Rome

Today we visited the Colosseum.  We were on a tour so we got to see beneath the Colosseum as well as up on the highest tier.  It was spectacular, we learnt so many things such as; The real name of the Colosseum is the Flavian Amphitheatre. Construction started in 72 AD and finished in 80 AD.  The Hypogeum (underneath the Colosseum) wasn't finished until 85 AD.  The Colosseum could seat up to 70 000 people and could empty within 5 minutes through the Vomitorium (arches or doorways). They are called vomitorium because the archways are so large that they can "vomit" out all the people at once.  The Colosseum is oval, not round and has been reconstructed many times over the centuries due to damage from earthquakes and "recycling" of building materials such as marble, limestone, tiles, pillars etc for temples, churches and other buildings.  There were 100 days of games when the Colosseum first opened including "water sports" at the end of the 100 days.  

The programme of the games was usually fighting or hunting animals such as elephants, tigers, lions etc in the morning, executions of criminals in the middle of the day and finally gladiators in the afternoon before the sun went down.  Gladiators only ever fought one on one, however there could be up to 50 pairs fighting at a time.  They were not always killed as it was expensive to lose gladiators as they took a long time to train.  Often it was up to the crowd and the emperor to spare the gladiators lives - thumbs up or thumbs down or thumbs across the neck to signify slitting the throat. Sometimes they remade battles or sacrificed offenders retelling scenes from the past.  The aquaducts still work in the Colosseum today (even though they are almost 2000 years old) and you can still see the water running through them.  Visiting the Colosseum was amazing as it is super big and super old.  

Drew