought that
they may oppose their rule, were also seen as being excluded from society
and deserved to die. There was no need for a particular event to happen in
order to set the games. Killing beasts and criminals was always welcomed, a
heroic and respectful action that the emperor could provide for this people.
The enormous size of the amphitheatres indicates how popular these
exhibitions were. The Colosseum was dedicated in AD 80 with 100 days of
games. One day 3,000 men fought; on another 9,000 animals were killed. It.
seated 50,000 people. Public killings of men and animals were a Roman rite,
with overtones of religious sacrifice, legitimated by the myth that
gladiatorial shows inspired the populace with 'a glory in wounds and a
contempt of death'.
In the morning, men are thrown to lions and bears. At mid-day they are
thrown to the spectators themselves. No sooner has a man killed, than they
shout for him to kill another, or to be killed. The final victor is kept for some
other slaughter. In the end, every fighter dies. And all this goes on while the
arena is half empty.
All gladiators received cash for winning, crowns for bravery, and if
they were fortunate the wooden cudgel as a symbol they need never fight in
the arena again. The crowns were important. A painting from the
amphitheatre at Pompeii shows preparations for a gladiatorial combat, the
gladiators are arming themselves, while in the background two winged
figures of victory hold out garlands for the prospective victor. And in graffiti
at Pompeii, crude but touching line drawings trace the out come of
gladiatorial fights, the contestants are identified by name, by the number of
crowns which they have won .for example, Similarly, street advertisements
for forthcoming shows put out by the producers and programmers which
spectators bought, listed combatants by gladiatorial type and by previous
record.The most spectacular gladiatorial shows were given by the Emperors
themselves at Rome. For example, the Emperor Trajan, to celebrate his
conquest of Dacia (roughly modern Romania), gave games in AD 108-9
lasting 123 days in which 9,138 gladiators fought and eleven thousand
animals were slain
The animal’s show was important type of entertainment that was
put in the Roman arena. As for animals, their sheer variety symbolized the
extent of Roman power and left vivid traces in Roman art. In 169 BC, sixtythree African lions and leopards, forty bears and several elephants were
hunted down in a single show. New species were gradually introduced to
Roman spectators (tigers, crocodiles, giraffes, lynxes, rhinoceros, ostriches,
hippopotami) and killed for their pleasure. Not for Romans the tame viewing
of caged animals in a zoo. Wild beasts were set to tear criminals to pieces as
public lesson in pain and death. Sometimes, elaborate sets and theatrical
backdrops were prepared in which, as a climax, a criminal was devoured
limb by limb.
The labor and organization required to capture so many animals
and to deliver them alive to Rome must have been enormous. Even if wild
animals were more plentiful then than now, single shows with one hundred,
four hundred or six hundred lions, plus other animals, seem amazing .The
Emperor Commodus, for example, killed himself five hippos, two elephants,
a rhinoceros and a giraffe, in one show lasting two days. On another
occasion he killed 100 lions and bears in a single morning show. . The
slaughter of exotic animals in the emperor's presence, and by the emperor
himself or by his palace guards, was a spectacular dramatization of the
emperor's formidable power: immediate, bloody and symbolic.
Omnibus by Thomas Weidemann talking about Roman and
Greeks he said Games were played and popular even before the Colosseum
was built in both Rome and Greece (which had a sophisticated culture
several hundred years before the Romans), but were criticized by
.philosophers and Christian thinkers as cruel and immoral
His thought about The struggle with nature was The people were to be
grateful to the Emperor for killing all dangerous animals, which destroyed
their farms, in the games, in the arena, and the Emperor was a hero
(Hercules was a suitable symbol for the Emperors as he had killed many
monsters in his legendary adventures).
It was built in the beginning to show the Roman victory over the Jews who
had rebelled against them in Judea.
For Life and death: Possible origins of the gladiatorial fights
and lists of the different ways in which criminals were killed in the arena
Punishment for any crime was shown openly in the arena to be seen by the
rulers and the people. To forgive brave and successful fighters was also done
together as a "collective and popular responsibility" of the rulers and the
Therefore, this place could give the opportunity people gathered in the arena
for active discussion between Emperor and people, as well as a way to
separate the social position of people which showed them to be separate
from criminals.
The Colosseum is a very good illustration not just of the elaborate
structure needed to house large-scale games but also of a place of unity and
diversity, a potential flash point for all kinds of social tensions and shifting
alliances between the different layers of society in attendance.
In the year AD 80 the Colosseum opened with what must stand as
quite the longest, most disgusting, organized mass binge in history.
According to Suetonius, various sorts of large-scale slaughter, both of
animals and of men were appreciatively watch by the emperor Titus and a
packed audience for the next hundred days.
During the reign of Titus, work on the Colosseum had been
hurried on and he clearly could not wait for the shows to start. As it was the
Colosseum was not completely finished for these celebrations, it is fourth
and final story was to be added in the reign of the next emperor, the
unspeakable Domitian last of the Flavians.
Despite this, Titus had lavished money on it. It was a showpiece and must have
possessed something today's
Bare ruins make it hard to picture a sense of ostentations luxury.
This was a vulgar age. Imperial Rome rejoiced in over- decoration and
extravagance. This part of our case study has by necessity concentrated upon
a very notorious and emotive aspect of Roman society. These are the
different kinds of activities that took place in the Roman Colosseum. In short
Modern and ancient approach we consider to be adequate for judging such
activities.
After studying the ancient Greek and Romans we can not help
making judgments about them. There are things that we find very attractive
and others that are repulsive. For many centuries, the Roman's enjoyed
watching men kill each other and wild-beats in the arena.
Considering all the best gladiatorial facilities given by the emperor,
the context of the Roman games, the ancient world, we must try to
understand what we condemn, as illustrated by Thomas Weidman who
thinks that to be objective, we must not give way to our emotions.
For others, like Pearson, those games were the most disgusting, or ganized
"mass binge". For him, this was a vulgar age. But it does not answer
fundamental questions about the psychology of spectacle.
After getting into these two different points of view, I think, that
people of modern reactions do not consider the historical context of those
games. And their repulsion is basically based on their emotions. So, I tend to
be closer to ancient reactions activities. The Romans developed lot of good
and attractive things. If we considerer their beliefs and customs, we will
easily adopt those games.