Hello everyone, we are here at the Colosseum
together with Frederico. Guys, Frederico from Rome I would be your guide today and you're going to visit what's our symbol; Colosseum, the biggest amphitheater ever ever built. Quite big and we're
going to also analyze the difference between new and the older stadium and we're going to have this
trip between bricks, columns, archaeology, a lot of variation stuff. Nice, let's go Frederico. Let's
go, let's go. Let's go down using those stairs. Yes So are the roads here the same as they used to be? Well actually, not much, I mean
Rome is a very old city. It has been rebuilt many many times, but there are some roads
that still preserve the the ancient route and we are actually close to one of those. Because
the one that we can see over there is new. It has been made during the twenties, by our former dictator
Mussolini, who used the Colosseum for propaganda, big speeches. Right, just like Ceasar? Yes, more or less. The history repeats itself, right? Yeah, same mindset. I could assume it's a big propaganda building at the end of the day. Famous broad and circular stuff,
so the romans use a satay manta for social control, to keep the people happy.
So that's why they spend so so much money at the end of the day.
Yeah, we start from that at the traffic light. All right. That's still, we cannot see very
much from here, but it's still at the ancient route. And that's goes to Saint John and later on Basilica, but we are going to cross the street the Mussolini Street (Via dei Fori Imperiali) to enter inside the Colosseum. You can see that Yeah sure, okay. Let's go on the left.
That's today is for pedestrian. Back then a few years ago, you could drive on this road.
I drove this road many, many times in my life. Used to say that the Colosseum was the
most beautiful roundabout worldwide. Not anymore. Not anymore. Now it's it's
a big pedestrian area. So left and right. So we're going to see a much less busy color
version of the Colosseum, but this used to be one of the most visited monuments in the world.
Imagine a busy day for example today we are in late June, so it's totally high
season. Even with Corona or? Oh no, with Corona there is nobody. Back then uh up to 30.000 people
could enter daily in the Colosseum. That's a lot. Yeah it was by far the most visited monument of
Italy. Imagine that the queue could arrive till that arc of triumph. The actual constantine
the tallest and the best preserved of our arc of triumphs. So I've read that all these like
uh, arches were filled with statues of warriors or some kind of important people. Is that correct? That is correct, actually. That's what we think, because the the sources (in the books) describe the Colosseum being
decorated with those two meter tall marble stages representing generals, divinities, heroes, important
personalities for the Roman culture. Obviously those are hypotheses, because we don't have for
example a coin not with the statues. We don't have a representation with those statues. So it's an
hypothesis let's say. Yeah, for example the same books explained that on the very top of the Colosseum
there was a big bronze shield made of gold and bronze. But that's a hypothesis
because a good part of the decoration the statues, the marble, the lead, the bronze,
the metal, everything that could be sucked has been exploited from the Colosseum in those
two thousand years. It has been removed and reused. So today we are going to see the skeleton, of what
remained of the Colosseum. One third of the material that used to compose the entire structure, back in
the time, back in the 80 AD, when this monument this amfiteater has been inaugurated. Now mask on. Okay, so let's admire what has remained of the Colosseum. So here we are. Imagine like big crowd of people
who lost 50 to 60 thousand persons the Colosseum So you have to imagine people that sell food
or for example placing some bet or uh yeah just be here with their friends. It was a place, it was
a big event the day of the Colosseum, so they were something like 70/80 some years 100 days of games.
That was so complementary, so was a yeah like a big party when there was the Colosseum. Uh the day
of the game in the Colosseum was a full day event. So I can imagine this area... From morning till dusk. Exactly, so it was very very crowded the entire area of the Colosseum. Okay so let's go straight,
you can see the Colosseum is very dirty inside. Yeah because the colosseum has been made
with this rough stone called the chavatin, which tend to absorb pollution especially So this part on the left has been cleaned uh, years ago. Has been, uh it's been also a very costly operation; 24 millions of euro. For the first floor, or only the outside?
Only for the cleaning, the extent of the facade Plus some maintenance work.
Part of the private sector financed this operation especially big brands of fashion, of Italy.
Those are the ones that spend money to to clean to preserve the city. For example Bulgari
cleaned the Spanish Steps. Fendi cleaned and they use the EUR district, which is beautiful
this is a part of Rome built by the regime (Mussolini) but indeed a beautiful piece of art of architecture. And thoughts this brand of shoes, they spent something like four million out of those 24. Okay. Exactly they contributed for the cleaning of the Colosseum, but as you
can see the internal part deserves some spring cleanliness.
Yeah, looks pretty black. And now we're going this direction. Okay and now we're going to enter in a special
part of the Colosseum which is not accessible to everybody. Because we're going to walk on the stage,
on the arena stage of the Colosseum. I'm excited. Here there are some peculiar things.
First of all, we can walk on the ground level which has been repaired partly. We can see the
only part of the early staircase still intact in the wall monomial original. Exactly, because
good parts of the stairs were actually taken and reused for other monuments.
The Colosseum has been a big quarry during the the middle age to reuse the
materials, so that's why a part has been repaired. And here in modern times, we decided to kind
of uh suggest to the visitor which was the shape of the Colosseum when it was all
intact. Because here we can see this big wall which is the wall that sustained the external
facade of the Colosseum. It sustained the two fifths of the external facade is still standing, because
good part of the Colosseum the external part collapsed for a number of reasons,
especially earthquakes. Earthquakes yeah. Okay, you can see here the main door.
The main entrance door. So this was the main entrance door? There were four main entrances.
Oh right, you mentioned. With a different kind of utilization let's say.
This is a particular door because this door is called the porta libidi nancy and was more exit door, rather than an
entrance door. But let's enter to see why. All right Frederico. Okay, so here we can see all
the foundation structure. We can see well actually many interesting things. For example you can see
the original paving of the Colosseum, which is this uh opus speak out or like these earring bone
those are all bricks. Aah really? That white one? Yeah this one, there. With a humidity
so this is all the paving, the original one. And we can also see channels in the stones. Water channels?
Those channels are the ones that were used to insert the frame of those famous elevators
that were placed in the underground part of the Colosseum to create this famous surprise effect.
So basically what those person used to do. This person used to store all the animals in those
small holes, those arches, there are 30 of those. Okay. So over there... You mean the small hole over there?
This, that's a two level area. No, so basically there are six sixty animals at the same time. Could be stored in the underground part, this downstage of the Colosseum. And released simultaneously?
And then you can also release that simultaneously. But most of the time the slaves those, 200/300
slaves that we used to work in the underground part of the Colosseum used to carry those big
cages till those internal corridors and now through a system of police they managed to to
elevate those those animals to the the arena level. Creating this famous surprise effect and
here we can see a reproduction of an elevator. Something like this. I don't know if you can see.
Yeah, I'll put one in the link as well. I'm not sure if it's clear, but it looks interesting.
Two levels, slaves, the pulleys and the lions that could exit. Imagine being a
gladiator here. Mix that feeling because there was maybe somebody being in his own pant and
maybe somebody which was maybe more experienced and so it was not maybe scary at all. Who knows?
We know that was a very spectacular kind of show and to create this surprise the war stage was
covered with the material the sand because the sand basically sucked the blood up. So what the
Romans used to do with this sand, is that they used to cover the war stage. And that's curious,
because the Latin name for sand is arena. I didn't know that. The Spanish language
for example still preserved the ancient Latin word 'arena'. One is the Italian Dutch English today
it was an arena. It's a place for entertainment basically, it's a stadium most of the time. But
the name derived from this material used to stuck the blood up, but also to hide the system of
trapdoors. So how was the platform formed? Like wooden...? Yeah it was made of wood
hawk and everything was covered. Today we just rebuilt one fourth and that's to give
you the chance to see what's under the ground. A new project will be to extend this arena level
till covering the wall perimeter of the stadium since the society that managed the
Colosseum want to make more money out of it. In this case you can sell the tour of
the underground part separately and you can organize concerts and stuff events over here.
Everything has an economic model behind it right? That's why we guides we are very very against this
operation. Right. Because for us the Colosseum must be used only for educational purposes.
There we can see the reconstruction of the seats using the original stones. Those kind of uh
not very accurate. That has been made by Mussolini that used this monument for its propaganda
proposals. Also for events and stuff? Also for events big speeches stuff like that. And so we
can see original stones with the names of the senators which owned that particular seat. But
to be honest, I don't imagine a senator sitting in this very small space. So that's why
i think that Mussolini was much better as a speaker rather than as an Archaeologist. That's why
this can be it's more a recall location of material than a reconstruction, because there
wasn't uh, a study behind it. So where was the emperor's seat? The emperor's seat is actually over there
where we can see what has remained of this stage. You can see just the skeleton, but we know that
this probably is this stage of the emperor for one evidence; the fact that the underground part of
the Colosseum got many many tunnels. And this has a tunnel that turned up that direction. Had in the
Palatine Hill, the Temple of Claudius. So this side was kind of a security exit. Because
imagine that here there were 50 to 60 thousand people but also the senators, ambassadors, those vestal virgins,
all the most important people of the empire was watching the show together. So that was
used also to stick social classes. So that's why if today at the stadium in Rome, Roma Lazio,
dangerous game people beat up each other we employ maybe one thousand, one thousand
two hundred policemen. Here there were up to three thousand soldiers, Praetorians also (the
private guard of the emperor), because the security measures were very very strict. The fact that there
was the emperor, their family. And just the emperor and their family could sit over here. Pulvinar
that's the name of this. On the first rank right? Most close to the battle? Exactly
there was another canopy on the top to protect the emperor. Just like in the
gladiator? Exactly. So over there you could find the emperor, but there was another stage
on this side, over there where the cross is where you could have found for example
other important people. For most of the time you could have found the editor, so the
person with sponsor eyes. Even if since this is the imperial stadium, the amphitheatre, good part
of the time it was the emperor that was financing this show, that was totally for free. Okay, how many
levels does this thing of? You can see one level over here, the senatorial level,
the vip section, then behind and see where that net the concrete the black concrete. Obviously there wasn't
a real middle class. So let's say that the first level there were the rich people (politicians) on
behind rich people still, but that decided to don't enter in politics and just to care about their
businesses. Then where those persons are walking, there was an internal corridor.
Because you'd never see, you just see basically seats. That's the little that you could see.
And behind you could find the middle class, the working class, average Roman citizens.
And the wall with windows another section between the windows and that uh a big stage
and a big level over there, big terrace. And on that terrace, seeded that on wooden seats,
the unimportant, origin people, slaves... Things that didn't change that much.
Right. Okay let's go to explore other, parts. But now we have to exit. And we have to exit through this door.
That was called the Porta Libitinensis, was this goddess of the gravestones you know. So I got this
related to the the death. So I can imagine that if you exit from this door, it's not very good
news for you. Normally dead people exit from here. Stones, inside there a lot.
So a lot of it is made in brick and the rest is made in the other material I guess? There are, the external frame it's all made
with this material; the travertine. We have great abundance of this it was like, like the Netherlands,
also Italy was all under the water in the historical era and this is what happens before the
calcium is sediment, calcium you know Stick together, melted together i would say. Cement?
I think that's what the Romans invented? No no no, this is because basically the pressure
of the ocean made the calcium very compact. So the monterey Central Italy, that before we roll
under the water, basically our full the spread abundance of this Tiburino, that was the the
Latin name for this and we have this city close to Rome: Tivoli. I don't know why, when I go vacation,
there is always a Tivoli theater, Tivoli park... But Tivoli means the city of the Tiburtino, the city
of the Travertine town. It is a situated on the North side of Rome, so the Romans could carve this stone using
the river. They could transport this material to Rome and all the external frame is made with this.
Then the tufa stone, this volcanic stone is very much used the Colosseum, because there is
all these stones that we can see on the left and right. It's a volcanic stone, so this basically all those
volcanic ashes compressed. 10 minutes of Rome for example are made mostly this kind of stone.
Tufa and brics of course. Of course romance were a great producer of bricks. Rome exported bricks for
many many centuries. During, especially during the imperial era and now we date monuments in
Rome. Because since all those bricks were, there is a stamp, there is a design ball of the factory
that produced that particular brick and if we know that that factory operated in this particular
time frame, that's how we managed to date part of the buildings. And then you can imagine
decoration marble is very operant to see was the imperial amphibian, but the most important.
And now let's climb second level. We're going to turn left. Obviously there is also an elevator. Oh let's take the stairs. A modern one.
Let's take the stairs. Those very steep steps. Look at those steps, huge steps. Huge because these were remade
in the 30s building on top of the originals. Since they built on the top of it,
it was a little bit taller than what they used to be. Those were built by basically.
You can notice, you really have to lift your knee up. Exactly, you have really yeah. I always say that the fitness is included,
in the in this video too So forgive my ignorance, but I don't think they
had glass right? The Romans? Yeah, did they? Yeah is that yes. They did so? Sorry.
The glass, we are going to see also some piece of glass found close to the Colosseum.
But the Romans could not reach very high temperatures so the glass was always a little bit cloudy.
It's not very transparent. But those condominiums the insulate, those buildings in Rome normally
at the first level, which was the most the priciest one. Because in case of fire
you could escape. The cheapest apartments were the ones on the very top and normally those
apartments are debris for the working class they don't have nothing. But the first level...
No emergency exits. Exactly, but the first level yes, they normally have glass windows.
This is like an example of how it would look like? Yes, it has been made in the 1830, because Colosseum,
the history of Colosseum as a monument started in the 19th century, when Italy has been
invaded by France. French people were more advanced. Imagine that Rome was a confessional state, was
more similar to a medieval state rather than a modern one like we understand that today.
For example in Rome, during those years people were obliged to go to the mass on the good
friday. Obliged and for example i was a city that you can the prime minister come back home and
maybe there are chickens in front of his house or sheeps. It was very backward. For example was a city
where a Jewish guy would be taken in the night, beaten up and then forced to convert,
convert to Christianism. Confessional state, not so the leader political leaders were priests and for them
this was a symbol that there is something different. There are different ways to live the
life, not only Christian Catholic. Is an example of a great society which belonged
to totally different things. And so the Colosseum has been used for quarry
as many many things and when the French people with Napoleon invaded Italy, they created those
Republics in Italy. They arrived in the Colosseum and they see a monument that was falling apart,
a monument that was full of sediments, a monumental that was used vandalized basically and they did a lot
of studies all national peace but also that. And the French people were the first people that started to include the cultural heritage in
the legislation let's say. The ancient and cultural heritage. Obviously even Raphael has been called to
supervise the ancient... Raphael? Exactly, it's been the first director of the ministry of the culture
Raphael for example. So it's not that it was a zero and then the French arrive ah.
But for sure the French gave a big impulse. Because those Roman were more exploited than
preserved, especially by the folks. I also see like there's a huge canopy. The velarium.
That they assumed was there? Exactly. Like for shade I guess?
Exactly 240 wooden pylons, all connected with ropes. Maintained in tension. Just like a normal stadium
has today right? More or less, exactly and so the light would shrink from inside through this big hole.
But as you can see the cheapest place we're all covered by this another no mistake so
that's why we have the uh supplemental canopy Strap doors, police, but what's interesting
also this. Because that's a reproduction, is a very accurate image of what you could have
found during the morning time in the Colosseum. Because what we saw on the documentary,
the documentaries with few people fighting. Or movies like the Gladiator is not totally accurate.
Because the Colosseum shows were a big mess. At the end of the day it was always the same stuff.
Like not really organized? No no, it was always following the same schedule for example. Normally it uhm, it started with this 'pompa magna',
so an opening ceremony, then after that
there was the game with the animals with multiple animals at the same time,
fought against those hunters. Hunters, bores...
They got those from their stretch of empire in Egypt I guess? Yeah oh it's Africa
of course that's been a big uh the main spot to reach.
There was a big industry behind. There are some which have to hold the animal,
the one that had to transport it, the one that organized all the transactions.
So it was uh it was a big industry let's say. And that's why the Colosseum was out the
organization of the events by many other buildings. And over there we can see that archaeological area
as you can see over there. I don't know if you... But on the right can you see a small amphitheater?
On the right, right side. Right here, exactly. It's half of a circle.
The remaining part of this circle is just under the road.
So in the basement they still have what remained of this building. Which was something in between a gym,
but also a prison, because that's the school of the gladiators. This person used to live on the left side,
there's more rooms right. But it's difficult to understand.
So I have a photo here that maybe can help us indeed. It's so difficult to understand because I've seen
some pictures you know at uh downstairs from how it has been and how it's obviously now
and you can't really recognize anything really. It's really hard to imagine that
that hill was basically a huge uh I don't know what it was fortification or temple
This would be a big house, a big palace. You wouldn't even see that today basically
you see some remnants and that's it. Yeah obviously the Colosseum the archaeological
too required a big effort of imagination. So the ropes for the velarium
were anchored to those pillars, meant to keep the velarium,
this seal in tension, But here we can see one, two, three different
kind of structures, because all this area was basically used for this purpose.
Number one, let's see what three mained of these ludu's magnus. This school... It's cool that you brought that ipad, with some pictures.
It really lives up to the imagination. 2500 seats, rooms for gladiators,
training pitch... Where that guy, the lanista, is checking if his own heart lit
was there to sign a contract with him they are training properly.
But what we can see in front of us is a imperial kind of gym. So it was run by the
government let's say. But they were amphitheater but they were private school of gladiator
most of them were private. It was all about the money at the end of the day. How much could they earn if they won?
Sorry? How much could they earn? They earn renting the service of gladiators. They were there was a big industry. There was the person which provide the animals, the one to provide the people for the fighting,
the one that have to organize in general all the all the events. As we could see there are
also sonographies. We need the slaves, slaves that have to operate at the those elevators.
Here we can see the counterweights of those elevators. We can also see here, the structure of the Colosseum with the different levels.
Rich, rich, poor, poor, porest. So let's say today the Colosseum would still be here
and if you want to buy a ticket. How much in euros would it cost? It was for free.
Oh right completely for everyone? Not for everybody. Because for example for foreign people,
so non-Romans, in this case normally the ticket, to pay the ticket and we don't know
how much it cost also. To me its difficult to speak about the Colosseum, the Colosseum has a very long history. It has maintained active from the 80 AD till the 523 more or less. So very very
long history. And so rise organization everything seems a lot. Those are oil lamps,
these are the animals that we found in the sewer system of the Colosseum. Ah so that's how you know that animals were involved.
From chickens, to ostriches... I prefer the ostrich.
And then you mentioned the glass, Roman glass. That's a Roman glass of the third century.
So it got 1800 year, the piece of glass. Amazing that it's still like that's preserved.
Yeah, we can see the games of the Romans; board games, dices... It's all stuff that we found.
What the Roman eat; seats, fruit. All this stuff has been found nearby the Colosseum area.
We can also see graffiti, presenting the venationes, the haunting game, the morning time game. People killing the animals.
Or for example gladiators. This guy. We can see TER on the top.
We understood this TER as a philly cheater.
So he is like 'yay'. Probably this guy has won. Or maybe the one that made this graffiti won a big money,
betting on this guy. You can see also a nice mosaic, from Austin.
And we can see those people which were transporting the animals. Those guys were basically working at the port of Rome,
so their job was to carry the animals from the port to the city center.
Those little zoos nearby the Colosseum. It is an ancient mosaic black and white Romans did like the television.
So they went from black and white to colors. Late empire mosaics are all very powerful. Coins, that's an accurate position.
Yeah we can see the statues. On other coins we don't see.
We can see the shields, the seats with all the people. And this is an image, this is a coin which has been
minted in the 80 AD, the inauguration of the emperor Titus of the Colosseum.
And I reckon the coin wasn't really that large, but I'm not sure how large it was, but these are but this is really detailed right?
Yeah, I mean you could see this narrow whatever they're holding.
Romans were good money makers, but Greeks were better. Normally the Romans mint a lot of Greek people work in Romans AD 476 is like a national date of the Colosseum of the Roman empire.
And that's when started an another era for the Colosseum because what happened; the public invasion, those people
destroyed the aqueducts, Rome became a small town 50 000 people, from 1.5 of million. It has been the
very first city to reach 1 million people in the history and it became a town basically.
And all those Roman monuments are to be colonized by important powerful families and
the Colosseum became kind of a castle. That's why the stair that we saw before is still preserved,
because it was the stair used to enter in this castle.
So that's why this France-Japanese family didn't exploit that material. But they say the Colosseum in the middle
age is very linked to the Christian Catholic church. That at some point became the owner,
of course that was part of the history that has been used that we can see all pottery from the middle ages. Because the Colosseum has been used also
like a mall, like there was the taylor shop blacksmith, the butcher
and that is the production of the Colosseum in those years Shops and then also the houses of the people.
Homeless people that colonized those buildings. That's typically wrong, many buildings
ancient Roman buildings suffer this kind of exploration. But I told you
that the Christian Catholic church became an owner this place. Some congregation as well. And the Colosseum became very
famous for those procession held the good Friday Easter time.
That's why at some point they even thought to build a church inside the Colosseum. We had the drawings.
It's too bad it's not here today. We have more than 100 churches in Rome.
Of course... It's a pretty unique site right, in an arena to have a Cathedral.
Yeah but I mean, I prefer the Colosseum as an archaeological Roman site. Because it was a church. You want to build your own church, but that
was to those guys. But it was quite a recent kind of image because they were all painted by this community of Danish people which lived
in Rome in the beginning of the 19th century. Many of those under many of those Danish people. Which gave us a representation of
how we could have found the Colosseum during those years. Behind, you can see a famous model, made by an Italian architect. Imagine that they spent eight years to
build the Colosseum from the 72 to the 80 AD. This guy spent 12 years to make the model of the Colosseum.
It's from stone? It's wood. It looks like stone.
It's painted. It's highly detailed.
Yeah yeah, 12 years, one person job. And the last step of the east of the Colosseum.
Here we can see how Mussolini used the gal in front of
the monument for his parade for his march. Try to push the Italians in participating
in this big war and that's the liberation from the Nazi Fascist occupation
happening the 5th of June 1944. They are temporary expositions every now and then Here there is this Pompeii exposition. A comparison of the study between Rome and Pompeii.
That's a very nice row of uh preserved in wine.
And so here you can see called the tub you can see all Europe imagined by the Romans the year 600,
when the Roman empire already collapsed. We can see Spain, Ireland, Britain.
Strange map to see it like this. Exactly, Morocco... Where is Germany?
Germany, the hearts. Does also include like Africa?
That's a Libya. Sardinia...
Of course, so this is the Mediterranean? Here we can see the uh, this is then Croatia.
Yes Venice, Rome, Sicily. Are those red lines like the roads?
Yes roads. Well the roads lead to Rome.
Aurelia. What's this here? This should be the port of Rome,
called the Portus. So there was a road called the Portuensis;
the road that goes to the port. Here we can see Sicily,
Calabria, Greece. Very extensive knowledge of the world they had.
Yeah, Cyprus. All right Cyprus, so then we have here also Egypt. Yeah yeah, Egypt is this.
This is Egypt. Yeah we can see. Nice, not bad. Not bad at all.
And that's this exposition in Pompeii. You can see the very first fighting at the stadium, the history.
People beating up each other. Most important pieces are for example this;
is a micro mosaic. You can see that the stones are very very small.
Original? Yeah.
Wow. Very rich Roman house, rich guy. Pompeii Oh another nice piece of walls, Roman houses, those Pompeii style. You can see an example of Roman paintings from frescoes.
Very small the characters. How are they painted on, is that stone or?
Yeah that is a fresco. It's a mix, it's like concrete.
It's a mix and they paint and the paint enters inside the wall. For example, here we can see an important
character that contributed to the development of Pompeii.
To the reach the right of image so they could be honored by the citizens of Pompeii.
Not through this stage, so they will be forever. Those were the ones that built the amphitheater.
The one that has some credits. There is a video of the eruption of Pompeii.
So this very interesting, but that will be for the next video. I will put a sort of video in the link.
Exactly. So here you go.
The outside parameters, or the inside I mean. Now we reach our spot.
Because that's the working class section of the stadium. Right here. Let's see, okay. Yeah, it's pretty impressive. This obviously was an internal corridor. Not really...
Like with a roof and stuff? Those were all arches, staircases.
The staircases were at some point Were all closed, like this, for security reasons.
Like here we can see the plaster of the Colosseum. Because you never see the bricks in the Colosseum actually.
The ground level was all covered with marble, which has been reused, recycled.
Bad for more recycling but But yes, it was very very well decorated.
But that's the working class section. So that's why it just plastered.
Then we can see those vault, made of concrete. And normally the Romans mixed the concrete with the tufa stones.
That's so basically this more sustaining. On the top seats of the people, which were made of travertin.
Like a lot of steps. These are rebuild, its also let's say repaired.
There is not much of the original pavement over here. Otherwise you couldn't even walk here I guess?
Yes, so basically they try to protect. From Pompeii. That's a panel of the second century
from the Napolitan museum of archaeology. You can see fighting between gladiator.
I guess they were referees. In the middle somewhere?
In the back guy, right there. I don't know who everybody else were.
But those two guys dressed up with toga. Oh the guys that are more like, on the background?
Exactly, but that was funny, that was followed by certain rules. It's more like MMA fighting, but more or less.
Here we can see some mosaics, which depict referees. I guess it would be quite dangerous to be a referee right?
That you can risk. You have this stick, like a boxing fighting you know?
Too much confusion, it's again. They didn't strike him?
No no no, there was a wall to separate for the fighters. So many different kinds; the fishermen for example,
the chaser. Many many different kind of gladiator.
Yeah we can see some original equipment. As I told you this was not a fight until the death. Those guys were private possession of this 'lanista',
this manager of the gladiator. So I don't know, you don't want to invest the money not to spend for those guys for the training, for the food. And then also those guys were not used to fight
many many times every year. Right, so it was quite an investment to have them trained and fat you know.
Exactly. It would be a shame to die. That's why most of the time if the editor,
the one that organized the game kill, or in the fighting one
gladiator was killed, executed then the editor had to repay back to the 'lanista',
the manager, the entire cost of the gladiator. So that's why the mortality rate is
much lower of what we imagine, much lower. 10 percent, in some cases even lower.
Quite low, quite low. Still not perfect. Then at some point when the Roman
empire turned into a Christian Catholic empire, those fighting's started to
be limited through the total prohibition. And this was used basically for uh fighting
between animals, exotic animals. But at that point the Roman empire especially, the Western
Roman empire was already quite poor, because a good part of the uh premium narrative businesses all
moved to the Eastern part. Even the capital at some point has been moved to the East: Constantinople.
So Rome became a impoverished city. So what today is Istanbul?
Exactly. So the very last fighting organized during the year was similar to a bull fighting let's say. Like the Spanish 'corrida'. So from here on the left,
we can see the quantum construction materials. You can see also where we were before.
Yeah, we were down here right? Exactly Right here I guess the brick side here is quite new,
in the sense of perhaps 80 years / 100 years? Yeah it's 200 years more or less. First part of the 19th century.
I guess it's built to maintain its structural integrity. Exactly, so the Colosseum will stop to lose pieces.
Because this is the most fragile part of the monument. That's why you have to wrap
those steel chains around those columns. That's some serious reinforcement. That's the tufa, this greenish kind of stone.
It's volcanic stones, because sometimes it's mixed with the concrete for the boats.
Are these stones from the region here or more like? It's locally sourced. All of those material are locally sourced.
In the sense locally like proximity of what 50 kilometres?
Yes, 50/60 kilometres more or less. The travertin is the one that they purchase
a little bit further than the other materials because the seven ins of room are made with
tufa or for example the bricks where uh where the clay for the bricks was taken
from those cities close to the Vatican area. There were many many of those factories over there and
those factories were actually maintained active till a few decades ago.
Always has been an area of reproduction the vatican area. Here we can see the most
beautiful and the most famous terrace. Here is also where the king of Italy
Mussolini took those speeches to the people. The church at the Colosseum just underneath this.
You can also see the other wing over there. Let's see that they play the color of the clay changer
has been made different. When the wind comes, people could hear it? He was talking about when the wind comes,
people could hear the wind gushing in the stadium or something.
Nothing that is referring to especially middle ages in the Colosseum because the Colosseum was uh
the people forgot what happened in the Colosseum. Even before there was a temple actually,
the temple of the god of the sun. Because it was circular. So people in the middle age were very superstitious
and they thought that this place was hunted. It was basically a place where you can
practice the black magic. Or there were some spirits phantom living inside here. It was seen as a scary kind of place the Colosseum,
people didn't like it. But then when they started to clean the
Colosseum for this procession people was more keen maybe to explore.
This procession were made during the good Friday most of the time. That's why there are those stations those small outers.
You see that there is a halter over there. There are many of those.
Not just one survey for historical memory. You mean the white one, there?
Yes crosses the bronze cross. That was a void, the Polish pope. And for example we found weapons of the Nazis,
the sewer system has been a deposit of weapons. Has been a for example when the the American people arrived, you had to clean up this place.
And you notice that there are many graffiti of people, especially in the ground level.
Because before there weren't the fences. You can see people who step in and that's it.
Then in the night... It was booby trapped.
What is booby trapped? Booby trap is like you place a bomb or something else.
And someone goes in and something blows up right? Ah ok, they disappear? No it's like a a trap, a trap for people.
Ah okay okay. There where also homeless people sleep and living here.
Then at some point in the 90's we understood that we could simply put a fence, ticket office
and squeeze the tourists with this. So that's in the 90s,
it's where the story of the Colosseum as a touristic attraction started. I also heard that they used to fill up this place with
water and then hold a sort of sea battle. I'm not sure if it's true.
Yeah, we have a one record; Naumachia, which is this kind of game. You can see, you can see from here. Yeah exactly.
Boats, here the velarium canopy. But we have just one recorded Naumachia because martial, this famous roman historians wrote in
this book the spectacularis regarding the shows about this uh this battle.
The water, but what we think is that uh this happened just a few times, maybe just that time.
Because it was very difficult for for the Romans to fill up with water this big amphitheater.
But what we know is that the underground part was unexisting in
the inauguration. When they inaugurated the monument was still not completed basically.
So there was the entire downstage that still wasn't there, it was still uh four flat.
Okay so it could fill up with water and both could you know.
As I say, because you need just 1.5 meter water so the ship could sail.
Enough to turn ships could enter inside the Colosseum. But obviously this was a very costly kind of show.
It was also very difficult to organize because to fill up with water the arena
they spent between six and eight hours. So it was very long, very costly.
And also the Romans didn't like the show so much. The Romans were more a population of land rather than a population of sea. Romans are famous for the legions as for the novel battles let's say.
That's the way what we think is that the mission is the brother of Titus, son of the person which
started the construction of the Colosseum from the Flavian family decided to get rid of
this show in the Colosseum and focus of what the Romans liked the most; fighting between
animals and people. They started to build this underground part, the downstage of the
Colosseum, with this system of elevators. That's ingenious.
Special effects. It's also ingenious to have a sea battle here and I guess they had to use some kind of water
hydraulics to fill it up. Because there are many underground rivers that flew under the Colosseum. This was a big lake back in the time. So actually this whole area
was a little bit lower than the rest of the the surrounding area right?
Yeah it was an artificial lake. Yeah that picture.
The Domus Aurea of the house of Nero, right here. There was this big artificial lake, private swimming pool and the emperor Nero which has been grown. That was a big private swimming pool.
That's more than a six Olympic pool. Exactly, there you can have a novel bottle, not here.
Nice. And then has been all droned. This part of the city has been given back to the citizens,
by this new emperor, this new family which wants to meet the favor of the population
so that's why he decided to dismantle this big palace giving back to the population the spirit,
this part of land, made this public again. And it started the construction of a big
big amphitheater, the biggest in the Roman world. The biggest ever built also for
uh conquered the favor to want that he wanted the population on his side.
The working class on his side. raising from the memory It's very difficult to imagine how this
was back in the time. So that's why I have a... Yeah I've seen some pictures,
it's really hard to imagine. So it would look like that. Only then there. All right.
It's too bad, it's totally gone right? The only part which has been preserved is uh the back of this hops.
Yeah, the scupula thing there. Because the Christian Catholic church
used this as a garden of this big church Santa Francesca Romana and that's how at least
for example the original paving managed to survive. So we have an idea.
That's the construction. Oh, that's a nice picture. Wow, what a huge building that was. Let's go here.
The stairs are very steep so... That's a nice part in my opinion, because
that is one of the main entrances, remember the lot the exit that is the god of entrance
they've got the daw of the tribes so when they start the the day inside the Colosseum, the day
of game and they started with a big ceremony the Pompa Magna, so like the Super Bowl more or less.
The performers bayon says speaking in Latin this kind of stuff. Everybody can hate the
emperor and all the spectators, not the citizens of Rome. That's a nice spot, because in here you
can realize the size of the Colosseum. I was already impressed.
But indeed, you can really see the size, from left to right. There can be a much bigger stadium, but still impressive. I mean the top of that, that stage.
I mean the weight would have been tremendous. See those big boxes, on the top? Yes.
Those were part of this system for this place's big seal. Okay, let's go. Remember at the top level was uh
plaster to go to the bricks and the paving was made with uh yeah with those bricks the
hearing bone structure right being these them part of the the rich people. See the marble.
All right, this is the original one. Yeah. Channels, in the Tufa. The archaeologists
start to measure and there we can see the famous elevator, this is this reproduction
made in 2014. Oh downstairs, there?
Yeah, it's a functional elevator, made of wood. So are there any tours that show you how to use it? There is a video online, you can see
a documentary of this guy maybe making the elevator and they tried that
lifting a wolf, she-wolf (symbol of the city). That's still impressive. That's the biggest but uh there are hundreds of those
kind of structures spreading around Europe. The emergency exit of the emperor.
Obviously he was sitting on the top. Oh right, so he was sitting right here?
Yeah yeah, on the top. And he could flee this way?
Exactly, or he could enter, the stadium. All for one man. Not everybody like the games. For example Adrian
hate the games. But for example, I don't know the Commodus, the one of the movie Gladiator even fought
kind of, in the arena. So it was really depending of the emperor how much you want to find and
so much often you want this game to be organized. The Colosseum has been maintained active for
hundreds of years. It is very difficult to have an average of telling how many days of games
they were organized every year. But we can say that some point of the empire even had 100 days of game every year. So one out of three games inside
the Colosseum. Or every year maybe 60/70 days. That's the last preserved. The god is the 16,
the pope prepared this part. This is the last person because it's the one that's been exploited the
most all the material of the Colosseum being used for other purposes. So this part was actually kind
of rubble or something? Yeah, exactly. Even because during those processions normally the pope was on the other side of the Colosseum. So you say if you have to take the material
out of the monument better to use this side because over here there was nothing, rather than
the other. Because the other is still used because that road led to Saint John Lateran, if you remember.
So sometimes that was the most important church of Rome. More than Saint Peter in the middle age.
And so since they use their path for those processions the pope says never ever take out the part of
the monument from the other side. Use this part. So that's it for the Colosseum I guess?
Sorry? Yeah I guess, that's enough.
Yeah, sure. It's also bloody hot here. All right thank you for the tour.
And on to the next one.
