We get our gladitor on

Since we had a day up our sleeve before we depart for Singapore we decided "why don't we go back and see the Colosseum". We decided to catch the first courtesy bus from the camp to get to the train (which was so packed it wasn't funny) so we could beat the crowds. We walked along to the Colosseum to find there was no line at all. It definitely pays to get to the Vatican and Colosseum early if you ever come to Rome. We got to the front in under two minutes and booked 4 spots in the earliest english guided tour.




Well it definitely wasn't the best tour ever, it was actually fairly crap, the speakers our tour guide was talking into got heaps of static and she was speaking too quietly to be heard. But if you could hear her, she explained the seating arrangements in the amphitheater. How the Senate sat down in the bottom seats for the best view, the commoners sat in the next seats up (this area was really crowded) and up the very top were the slaves and women because they were the least important.




Our tour guide then told us about the most famous types of gladiators and the type of games played. The animals could be in three different sort of duels, animal against animal, unarmed and naked prisoner against animal and hunters vs animals but never gladiator vs animal. There were heaps of animals put in the duels from lions, rhinos, crocodiles and even giraffes. Luke was mortified when he heard about the giraffes. The animals in cages were hoisted up from under the stadium using winches. They also hoisted up 'sets' for the games in the same way



This is where the animals were kept they have made a reconstruction of the battle ground above it.

The types of gladiator were all fairly mean. They were all heavily protected except for one that wore just a kilt. The common weapon was a sword but the unprotected gladiator used a net and trident. We were fascinated when we were told that battles weren't always to death when they were defeated they could plead for mercy from the crowd.


The reconstructed part was where the battles were held

The last thing she took us to see was where you could see the ruins of where the colosseum got it's name. The roman emperor Nero built a colossal statue of himself. When he died the features were changed and it was moved to outside the amphitheater because Nero was a very hated emperor. This is why it's called the colosseum because it had this colossal statue outside.



An entrance to the seats.

Well this will be the last blog from Europe as we are leaving tomorrow. Oh don't cry because we still have a few more blogs from our adventures in Singapore, you can still continue with being jealous again.

Jake

Location:Rome