At a Roman Colosseum,
audiences could munch on chickpeas while
watching a midday execution or check out the lions-- no, not those-- and
other exotic animals released through the
arena's hidden trap doors from their cramped
seats, or even observe Roman elites harvesting
actual sweat from gladiators to make themselves sexier. Events held at the
Colosseum were so varied and elaborate that the audience
never knew what to expect. Today, we're looking
at what it was like to be a spectator
at the Roman Colosseum. Before we get into it,
make sure you subscribe, hit that bell for
notifications, and let us know what history
you'd like to experience. Now we go to the Colosseum. [MUSIC PLAYING] Admission into the
Colosseum was free, one of the many perks of
being a Roman citizen. But attendees still
had assigned seating. The podium and first
few rows made up the first and best tier, where
the emperor, Vestal virgins, and about 2,000
other Roman athletes who watched the blood sport. Merchants, government
toadies, and other well-heeled patricians
got to sit in the second tier. Higher up, the third tier was
reserved for ordinary Joes. That's where most of the
real fans would end up. Going to the games was kind
of like going to Disneyland, you know, if Donald and
Goofy fought to the death for the edification
of Emperor Mickey. On festival days, the Colosseum
attracted 50,000 spectators, a gold mine for vendors. Outside the Colosseum,
traders and street sellers hawked food and
souvenirs to visitors. They may have even sold
programs with stats on the gladiator, sort
of like Topps baseball cards of the day, that
could presumably immediately spike in value thanks to all
the sudden athlete death. Let's hope that
Mickius Mantle Maximus card is in mint condition. As for street food, the Romans
enjoyed sausages, chickpeas, and pastries. Inside the Colosseum, they could
grab sweets, wine, and snacks. Got any nuts? I haven't got any nuts, sorry. I've got wren's
livers, badger spleens. No, no, no. And of course, there was
merchandise-- a wooden ball with a special token inside. The tokens could be cashed in
for special prizes from food or cash to their own spot on an
island, which, exciting as that sounds, is just what
the Romans called their multistory
apartment buildings. Once visitors made
it inside, they faced the challenge of finding
their seats in a stadium big enough to hold 50,000. Depending on a
status, a man might settle right into a nice
spot at the lowest level, climb 12 to 15
stories to the top to sit with the
womenfolk and the poor, who probably have the
toughest time climbing 15 freaking stories of stairs. Both the entrances
and the staircases were kept separate by
iron and marble dividers, and like the seating
areas, the passageways were divided by class. Covering about six
acres of land and rising 12 to 15 modern stories
tall, the Colosseum was and remains the largest
amphitheater in the world. But although the building
itself was grand, the majority of the audience
was as cramped as flying coach on American Airlines. Everyone not in the
ancient Roman version of the first class got
a 15-inch wide seat with 27.5 inches of leg room. Now subtract air conditioning,
add 15 levels of stairs, and you'd be ready to watch some
bloody gladiators fight, too. [MUSIC PLAYING] Because of the immense
size of the structure, spectators in the
nosebleed section probably couldn't see or
hear much of the action. The highest part of
the 15-story stadium sat upon a wall,
which extended 16 feet above the other spectators. The crowds at the top,
made up of mostly women and the impoverished, strained
to see the fights below. And while the roar of the
crowd could make it to the top, the spectators in
the highest seats probably couldn't hear much
else from the fighting ring. This mirrors the living
situation in the city. The islands we talked
about earlier were about six stories
tall with rent mostly determined by the number
of decaying stairs a tenant had to climb
to get to his apartment. We can imagine what it was
like to try and convince your friends to help
you move a sofa. A hideaway bed? These haven't even
been invented yet. As you'd expect, the
emperor got the best seat in the house, the imperial box. Gladiators fought before him
and appealed to him for mercy, often successfully. The emperor could order a
gladiator's end at any time with only his thumb, and
spectators waited and watched for his reactions. Contrary to the movie cliche,
forgiveness was the rule, not the exception,
and the gladiators were more likely to
die from deep wounds than they were from an
inverted royal thumb. While the Roman elites might
sit close to the emperor, the [INAUDIBLE] ruler was-- you guessed it-- separated
from the other spectators. He even had dedicated doors to
enter and exit the Colosseum, so he never ran into the rabble
or slipped on lion droppings and discarded sausage. There's more sense
than ego to this. Nothing inflames mob
mentality like violence, and Rome was beginning to
decay before the Colosseum was even built. The Mediterranean sun can be a
real bastard during the summer months, but the Colosseum
provided a place of respite, thanks to the velarium, which
is a fancy word for a really big curtain. The velarium was the building
system of adjustable awnings, similar to a ship's
mast and sails. A ship crew stationed near
Rome maneuvered the rig. Using ropes and
pulleys, the crew could pull a large
piece of fabric or smaller separated strips
across the top of the structure and block the sun. Ironically, that meant that
while they couldn't see or hear much from their seats,
the lowest class could enjoy the shadiest
part of the Colosseum, while the nobles
sweated in the sun. It's basically like
going to the movies just to sit in the air conditioning. Fights at the Colosseum often
had their own soundtrack. Spectators thrilled to the
sounds of trumpets, horns, and water organs,
while gladiators tilted at exotic animals
and, of course, each other. Music continued even
when the emperor was deciding whether a hapless
gladiator had shown enough grit to fight another day. The music was more than just
entertainment for the audience, though. It also served as a
cue for the stagehands. The music might tell them
when to release a wild animal into the arena or when
the next fight was about to start, sort of like how
stone Cold Steve Austin knew it was time to run into the ring. [APPLAUSE] [MUSIC PLAYING] The Colosseum had a wide
array of spectacles. Though many depictions
of the arena show seats surrounding a
sandpit, the floor had a complex layout
of walls and chambers underneath a wooden platform. Different pieces
of scenery could be elevated through
the Colosseum floor, providing new and distinct
scenarios for every show, like the Pokemon stadium
in Smash Brothers. Among the intricate caverns
under the Colosseum, there were even runoff
canals to drain the arena after a naval performance,
called a naumachia, was performed. The wooden platform
in its supports were removed from
the Colosseum floor. Water was then diverted from
aqueducts into the center, creating an artificial lake
of up to five feet deep. Scaled down ships were
brought into the stadium to re-enact famous naval
battles from history. A lot of people,
especially if they've seen the movie, Gladiator,
assume gladiators were all slaves or
criminals convicted to die in the arena for
Rome's entertainment. But that wasn't always the case. Some Romans actually signed
up at gladiator schools to become professionals. For those who did, the benefits
of being a victorious gladiator outweighed the inherent
risks of the work. Gladiators were treated
like celebrities in Rome, like modern athletes. Roman children could even
buy clay action figures representing famous fighters. Victors sometimes had affairs
with aristocratic women. Graffiti from
Pompeii even bragged about their supposed prowess. Gladiators' sweat was
considered an aphrodisiac, so Romans sometimes mixed
it into their face creams. Given this information,
it is our duty to assume that LeBron James
puts some of his sweat into every bottle of his
official Sprite flavor. One of the many shows
held within the Colosseum was the animal hunt. The bestiarii, gladiators
trained to battle wild animals, squared off against lions,
tigers, bears, oh, my, along with hippopotamuses,
elephants, deer, giraffe, and allegedly, even whales. The bestiarii fought a
combination of both harmless and potentially
dangerous animals, but the fighters
were rarely at risk. Of the thousands of animals
slain in a single day, many were taken out from
afar with spears or bows. Presumably, that's
how most of the whales were dealt with,
because we can't imagine Russell Crowe wrestling
with a whale and winning. Mm, actually, maybe we can. Even though it's been
highly propagated as fact, and though it is possible,
there is no evidence to suggest that Christians
were killed and fed to lions at the Colosseum. The association between
the Colosseum and Christian suffering was first stated
in the fourth century, but then largely forgotten
until the 17th century. During the fourth century, CE,
Christian and Latin scholar Lactantius and Bishop
Caesarea Eusebius wrote of emperors intentionally
slaying Christians. Such actions were never imperial
policy, but scattered events, which occurred
around the empire. The Colosseum did regularly
feature punishments referred to as the midday games, where
law breakers and POWs, called the damnati, were condemned
through a multitude of different and
horrible methods. Sometimes the damnati
were thrown defenseless into the arena to be torn
apart by wild animals, while others were forced to
fight one another to the death. Roman Colosseum battles were
like the original Battle Royale. After the disastrous reign
of Emperor Nero and three other rulers, all
within a single year, Emperor Vespasian rose to
power and distanced himself from the distasteful image of
personal luxury and opulence associated with
his predecessors. Through propaganda and great
projects around the empire, Vespasian established
his vision as a leader who worked for the Roman
people, not his own desires. One such project
was the Colosseum. Vespasian personally
commissioned it as an entertainment venue
for the people of Rome. Over the next 10
years, Vespasian demolished Nero's private
lake and, in its place, built the enormous Colosseum. At the time, however,
no one called it that. It was instead known as
the Flavian Amphitheater, after the emperor's family. So why do we call
it the Colosseum? The title itself only dates
back as far as the 11th century, and most historians believe
it is named after the Colossus Neronis, a large bronze
statue commissioned by Nero, which was once located
near where the Colosseum was built. So essentially,
one vanity project was replaced by another,
except people actually liked the Colosseum. Used for four centuries to
exhibit the heart and soul of an empire, the
Colosseum has become the de facto icon of Rome. Its construction alone
heralded the beginning of a new political environment. So what do you think
of the Colosseum? Would you rather see
an event then or now and pay 20 bucks for a beer? Let us know in our comments
below, and while you're at it, check out some of these
other weird videos from our weird history.
