ANimals in the colosseum

Running Head : Colosseum

Animals in the Colosseum

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Animals in the Colosseum

The Colosseum was a 'wonder ' of Rome when it was new , almost nineteen hundred years ago , partly because of its size and partly because the circumstances under which it was built made it one of the world 's great 'gallery plays 'Here , where the far-seen Amphitheatre lifts its mass august ' wrote Martial 'was Nero 's mere ' Vespasian had drained the artificial lake in the gardens of Nero 's Golden House and begun

upon its site this vast theatre for the games and spectacles dear to Roman hearts , which his son Titus was to finish . Nero , last emperor of the line of Caesar and Augustus , had died by his own hand , hated by the people and the army and declared a public enemy by the Senate . Within a year , the Roman legions nominated three successors , also doomed to quick and violent deaths . Vespasian , the final candidate , was more fortunate A popular general , who was waging a successful siege against Jerusalem when he was chosen emperor , he returned to Rome and set about the task of blotting out the evil memory of Nero

The Colosseum was practically ready for use when Vespasian died in A .D 79 . Titus opened it , still unfinished , in A .D . 80 , with magnificent gladiatorial games and naval contests for which the arena was flooded It was completed by Domitian , Titus ' brother and successor , but had to be restored several times because of fires due to lightning

Standing isolated beyond the Forum , in the low spot between the Palatine , Esquiline , and Caelian hills , this new amphitheatre was easily accessible from the heart of the ancient city , yet isolated enough to permit the easy movement of crowds . It could seat about forty-five thousand , and probably had standing room for about five thousand more in its upper gallery . Its great oval shell was about one-third of a mile in circumference , its longer axis measuring about 617 feet , its shorter about 512 . The long axis , whose entrances were used for processions runs parallel with the Roman Forum , roughly southeast and northwest . The imperial seats were at the south side , facing along the shorter axis , to give a closer view of the spectacles . Immense awnings , handled by sailors from the imperial fleet , sheltered the spectators

Though the peripheral of the great building is striking by reason of its severe and solid bulk , its outstanding feature was its perfect adaptation to the handling of large and potentially unruly crowds Seventy-six of its eighty arcades were numbered the tickets bore corresponding numbers , so that holders could find their way directly to their seats from the appropriate entrance without crowding the corridors . It was a structure to delight the practical Vespasian and the architectural engineers who had built it

The Colosseum 's builders followed much the same principle as that employed in steel construction today , except that for the skeleton framework of piers and arches they...