I Came, I saw, I Took Pictures!

After yesterday's death-defying march through the Vatican, we needed an easy day. Hotel Canova is in what I refer to as Beautiful Downtown Empire. Just a 10 minute walk and we were at the Colosseum.

You might think the Empire was a monolithic structure where orders came down from above and everyone started goose-stepping. It was not. The Empire was very political. The Emperor kept power (and his life) as long as he led the people where they wanted to go.

Nero was hated. He took public lands for his private use. In the case I'm thinking of, he had a private lake made from a park. After Nero was gone, Emperor Vespasian ordered the lake be drained and the Colosseum built on its sight. It was finished in about 10 years and opened by Emperor Titus. The original name was the Amphitheatrum Flavium or Flavian Amphitheatre. (Flavian was the family name of both Vespasian and Titus.)

The purpose of the Colosseum was very clear. Caesar controlled Rome by controlling the rabble that was the common citizen. Caesar paid for the games, and you received your free ticket from your Senator. In this way, the Senate supported Caesar, and the citizen supported both. A day at the Colosseum was filled with executions, people fighting animals, Gladiators, and free food.

Much like Stonehenge, I found the Colosseum smaller than I had expected. In fact, I don't think you could get much more than a baseball diamond on its floor. But the advantage was that you could get really close to the blood and guts! As I stood just behind where the Senators would have sat, I considered what a prisoner would experience just 10 or 20 yards in front of me. If the Colosseum held 70,000 people around this bowl, and you were in the center, it would be the loudest noise you'd ever heard. Probably just before you died.

We rented a headset with a recorded guide. The problem was the map that came with it, which has numbered stations you punch into the headset, was too confusing and often we were not where the recording was talking about.

After soaking in the Colosseum, we walked over to the Roman Forum, which is right next-door, but instead of seeing it, we headed up the hill to the palace complex. This is included on the same ticket as the Colosseum.

The palace is truly ruins, mostly bricks lying on the ground. Most Roman structures were made of brick and then covered in marble, just as the Pantheon was. And just like that structure, and the Colosseum, the marble was taken away from the palace long ago to make other buildings. The marble from the Colosseum was used for St. Peter's Basilica.

Each Caesar would build onto the palace complex, and it sprawled. Just down the hill to the back of the palace was the Circus Maximus. But here in the palace, Caesar had his own private circus. By the way, at this point, Circus Maximus is just a dirt track and isn't even worth photographing.