Pompeii was an ancient Roman city, buried by a volcanic eruption. 2000 years later, archaeologists uncovered the city. The people in ancient Pompeii did not have a chance to escape. The city had been quickly buried by volcanic ash.
The volcanic destruction of Pompeii was also a kind of natural mummification of these Roman cities for posterity to see.
Can you imagine the horror of being swept by monstrously flowing lava and covered with white ash? Well this happened to immediately to the people in the Roman twin cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in 79 AD.
August 24, 79 AD like any other day for the citizens of Pompeii were performing their daily activities. Children laughed and played and men and women went about their daily business.
It was a hot and sunny day, historians say. While the people enjoyed the sunshine, the Vesuvius volcano, located barely a mile from the centre of the city of Pompeii, was simmering in its core. On the outside, it looked deceptively calm and beautiful. The slopes were covered with vineyards and no one would have suspected what was going to happen.
Deep inside the volcano, white-hot streams were heating up and rising. The Vesuvius was pushing up the hot streams of lava. Soon the force of the lava pushed it outside and there happened one of the worst volcanic eruptions in the history of mankind. The lava rushed down the slopes of the Vesuvius and swept the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum, catching everyone off guard.
In fact, everything was so sudden that there was no time to escape from its fury and run to safety. Besides, no place was safe from the monstrous downpour of the lava.
While some people fell dead on the spot, several others died at exit points, trying to escape from the killer lava. As if this was not enough, the torrent of the lava was followed by the flowing of white ash from the volcano, which systematically covered the lava like a topping of snow. Entire families, homes, streets, buildings, animals, verily the entire city was buried underneath the layers of hot ash and lava.
As luck would have it, it rained torrentially soon after and the rain water reacted with the white ash to form a layer of cement on top. And this buried potential survivors underneath forever.
A dog...one of the many victims of Pompeii
When archaeologists dug out the city, two thousand years later, they found petrified bread still in the ovens that had been baking that day. Archaeologists learned a great deal from the ruins of this ancient city because it had been so well preserved.
The Roman Colosseum was a huge amphitheatre built between 69 and 79 CE. During the era in which the Colosseum was used, the Romans established and organized many types of games and other forms of entertainment.The events that took place there were gladiatorial combats, wild beast hunts, vaudeville acts, and many types of theatrical entertainment. Among these, the gladiatorial combats and the wild beast hunts made up most of the program. A typical day in the Colosseum began with a succession of bloodless duels often comic or fantastic, but others were extremely gruesome. The Romans were obsessed with blood. They enjoyed watching one man kill another man, or watching one man kill many innocent animals. What the Romans called entertainment back then is what we call murder today. However, it seemed as if the Romans were obsessed with bloody battles and death. The most popular form of entertainment was the gladiatorial combat which was usually fought to the death. Other forms of entertainment that did not involve blood and death were vaudeville or circus acts, chariot racing, various types of theatrical entertainment like mime and plays of tragedy and comedy.
In 80 CE., Titus inaugurated the opening of the Colosseum with one-hundred consecutive days of gladiatorial contests, a sport adopted from the Etruscans. Holland (1980) mentioned that, at the beginning of the second century CE., a spectacle was held in which 4,941 pairs of gladiators fought. Gladiatorial combat was the most bloody yet entertaining event that occurred in the Colosseum.
Gladiatorial events were not annual like horse racing and theatre, just on given occasions. A duel was fought to the death by a chief's tomb whose spirit required the sacrifice of blood. Then the Romans considered the duel as a memory of death of great leaders. Duels between gladiators became a business to invest in. All the gladiators that fought before the audience of the Colosseum, went to a gladiatorial school beforehand. The most renowned gladiatorial training schools were south of Rome in Capua. Lanista was the word for gladiatorial school. Going to the Lanista was similar to a punishment. Criminals were sent to gladiatorial schools instead of being exiled. Magistrates purchased them and promised that they would be dead within a year, or criminals would be forced into the arena in a herd to be butchered by gladiators. Slaves were sometimes sent to the school if they weren't of any use. Slaves could sometimes win freedom if they fought a good duel; however, the crowd was the judge of that.
Augustus Ceasar began the spectacle where criminals were paired against animals, without weapons for protection. "At vast expense the Roman government imported animals from every corner of the known world--tigers from India, leopards from Asia minor; lions, elephants and other creatures from Africa; wild bulls from Northern Europe; and so on."
According to the spectators, the more exotic the animal, the better the fight. When Titus opened the Colosseum in 80 CE., "the gladiatorial combats resulted in the deaths--in one day--of five thousand beasts. From this statement alone, it is safe to say that ancient Romans were fascinated, if not obsessed, with slaughter. The term used for a fight between a man and a beast was "venatio," which was an event favored by the spectators of the Colosseum. Often criminals or slaves were condemned to face a starved wild beast. Lions were starved for three days prior to the event If the beast was lucky enough to kill its prey and survive, its fate would still be to die by being put in the arena with the bestarii, a man specially trained to kill wild beasts. This led to the depletion of many "exotic" animals.
Just as the audience was impressed with exotic animals, they were also entertained by different types of combat. It was not uncommon for the arena to be flooded so that naval battles could be held.
Even more interesting was the introduction of freak fights. These fights were rare and only took place occasionally. One such battle was held by Dominitian in 90 BCE. between a dwarf gladiator and a woman. Other surprising combinations were paired together based on the whim of the current emperor. Apparently, it took some imagination to put on a show for the ancient Romans.
The Romans were very methodical in their process of handling the wounded and dead in the Colosseum. During a battle, if one opponent became injured, he would drop his shield and raise the index finger of his left hand. It was then up to the spectators to decide his fate. If he had displayed bravery and fought well, the crowd might wave handkerchiefs and give him a thumbs down, meaning that he deserved to be spared.
Thumbs up meant the fighter had to die
Thumbs down meant the fighter was brave and, he deserved to live
"The duels between gladiators, although cruel and bloody, at least involved a display of skill, as well as a good chance of coming out alive," (Casson, 1975, 100). However, they could also give him a thumbs up, or death. (Knapps, February 14, 1997) It was extremely rare for a gladiator's life to be spared because the spectators almost never had mercy on their victims. After the gladiator appeared to be dead, officials dressed as "charons," or demons from the underworld, checked to make sure that he was actually completely dead. They assured this by hitting him over the head with a mallet or burning him with a hot iron, so if he had not passed away, he would very soon. He was then dragged out of the arena to the playing of trumpets. Then an attendant added clean sand to absorb the blood. In fact, the name "arena" is used because the word "arena" means "sand.
Nowadays, the Colosseum is so well-known that
famous people have filmed commercials there
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE COLOSSEUM
1.At the time of its construction, the Colosseum had the capacity of seating around 50,000 spectators.
2.The games played in the Colosseum are believed to have taken the lives of about 500,000 people and over a million wild animals.
3.Though ruined by earthquakes and stone-robbers, the amphitheater serves as an iconic symbol of Imperial Rome.
4.The Colosseum is an entirely free-standing structure, 189 m (615 ft) long, 156 m (510 ft) wide and with a base area of 6 acres (24,000 m2).
5.The Roman coliseum was completed in 80 AD after the death of the emperor. The next heir to the throne, Emperor Titus, opened it to the public. It is said, the inaugural ceremony lasted for more than 100 days.
6.Coliseum was built near the giant statue of Colossus and occupied part of the Nero’s park. The current name was derived from the statue of Colossus.
7.The Roman Coliseum had 76 entrances and an additional 4 entrances reserved for the emperor, nobles and the gladiators.
8.The seats were arranged according to the social status of the spectators. The seats on the first three tiers from the top were usually reserved for the nobles while the common man used the seats on the fourth tier.
9.The floor or the arena had subterranean chambers where the gladiators rested before the performance. There were times when the wooden flooring of the Roman coliseum was removed and the entire ground that spans six acres of land was flooded with water. Mock naval battles were enacted here.
Rome ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ REMUS AND ROMULUS This is based on the history of how the City of Rome began in 753 BC. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Once upon a time, there was an old and cruel King, named Amulius, who ruled a kingdom in a place far, far away. He was suspicious of everyone who might try to inherit the throne from him.
He had a niece, Princess Rhea Silvia, and when Rhea was old enough, he sent her away to a secluded place so that she could not inherit or have a son who might one day become king.
One day, he was told that his niece did have a son. Not one son, but two sons. . . . she had twin boys!Outraged, King Amulius sent a servant to take the babies, and throw them into the Tiber River, so that there would be no one to inherit the throne from him. Fearing the King, the servant did as he ordered, and went that night to steal the babies away from Rhea while she slept.
Afraid of being seen, the servant hurried across the land to the Tiber River bridge and dropped the basket, with the babies, into the river.
Now, Tiberinus , the Tiber River God, saw what was happening and he reached up and caught the basket. Gently, he lifted it up and guided it to shore.
Lupa, the she-wolf, was walking by the river bank. She had just lost her baby wolves and was very sad.
Surprised, at seeing the basket, with the babies, Lupa pulled it out of the water.
Lupa took the babies back to her cave and was very happy to have a replacement for the baby wolves she had lost.
One day Faustulus, a shepherd, was passing by the cave and saw the babies and the she-wolf.
Not having any children of his own, Faustulus took the babies back to his wife at their hut. Lupa went along to help protect them.
Faustulus named the babies, Remus and Romulus.
****************************************** Many Years later ........... ******************************************
Remus and Romulus grew up happy and loved by Faustulus and his wife. But, like all brothers, they tend to have childish fights.
(These are not dresses -- it was tunics the boys wore. When they are older, a toga is worn )
One day, not long after the shepherd and his wife had died, a man came to their village and said he heard about the story of their birth. He informed them that they were the sons of Princess Rhea Silvia and heirs to the throne of King Amulius.And because they were twins, they could share being King.
It worked out well, and the boys took turns wearing the King's crown.
Remus and Romulus worked hard building their Kingdom, but now they needed a name for the City. As usual, the boys began to argue and couldn't agree.There were hills in the area, so each boy, decided to stand on a different hill, and count how many eagles they would see fly over before sunset. The one who counted the most, would get to pick the name.
Remus counted six and then went to check with Romulus ---- Romulus counted twelve. The boys argued again. This time about who was telling the truth. Romulus won the argument and named the city after him So, on April 21st in the year 753 B.C., the city called "Rome" was born.
The boys decided to build a fence around the city to protect it from invaders. They argued again. Remus said it wasn't high enough, but Romulus insisted it was.
To prove he was right, Remus attempted to jump over the fence.
Alas, he did not make it!
The fall was fatal --- and Remus died. Sadly, Remus was only 18 years old at his death, and a King for such a short time.
***************************************** Many Years later ........... ******************************************
The city flourished and grew very large with many citizens.Romulus became a successful king, although, like his brother, Remus, there was always some who disagreed with his judgments.
One day, in the 37th year of his reign as King, Romulus went out to give a speech to the people of Rome. He stood in the open field and as he spoke, a thunderstorm came along. All the people scattered and ran for shelter from the rain --- All, but King Romulus.
A strange thing happened. After the rain, the people came out from the shelters to gather again in the field --- but King Romulus was gone! He couldn't be found anywhere. When they looked at the spot where he was standing, they only found his crown lying in the grass.
It was a mystery never solved. Rumors and gossip abound. Some say he was murdered, others thought he was kidnapped. But eventually, the one most favorite was, since it was a God that saved him at birth, it was only reasonable that after he built the great city of Rome, that the Gods would take him up to the heavens.
