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Ori's Roman Holiday: The Colosseum

  • jseiz54
  • Jul 2
  • 5 min read

When your plane landed at the airport named for Leonardo da Vinci last week, you knew you would be back--and here you come again. Rome is a magnet-- and has been ever since Lupo the Shewolf--(the great Roman symbol of its legendary beginning and now soccer logo) rescued two little baby boys in the wilderness. Rome was founded when twin Romulus fought and killed his twin Remus. Click on the image below to see an AI animation of this founding legend.

Romulus (Right) is Angered by Remus (Left).
Romulus (Right) is Angered by Remus (Left).

It makes me want to start a list of "origins of great cities" and see how many were founded by an act of violence, and those that were founded differently...


That said, you will soon learn about Rome's two Soccer teams AS Roma and SS Lazio.

Left: Logo of AS Roma, Right Logo of SS Lazio
Left: Logo of AS Roma, Right Logo of SS Lazio

Click on the above graphic to learn more about these two Soccer teams.


In the logo of AS Roma you will see an image of the Wolf (Lupo) that nursed the twin boys, and underneath, the baby twins themselves.

Capitoliine Wolf.
Capitoliine Wolf.

You will see this image all over the City of Rome. The Wolf part of the statue is an ancient surviving original bronze statue from the 5th century B.C.E and the baby boys were a later Renaissance addition that can be see today in the Capitoline Museum on top of the Capitoline Hill.


You will be able to see the Capitoline Hill, one of Rome's seven hills, as it dominates the end of the Forum opposite the Colosseum. It was the always the seat of government, and originally a large temple to Jupiter was located there. (Jupiter is the Roman name of the head of the Gods, Zeus is his Greek name). The Eagle is the emblem of Jupiter, and is featured on the logo of S.S. Lazio.


On your tour of Rome, you will encounter several of the historical layers of the City of Rome-- Ancient Rome (the Forum, the Colosseum) and Rennaissance/Baroque Rome (Vatican city and St. Peter's). In reality these layers all intermingle. Many of the early Christian churches in Rome were constructed from blocks of stone removed from the Colosseum--(martyrs stone-from those Christians that died in the Roman Empire's "games" before Christianity was legalized by Emperor Constantine in 311 A.D.). During ancient Roman times, the area now known as Vatican City, was called "Mons Vaticanus or "Cow Hill". It was the place on the outskirts of Rome where Nero's Circus was located. On a sad day in the year 64 A.D., the Apostle Peter was crucified upside down in the center of Nero's Circus on "Mons Vaticanus". The great Basilica of St. Peter's is built over his burial site. I will address Vatican City and St. Peter's in my next blog post.


The Colosseum

After you see this structure, you will know why it is one of the most significant buildings in the world. It could seat 55,000+ spectators and was so well designed that each section led to its own entrance/exit portal.

The Colosseum: Left Picture Aerial Photo 2014, Right Picture Reconstruction 80.
The Colosseum: Left Picture Aerial Photo 2014, Right Picture Reconstruction 80.

There have been various stories about how fast all those spectators could exit the structure. There also was an awning that could be assembled quickly if the Emperor got too hot in the Roman sun. In the reconstruction above, you can see sections of the canvas pieces that were held in a roll and pulled to the center on command.


Chances are you have seen the Gladiator movies. The first movie in particular was given high praise for the accuracy of their rendition of the Colosseum. Yes Gladiators fought each other to the death, and also fought every animal imaginable. There also were times when the floor was flooded and naval battles were fought (as seen in Gladiator II), and, sadly many innocent Christians were herded into the arena and martyred. We get our word "arena" from the Colosseum because arena is the latin word for sand--and they used a LOT of it!


In another museum in Rome, the Galleria Borghese, three surviving floor mosaics from Roman times depicting Gladiators and Hunters from the 3rd-4th centuries are on display.





If you are interested in Architecture, (as I think you are...) there are so many things the Colosseum speaks to about the buildings of the Romans. I will list two below.


The Round-Topped "Roman" Arch.

The Colosseum definitely makes used of the round-topped Arch! This invention by the Roman builders formed the basis of Roman bridges, Roman Aqueducts--(those high structures throughout the empire that carried fresh water from the hills into the cities,) and Roman Triumphal Arches (there are three within a stone's throw of the Colosseum. There is the Arch of Constantine right next to the Colosseum, and then there two others that sit on either end of the Forum.

Left: Arch of Septumus Severus, c.203,  Right: Arch of Constantine, c 312.
Left: Arch of Septumus Severus, c.203, Right: Arch of Constantine, c 312.
Arch of Titus, c. 81
Arch of Titus, c. 81

The Arrangement of the Three Orders of Architecture


All around the city you will see what today we refer to as "Classical Columns." The people that invented this tall device that held up the roof structure of their buildings were the Greeks. When the Greek Empire fell, the Roman Empire rose--and the Romans loved everything they saw about the beauty of the ways the Greeks constructed their buildings. They imported the three main Greek orders of architecture (Doric, the simplest, Ionic, the scrolled top order, and Corinthian, the fanciest order). These names were related to various areas of Greece and various Greek people and cities. The Doric order was named for the Dorians, a people inhabiting northern Greece, the Ionic order takes its name from the Ionian people and a sea beside the Greek Isles, and the Corinthian takes its name from the Greek City of Corinth. (same city the Apostle Paul wrote two letters too--today known as I Corinthians and II Corinthians,)



The Romans then added two more orders to the three invented by the Greeks--a plainer version of Doric that came to be called Tuscan (for Tuscany--home of Florence which you just visited) and Composite which combines Corinthian and Ionic together. Historians say that yes, Rome in essence "conquered" the Greeks...but an ancient historian put it very well when it was said "Greece kept its rough conquerers captive." In other words, the beauty of Greek Art is forever preserved in so many developments in Rome. The Romans imported Greek sculpture, painting, mosaics, and architectural forms---lock, stock and barrel. Unless you do a lot of studying, it is hard on first looking to tell the difference between an original Greek work and a later Roman work. That is why the term "Classical" comes in handy to talk about the look of the two artistic cultures as a whole.


What the builders of the Colosseum did, is they decided to use the capitals (tops) of Greek columns as decorative trim on the outside of the Colosseum something the Greeks would never have done. (If a Greek happened to walk by the newly created Colosseum, they would probably have thought it incredibly tacky). In the new decoration department, some Roman builder had the bright idea to put the plain order on the bottom, the next fanciest order in the middle, and the fussiest one on the top. You have to look closely to see this--but it established for all time this rule in building (Doric on the bottom, Ionic in the middle, and Corinthian on the top) if one opts to use "classical" decoration on the outside of a structure.


Close up of Colosseum Exterior--First Floor Doric Trim, Second Floor Ionic Trim
Close up of Colosseum Exterior--First Floor Doric Trim, Second Floor Ionic Trim


Have a wonderful time visiting the Colosseum--and don't miss taking a look for the Triumphal Arches.



 
 
 

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