The Colosseum

 

Okay, I admit it.

I'm not sure which way I'm supposed to spell Colosseum. My spell check initially recommended Coliseum, but when I spell it this other way, it doesn't try to change it.

 

 

 

 

I doubt anyone doesn't know that the Colosseum was a place where gladiators battled each other and animals in spectacles designed to entertain the masses in ancient Rome.

It held 80,000 spectators, and it's said that a half million people and over a million animals died there.

The basic design is mimicked by sports stadiums where modern gladiators in pads and helmets battle to control the field and score.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over the years, the Colosseum has evolved through several uses, including as a church and for executions.

 

 

 

 

Quarrymen mined pieces of its former splendor to be used in new buildings.

 

 

Somehow, it has managed to survive, an imposing structure in a magnificent city.

 

There are lots of guides available, but we decided to get one audio guide and have Amy tell us what she heard.

Mostly, however, the Colosseum is simply a place to absorb that sense of history.

It made me think about those old gladiator movies I loved as a kid, in the days when Bible era stories were to me what Harry Potter novels are to Amy.

 

I decided I better rent Russell Crowe's more recent take on the genre, “Gladiator,” when I returned home, but I still haven't gotten around to that. I saw it a few years back, and it's a great flick.