"A funny thing happened on the way to the forum..."

Photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2286474&id=11832732&l=f57064c993

Today we visited ancient Rome. We started off at the Colosseum, or the Flavian amphitheater as it was originally known, because it was build by three of the Flavian dynasty emperors. It again was an engineering marvel of the time; holding thousands of people who were seated by their social class; yet at the same time due to the 'requirements' of class, there were dozens of stairways and entrances so that every class had its own means of access to the building without having to cross the path of someone of higher or lower standing than yourself. An additonal benefit of this is that the building could be filled and emptied very quickly, unlike a modern american football arena or hockey arena, which can take a while to empty out after a game.

The floor of the Colosseum was originally a wooden floor, covered by sand, with trapdoors and elevators leading to a basement where wild animals were kept for 'hunts' to be shown to the public for sport. As the story goes, on the opening day of the arena (before the whole building was completed, but enough for the 'games' to begin), 9000 animals were killed over the course of a year of celebrations. The arena was also used for gladiatoral fights as well, although these ceased in the 400's, with the arena continuing to be used for animal hunts until the 500's.

The only people who got their names on their seats were the senators, who sat at the front, closest to the action. Some of the ruins of their seats are still present; the writing still visible of the name of the senator who sat in that spot. As senators died/were 'replaced', the old names were chiseled off and new ones added. Everyone else had an assigned seat in their designated section, along with instructions of how to get to their seat (the social class issues mentioned above). The instructions directed people to pass through a specific entrance, marked with roman numerals, some of which can still be seen today. Additionally, the seats were marked with numbers as well, so everyone had a specific location to sit in.

After the Colosseum, we had lunch and then visited the forum (the oldest part of Rome). We started on Palentine hill, one of the 7 hills of Rome. The story goes that Aeneas and the other trojan survivers who ecsape the greek attack eventually settled in the area. One of their desecendants became a king who had a prophacy against him that his grandchildren would overthrow him. Enraged, he locked up his daughter and ordered that she and her twin children be killed. The daughter was killed, but the man assigned to kill the children was unwilling to do so; he abandoned Romulus and Remus in the wilderness where they were raised by a 'she-wolf' (our guide mentioned that the word for she-wolf actually could mean 3 things: a female wolf, a priestess in a female-wolf worshiping cult, or a prostitute; it is possible that the story actually happened to a certain degree in the later cases). Eventually the boys were found and raised by a local man. They eventually discovered the truth about their grandfather, and they did de-throne him.

At this point, the brothers differed on where they should build their city. Remus favored the Palantine hill, while Romulus fancied a place a little farther off. They chose to let the 'gods' decide the matter, and each spent the day at their site counting the number of Eagles they saw. Romulus won, and started construction of walls around his site. As our guide put it, Remus was a sore loser, and hopped over the walls and trenches his brother was working on, to demonstrate that they were insufficient. Angered, Romulus killed Remus and continued building his city.

There was a 'problem' in the fact that Romulus just had men to work with him on building the city - there were no women/children. To solve this problem, Romulus raided a local tribe in the area (living near the Palantine hill), and took their women, and married them. By the time the tribe had recovered enough to counter attack, the women had begun to have children. The battle took place on the hill; the women rushing into the battle to stop it - on one side were their husbands/fathers of their children and on the other side was their families. Both sides stopped fighting upon the women's actions; an agreement was reached with Romulus and the tribe leader ruling side by side, as two kings of Rome. After the years, when the tribal king died with no heirs, Romulus assumed the powers over both groups, who at that time were at peace and for all intents and purposes the same (Romans).


Anyways, we got to see a lot of the important places at the time, including what was left of the palace of Emperor Dominus, who was a sadistic guy. Our guide mentioned that he was fond of inviting common people to a state dinner in his palace, letting them think they were important and known to him, then the next day rounding them up and executing them all. Also on the Palentine hill was the house of Caesar Augustus ("And in those days a decree went out from Ceasar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed...", the Christmas story and the reason Jesus' family went to bethlehem). I found it pretty cool to be that close to the house of someone that important to history.

We then went into the forum, lots of interesting things there including the place where Julius Caesar was cremated; surprising to me was that people still honor his memory today; there were fresh flowers on the spot where he was cremated, which became a temple to him. Also, there is an arch which commemorates the sacking of Jerusalem in 70 AD, the source of funding for most of the buildings of Rome at the time, including the Colosseum.

After this, we went back to the room; it was a long day, with a lot of walking, but it was definitely worth it.