Today, we became highly priveleged archaeologists. We once again made the trek all the way across town to the old part of the city to see Il Coliseo. Our tour guide, Antonello, was a real live grown-up archaeologist and he had keys to let us behind gates with huge padlocks, to go both higher up and lower down than anyone else can go. Oh, those hapless tourists, gazing longingly after us as Antonello hurriedly locked the gates... how nice it is not to be one of them.
With Antonello, we learned all about the history of the Coliseo. The Emperor Vespasian started building it in 70 AD, and it was actually called the Flavian Ampitheater for a really long time- the word "Coliseum" comes from a statue that used to be outside it called the Colossus of Nero. (Guess what that was? A really small statue of Emperor Augustus). The Coliseo was used, as we all know, for gladiatoral games, where gladiators (usually slaves) would be pitted to fight against one another or against large (and usually starved and angry) animals like lions, tigers, and bears- oh my! One of the padlocked gates we crossed brought us under what used to be the floor, to the barracks of the gladiators and the animals. Antonello showed us the elevator lift system that was used to bring the animals up from under the floor through trapdoors (a process that took 16 slaves), so that the gladiators would always be surprised by the animal they were facing. Another really awesome thing we learned about was that the Coliseo was also used to reenact naval battles, and we got to see the rooms underneath where the boats were kept and the system connected to the aqueducts that would fill the Coliseo with water. It was a crazy elaborate system with a canal connecting the Coliseo to an artificial lake. As if we weren't impressed enough with Roman engineers, we also learned that almost none of the Coliseo is held together with cement. At all. That's why it has so many arches- the Romans were very confident (clearly with reason) in their super sturdy arch system. The natural pressure of the formation and the 'keystone' of the arch, coupled with bars that held stones together through drilled holes, is pretty much all that's held the Coliseo together for 2,000 years. This is what mankind can accomplish without TV and internet.
The Coliseo held 80,000 spectators, by the way. And the reason that it's in the ruin-y state it's in is only earthquakes and stone theives. In general, the thing has held up pretty well, although it used to be covered in marble and have a wall all around it. It looks so different today that I spent most of my time trying to recreate the original in my head, which is very difficult. From the top of it, as high as it is still safe to go, the view of the old city is amazing (two Medieval belltowers!!). We looked out over the forum, the spot where the Colossus of Nero was, and the remnants of the great temple of Venus and Roma. Speaking of the Colossus of Nero, it's an interesting example of how artistic symbols evolved through time, somethign we've been talking about a lot. After Nero's reign, everybody realized he was kind of a terrible emperor, so they adapted the statue into Helios, the sun god, and later replaced the head several times with other emperors. Even into Medieval times as the statue kept standing, even though it was pagan, it was thought of as a symbol of Roma's endurance. Il Coliseo is a fascinating example of the integration of early Christianity into paganism. After Constantine made Rome Christian, the original use of the Coliseo was discontinued, debatably because many slaves killed there had been Christians. Throughout the Middle Ages, the building was variously a church, quarry, castle, and monastery. Finally, in hte 1700s, proper excavations and preservations started, because the Catholic church declared it a sacred site of martyrs (historical evidence for the truth of this is scant and controversial). Today, it is both a tourist attraction and religious site. The Pope still does Stations of the Cross around the Coliseo every Good Friday.
After a break for lunch in which Kylee fangirled her Filipino heart out over a fresh coconut fountain, we went to the Pantheon. To summarize the Pantheon, it was a pagan temple converted to a Christian church. In my opinion, it has one of the most beautiful interiors of any building in the city, although I really, really wish I could know more about what kind of art was there before the Christians moved in. The rich colors and patterns, however, are still fascinating. The Pantheon as a Catholic church is a church specifically honoring martyrs, so the main attractions are statues and paintings of some of them, along with rich people's tombs (including one Vittorio Emmanuel II, responsible for the prettiest montrous white obscenity in the city). However, the coolest thing is the tomb of Raffaello Sanzio (the Raphael, of the ninja turtles and priceless art and all). His famous epitaph, "Ille hic est Raffael, timuit quo sospite vinci, rerum magna parens et moriente mori," or "Here lies Raffael, by whom Nature feard to be conquered while he lived, and when he was dying, feared Herself to die," is, in my opinion, quite a fitting tribute to the beauty of his art, and all great art, really.
Thus concluded the strictly educational portion of the day.
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