A Day at the Flavian Amphitheater

Even in February, 2008, there is a long line to get into the Flavian Amphitheater, which is known these days as the Colosseo or Colosseum. Thanks to my 6 Giorni/Days, 9 Siti/Sites card and a little bit of chutzpah* I was able to skip the line and get right in.


You've heard this before, but this place really is enormous!

On the ground level, I wandered down long corridors around the entire inner perimeter taking frequent peeks through archways into the center and at stairwells and corridors radiating out from both sides of me. As with most of the ancient ruins here in Rome, reconstruction has been going on for a long time and so it is sometimes hard to tell what is old and what is new.
However, it is easy to imagine that when this stadium was fully functioning and more than 50,000 people were finding their seats, it must have been vibrating with excitement, noise, and activity. I bet it didn't smell very good either. I, as a Roman woman in 80 CE, attending the 100 days of inaugural festivities Titus put on, would have had to find my way to the very top of the stadium, over 50 meters up, along with the poorest of the plebians. Lots of steep stairs to climb; I wonder how many of the women went?

Luckily, now in the 21st C, the number of stairs isn't so great - the very top is either missing or inaccessible - and no one, I hope, is going to die here today.

On the second level there is an exhibit of ancient art works related to the theater. Among these was a terrific set of stone carvings of tragic masks. Here are a couple:




There were also some gorgeous ceramics featuring scenes from popular plays, bits of wall showing scratched in figures of gladiators, and mosaics such as this one.

Leaving the exhibits, which are in the outer corridor, I went towards the center of the Colosseo to get a look at the exposed area that was originally under the arena floor. Here gladiators, trainers, performers, prisoners, and wild animals waited until they became part of the show. A woman I was standing next to kept looking for the spaces where the hippos must have been kept. She was very worried about the hippos, even suggesting that perhaps the Romans had breeding programs for them.

This is a view down the main corridor of the underworld of the stadium. The arched doorway at the end, just above the line of the facsimile stadium floor, is the door through which the wounded and dead were taken.

Sometimes the decision as to whether or not a fighter dies was up to the emperor who sat in the center of the long side of the stadium. Nowadays there is a large cross and a hole in the emperor's place:
Looking out from the center were some phenomenal views of the Palatine Hill, the Arch of Constantine and other popular tourist things.








*Regarding chutzpah - absolutely necessary to have in Rome. You need it to cross the street, to look at something in a small shop, and, sometimes, even to get into tourist sites. Crossing the street is the supreme act of chutzpah here. The trick is to realize that most Roman drivers are paying careful attention to what is going on on the street, but they need you to be predictable. So, you check to see that you aren't going to get in the way of anyone who can't have known you were coming, then you step out and keep going. This takes chutzpah as you walk while cars, motorcycles, and buses rush around you, sometimes missing you by a hair. Don't do anything suddenly, don't fling up your arms or run. The drivers expect you to walk smoothly and will do what they can to avoid you. I hope.