My favorite day in Rome was when we got to visit the Roman Forum and the Colosseum. I learned about ancient Rome in middle school when I took Latin classes, and I have been fascinated by the history ever since. So when we decided to go to Italy for our honeymoon, I knew we had to visit these places that were so important to the Romans nearly 2,000 years ago.
We started off at the Forum, which was the main square of the city, which used to have a firewall around it for protection. All of the ruins were actually underground until about 150 years ago when they were excavated. People could actually touch the roofs of the buildings since they were that far buried! There were roads going across the area, but after the ruins were found, the streets were removed.
Inside the forum was a basilica (the word did not originally mean church; back then it was "King's Hall" in Greek), a law court, pagan temples (including those to Jupiter and Juno), and a shrine to Caesar commissioned by his son, future leader Octavius. Around the area you could see olive trees, fig trees, and grape vines, which were considered the three trees of life. And we really did see these plants everywhere, and lemons, too! (more on the lemons in another post!)
After the Forum, we walked over to the Colosseum. It is the largest (or at least tallest) standing amphitheater in the world, and is built of concrete, which the Romans invented. It took eight years to build, and there actually used to be a huge sail covering the top, like a circus tent, to provide shade to spectators. There were 80 entrances and capacity was somewhere between 50,000-70,000 people. Events were free, but patrons used reusable terracotta "tickets" to attend.
The reason part of the structure is missing is that it's built on sand, and during an earthquake in 443 AD, part of it gave way. In 1750, the Colosseum was named a religious shrine to protect it from being torn down; thank goodness someone had the foresight to preserve this magnificent building!
As we explored, we immediately started thinking of the movie Gladiator. (Did you know the word gladiator comes from the word "gladius," meaning sword in Latin?) There are two stories of basement, and that is where there were markets, slaves, animals, and more. There was actually a gladiator school nearby where the men would train. While we could look into the stories below, originally the floor was made of wood, and below were the pulleys, elevators, and hidden doors. The fights ended in 404 AD after Christianity banned them when a monk jumped into the arena and was killed. But wouldn't it have been quite the site to see a gladiator fight back then!
And Rome was only the first THIRD of our trip! Up next: Florence!
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