Day 8: Roman History Day

And now it’s time for a history lesson. Back some 2000 plus years ago and until about 460 AD the Romans were enjoying their power and kicking some serious butt around the Europe area. They were building lots of stuff, conquering land, being smart and taking part in some pretty violent “games” but all in all were enjoying their lives. Fast forward to the year 2010 and you get Joe and Amanda wandering around the Roman Ruins learning all about the people who lived in these areas so long ago.

Lets start the day by deciding where to buy tickets to enjoy all this stuff. I had read in the MTV Europe book (Thanks to Liz for letting Joe and I borrow this book!) that if the line is really long at the Colosseum that you can also buy tickets at Palatine Hill, so that’s just what we did. We started at Palatine Hill and got to see all the old buildings from that area. Palatine hill was part of the downtown area in Rome and was a place where many of the emperors lived in palaces. What was really cool was that in several places you could still see the mosaic patterns on what would have been the floors of the buildings and also the marble stones on the walkways. There was a museum here that had several different artifacts the oldest being from 1000 BC. I think it’s so amazing that we’ve found things from civilizations that were around 3000 years ago! How amazing is that?! What was also really cool is that while visiting the hill and the Roman Forum we saw several groups of archeologist digging. I love how we’re still finding stuff from this time period and how even now there’s still so much to learn about the Romans! From the hill we could also see Circus Maximus where they did all the chariot races. There’s not much left of this area except a bunch of dead grass but it was fun to picture the races taking place there. :) A little farther in the distance we could also see the Baths of Caracalla. We didn’t actually end up visiting them, but it was cool to see them from a distance.

Walking towards the ruins from the metro stop


Palatine Hill
Ruins at Palatine Hill


Archeologists digging


Palace at Palatine


Circus Maximus

One of the Arch's at the Roman Ruins

After we finally finished wandering around Palatine we headed over the the Roman Forum. (I forgot to mention that today was the hottest day in Rome and I was thankful for my hat. After the Forum we ended up finding a hat for Joe too because the sun was just beating down on us and having a hat was very helpful!) So we wandered around the Forum and got to see many of the old temples and basilicas as well as the Curia that was build by Julius Caesar. This was the building where the senate sat. We also saw the Area Sacra which is where Caesar was killed on the Ides of March. It was really impressive how well preserved the ruins were and how much we still have of them.

Roman Forum

One of the temples at the Forum

The square looking building on the right is the Curia

On to the Colosseum!!!!! The highlight of the day. Now my Uncle and Aunt who recently honeymooned in Rome said that the Colosseum was one of the coolest things that was a MUST see and I have to agree. This time we decided to pay the extra money for the audio guide so we could learn more about the Colosseum. We started off at the bottom reading all kinds of informaton about how and when the colosseum was built, what a typical day was like and how 3 major earthquakes contributed to the destruction of the Colosseum but also helped preserve parts of it because the lower levels were filled with dirt. So now here’s some serious history for you while I give you information about the Colosseum.

Joe and Amanda with the Colosseum

A typical day started with a big parade to the Colosseum with all those involved in the games. The games included wild animal fights, death sentences for prisoners and the always anticipated event, the gladiator fights! When the Colosseum opened in 80 AD there were 100 days of games. These games were carried out at the colosseum for the next 4 centuries! The games were free to go to but you did have to have a ticket which listed your specific seat. The seating was arranged by status and the higher up your were the lower your social status. The emperors and the senators sat closest to the arena floor and the poorest people at the very top. No one is really sure how many people the Colosseum would hold but they say about 50,000 people could be seated there. The women were seated separately from the men during the events as well.

Roman Colosseum

Interior of the Colosseum

The stage area was amazing. The floor had many trapped doors where animals could be released during fights. You could see underneath the area to the rooms below where they would have kept the animals and you can also see the blocks where the ropes would have been to move and open the doors. I was really amazed by the advanced technology they had in this arena.

Arena Floor

We learned about the gladiators and found out that these guys were often prisoners or war, prisoners or slaves with the occasional free man signing up for the job. Gladiators would fight anywhere between 3 and 40 fights during their careers and lived and trained together. The editor was the one who had the final say whether a the losing gladiator would be killed or shown mercy. Not a very easy life for these 17-18 year old guys and certainly a pretty violent living but the Romans liked their violence!

After 4 centuries of use the Colosseum feel victim to neglect and several earthquakes damaged the structure and filled in many of the areas with dirt. It wasn’t until 1995 that the Colosseum was uncovered and became a place to visit. (Sadly I just learned that in August they will be showing the underground level where the animals were held to visitors! Lame, we’re going to have missed that!) It’s so amazing to me that they can bring back such old structures and how well engineered this building was that it’s survived for so long! Certainly the coolest Roman Ruin we saw!

Just a little more history for you. The Colosseum was declared a sacred sight in 1749 by Pope Benedict XIV. It was believed that many Christians were killed at the Colosseum, fed to the lions, but there is no written documentation to support this. The Romans did kill some Christians but the killings did not occur inside the Colosseum.

Cross marking the Colosseum as a sacred place

We headed back to the hotel, got some pizza for dinner and ate on our little balcony. Our last day in Rome we decided to do the “clean up” tourism and see the rest of the places we didn’t get to on the other days.