The Ancients - Colosseum

Episode Date: October 27, 2022

Nicknamed the 8th wonder of the ancient world, the Colosseum still stands in splendour today. Located in the heart of Rome, nestled at the bottom of the Palatine Hill, neighbouring the ancient Roman Forum - the Colosseum is nearly 2000 years old. But who is responsible for this colossal amphitheatre, and what exactly was it built for?Tristan is joined by Dr Nathan Elkins to talk about this monument of Roman imperialism, and to take a look at the role it has played throughout history. Taking 10 years and 3 emperors to be completed - the crumbling marble was once decorated with vibrant colours and architectural features, representative of Roman might and decadence. Home to beast hunts, gladiatorial games, and one of the most remarkable sewage systems in the ancient world - what can we learn about Roman life from one of the world's most famous monuments?For more Ancients content, subscribe to our Ancients newsletter here. If you'd like to learn even more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today!

Hi, I'm Tristan Hughes, and if you would like the Ancient ad-free, get early access and bonus episodes, sign up to History Hit. With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries, including my recent documentary all about Petra and the Nabataeans, and enjoy a new release every week. Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com slash subscribe. It's the Entrance on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes, your host. And in today's podcast, well, we're talking about the Colosseum, one of the most famous,

coolest structures of ancient Rome. Renowned of course today, hundreds of thousands of visitors going to it every year and renowned by the big blockbuster movie that was Gladiator in 2000. It is an incredible structure. I remember going to see the Colosseum myself a few years ago, many years ago, just after university, and it really does blow your mind, just the sheer scale of it and the architectural prowess of constructing it. In today's podcast episode, we're going to be talking all about the Colosseum. We're going to be finding out why it was built, what was in that area of Rome before it was constructed, what activities happened there, how it evolved over time, and so on and so forth.

What do we know about the construction of it itself, the paintings, the colour, the vibrant nature of this monumental structure almost 2,000 years ago? Well, to explain all, I was delighted to get on the podcast and interview a couple of weeks back Dr Nathan Elkins. Nathan, it was delighted to get on the podcast and interview a couple of weeks back, Dr. Nathan Elkins. Nathan, it was wonderful to get him on the show. He is an absolute expert when it comes to the Coliseum. And this was a really, really fun chat to record. So without further ado, to talk all about the Coliseum, here's Nathan.

Nathan, it is wonderful to have you on the podcast today. Thank you for having me. You're more than welcome. And to talk about a topic as, well, renowned as this one, the Colosseum, it feels almost like one of those buildings that you need to see to really get a sense of its size and its splendor and its grandeur. Because I think it's fair to say, straight from the off, it's one of the most incredible ancient buildings that is, I guess, still standing in the

whole world. Yeah, absolutely. I think it's one of the most famous monuments from antiquity. Everybody knows the Colosseum. And as you say, you really don't get a sense for the scale, the engineering, just what a marvel it is until you're there in person and really can understand why the poets who saw it built describe it as another wonder of the ancient world, the eighth wonder of the ancient world, really. And I think that's something to highlight straight away, isn't it, Nathan? The engineering prowess of its construction, and we can go into the nitty gritty details of it all, which I love to do. It's, as you say, for those people who watched it being built, the various parts of it, which will go together to create this incredible structure. Right. Absolutely. You know, in many ways you can compare it to the kinds of amenities you see in

modern stadiums today or various sporting arenas. So for example, like you have the Astrodome in Houston, which has the retractable roof, you know, to keep out implement weather or what have you. Didn't have anything quite the same in ancient Rome, but you know, they did have what we call a velarium, a great awning that could be rolled out on a series of ropes to shade the spectators and maybe shield them from light inclement weather. And that itself was such a major engineering undertaking that a whole cohort of sailors were kept in row just to manage the rigging for the spectacles in the Colosseum and other buildings. Oftentimes that's thought to be unique to the Colosseum, but we know those things existed in smaller amphitheaters

and theaters since at least the first century BC. It's just the Colosseum must have been the largest such network of riggings. And then of course, you also have the 80 entrances that are numbered around the perimeter of the building. So your ticket would tell you exactly where to go. And just like in a modern arena today, it takes you an expedient way to your specific designated seating section. So the building could be filled and emptied quite

efficiently and quickly. So those are just a couple of the modern practicalities. You see also water fountains, restrooms, you know, everything you would expect in a modern arena, probably also concessions, you know, 2000 years ago. It's absolutely incredible. I mean, from what you were saying there, therefore, let's just imagine, okay, so there's someone who doesn't know what the Colosseum is, or let's say more understandable, you've probably heard the name Colosseum, seen pictures of it, but not everyone has actually been to see the Colosseum in the flesh, in person. I mean, in that regard, how would you describe the Colosseum to someone if they haven't seen it in person? I mean, can we say it's basically a normal amphitheater on steroids, or is there so much more to it than that? It is a normal amphitheater on steroids, and I think that's what makes it so impressive. The first stone amphitheater seems to have been the one built in Pompeii, so more than 100 years earlier, 150 years earlier or so. And it's a much smaller scale amphitheater. But what you see with the Colosseum is it's the same as other amphitheaters in the sense that it provides a venue for

gladiatorial combat, but not just gladiatorial combat. You also have animal fights and animal hunts taking place here and public executions. These are the kinds of things that would take place in amphitheaters. When they build the Colosseum for the city of Rome, Rome by far being the largest city in the Roman Empire with a million to two million people at the time, it is, of course, the largest amphitheater in the world and remains the largest amphitheater in the Roman world. So for people who haven't seen it in person, it stands to the height of approximately a modern 15-story apartment building, which is kind of, you know, would have dwarfed many of the other buildings in the city of Rome were it not seated

in a low valley between the hills already. And I can't remember off the top of my head how many acres of land it occupies. So it's just truly a behemoth kind of structure. It does give you the kinds of things that other amphitheaters in the Roman world were previously known for just on a far larger scale. And of course, that larger scale makes everything much more complex. The complexity of engineering it, building it, much more complex. The complexity of engineering it, building it, servicing the amphitheater, the complexity of the valerian system, and so on. And of course, the complexity of the games. You've read, for example, that at least in the earliest games before they built the substructures, they actually hosted small-scale naval combats as some of the shows there. And we do know from excavations that some smaller

amphitheaters seem to have had basins for some kind of aquatic spectacle, but the Colosseum probably was much more impressive in that regard, one can imagine. Well, I'd definitely love to delve into all of those different spectacles. And as you hinted out there, this evolution of the Colosseum as time goes on. But if we start really with the origins of this building, let's say the first century AD or CE, early to mid first century that time, what is in this part of Rome where the Colosseum now stands before the Colosseum is constructed? That's a great question. And to really understand and appreciate what the Colosseum is, you do have to understand the history of what came before and specifically the political history of the period. So immediately before Vespasian began construction of the Colosseum in Rome, you have to think a year or two before to the period of Nero. So Vespasian comes to power in the year 69

after a civil war. So in the year 68, the Roman emperor Nero is driven out of the city of Rome for bad administration, to put it in a nutshell, declared an enemy of the state and ultimately commits suicide. And he is the last of the first dynasty of the Julio-Claudian emperors who have ruled since Augustus. And so three subsequent emperors rise and fall, trying to claim the throne within that period of about a year. And Vespasian, who was put in charge by Nero of overseeing or quashing the rebellion in Judea, really is kind of in a good position with that massive military support behind him and allies among the governors who have declared for him, so that he comes out on top in the civil war and successfully launches a new dynasty,

the Flavian dynasty, which we call after his family. So you have this context of Nero, this ghost of Nero in the background, who is aided and maligned by the senatorial aristocracy and for being blamed for the civil war, in fact, because he was driven out of the city and had no heir and caused the empire to go into war. One thing the senatorial aristocracy also hated him for, or at least later writers, and this is a trope in Roman literature, is to, we call it praise and blame literature. So new emperor comes to power and you either praise good predecessors or malign bad predecessors to really praise the emperor. So Nero was the quintessential negative exemplum, right? You don't want to be like Nero. So everything that Vespasian did was kind of cast as the opposite

of Nero. And so in the year 64, there was a great fire in the city of Rome and much of the city burned down. And this is where the famous phrase, Nero fiddling while Rome burned, came from, because he was more interested in his artistic pursuits. We know this is a myth because Nero was not in the city of Rome when it actually burned down, and he had actually responded very well and came back to the fire and opened up public lands to house the refugees and things like that. Nonetheless, he did seem to take advantage of the fire and claimed some land that was probably occupied by the aristocrats beforehand. And he built this massive palace that stretched from the Palatine Hill over the Esplaine Hill and into

the valley of what is now the Colosseum. There where the Colosseum sits was a great pond, the stagnum, they called it. And this was a Roman house on steroids. So if you've been to Pompeii and see the Roman aristocratic Roman houses there, you walk in and you have this kind of semi-public facing part of the house with a reflecting pool in the center and impluvium, we call it. with a reflecting pool in the center, an impluvium, we call it. Well, this was in the atrium of Nero's house, his grand palace. So he has not just a small reflecting pool, but a lake the size of what the Colosseum is today, right? And before that was a grand colossal statue of Nero, something akin to the size of the Statue of Liberty without the base. And so what really kind of irritated, it seems, the senatorial aristocracy was aristocratic houses were always semi-public.

This is where your clients come to greet you. And there was a lot of parkland and woods and places to go hunting on the grounds of the palace. And typically, these were paid for by the nobility and the common people could enjoy them on the edge of the city. But he brought this into the center of the city at the footsteps of the forum in Rome, where anybody could enjoy it next to the seat of government. So, you know, in a very regimented class-based society, this gave the common people a lot of access to the emperor. It's been described by one author as a kind of an amusement park in downtown Rome. And so, you know, Vespasian had to come to the city of Rome after this civil war and to address this palace, but do so in a way that kept the common people happy. And so in a way,

the Colosseum was a stroke of genius because anybody could go to the games, anybody could enjoy the amphitheater. You weren't taking anything away from the people, but it did reassert a Roman social order and the kind of seating where the nobility has the best seats closest to the emperor, and then the equestrians above them, and then the common people and slaves and so on above. So it's complex. It's a lengthy answer, but that's how to understand the Colosseum is a response to Nero. And also paid for by the money from the destruction of Jerusalem and the sack of the Jewish temple, we have an inscription that says it was built ex manubius, which means from the spoils of war.

And so this harkens back also to the age of Augustus, whose general had also built a smaller amphitheater in Rome from the spoils of war. And so you have this complex and intensive dynastic symbolism of the amphitheater, which is on the one hand a retort to Nero, but an alignment with the good emperors of the past, specifically Augustus and Claudius. linked to. And also, as you say, that link to Vespasian's military actions in Judea and the money he's gained from that. I must also ask about the name, because we always call it the Colosseum. Why is it called, or why do we call it the Colosseum? Was Vespasian wanting to call it something else? Well, this is one of these things that's got some debate to it. You know, a lot of scholars will often refer to it as the Flavian Amphitheater or the Amphitheatrum Flavio, which is just Latin for Flavian Amphitheater.

But when we read about the Colosseum in ancient texts, they just call it Amphitheatrum, the Amphitheater. And the inscription says Amphitheatrum, maybe novum. That's the suggested, the new amphitheater. We're not 100% sure. The marble plan of the city of Rome, which is like an ancient map of the city, has a partial inscription that looks like it just calls it amphitheatrum. So the Romans seem to have just called it the amphitheater, you know. And if you were in the city of Rome, you knew what the amphitheater was. It was the big one, right? The Colosseum. The Colosseum seems to be a word that came about in the Middle Ages, deriving from the colossal statue of Nero that was in the atrium of Nero's house nearby, and that Adrian, some decades after the Colosseum was built, actually moved right next to the Colosseum.

And of course, they had replaced the face so he no longer looked like Nero, but was now the sun god. So that colossal bronze statue that's the size of the Statue of Liberty without the base stood next to the Colosseum for much of the time it was around. And in fact, you can see a square base next to the Colosseum where the colossal bronze statue of Sol, the sun god, stood. And so it seems like this medieval word Colosseum that we use is derived from the colossus, the colossal statue that is no longer there. Right. So I just find it quite interesting, isn't it, Nathan, that the Colosseum is designed to obliterate Nero's memory.

And yet the thing we most associate with this building, which is the name today, actually derives from this monumental statue of Nero constructed in the years before the building began. Right. Absolutely. One thing to remember, though, is, as I said, one of the things Vespasian did when he came to power is they did refashion the face so that he doesn't look like Nero anymore. And now he's just a son of God. So he was the Colossus of Saul as opposed to the Colossus of Nero. But you're absolutely right. You have this living memory of Nero. So people would have known that that was something that was at one time a giant statue of Nero. And you see this more broadly in sculptures in Rome and most of them in museums today. But when a maligned emperor died or was killed, they would smash his portraits or deface his portraits.

Or they'd re-carve them if they were stole and make them look like the new emperor. And some of these, if you see them in museums, are such bad jobs that you know it's re-cut, or you know that it's the old emperor with a few changes. Another famous case is the portraits of Nerva, for example, that are mostly re-cut from portraits of Domitian, who was also a maligned emperor. And you can tell that these are recut or the head's too small or something like that. But this also emphasizes the contrast by having this living memory of the bad guy around and seeing the vestiges of the attack on the image. It reminds you that this is someone who's different. In a way, you keep the ghost of

the bad guy alive to contrast with the good guy of the present. Well, there you go. I mean, let's go a bit more into the construction of the Colosseum. Nathan, do we have any idea, first of all, massive project to undertake by Vespasian? Do you have any idea how long it takes to build the Colosseum? It seems to take about 10 years. It's a little sketchy. We don't know all the exact details, but it seems to have been started in the year 71, and it is dedicated in the year 80. So that's about nine years. We do know that when it is dedicated and when the first games are held under the emperor Titus, the son of Vespasian, because Vespasian doesn't live to see it dedicated, that it's not yet completed.

The upper levels are probably either not present or present only in wood, and the substructures have not been built yet. So that's why in these inaugural 100 days of games in the year 80, So that's why in these inaugural 100 days of games in the year 80, you can have still some flooding of the Colosseum for aquatic spectacles. But it's some years later in the reign of Domitian that the substructures are added, which allow the elevators for gladiators to appear theatrically on the floor, cages for animals to come up, or to bring equipment up for staged hunts takes place. So the Coliseum, I don't think we have an exact date of when the substructures are completed or when the upper level is completed in stone, but there was a rush to get it dedicated in year 80.

Nonetheless, before modern machinery and everything, you know, still this is built with remarkable speed for the period of time, know must have required a major investment of manpower i mean nathan focusing on that you mentioned machinery before we go on to those inaugural 100 games what sorts of machinery were therefore open available to the romans who were building the coliseum well one of the things that makes the policy impossible is roman concrete technology. The Romans invented concrete in the first century BC. So you do have a lot of stone-faced concrete. And, you know, this is why they can build parking garages in a couple of months today is because, you know, concrete makes it possible. You don't have to quarry stone necessarily for this, although they did quarry a lot of travertine, particularly for this facade. I think some of the most impressive building equipment for this

is described by the Augustan architect Vitruvius, who wrote at the beginning of the late first century BC, early first century CE. You know, they had cranes. They would build giant cranes and essentially powered by people in large scale hamster wheels to provide locomotion and power. And you can actually see these kinds of cranes and structures for building monuments on the relief of the tomb of the Hateri, which actually is the only relief sculpture to show the Colosseum. But it seems like this tomb included this family was involved in building monuments in the city of Rome. And maybe the Colosseum is featured because it's one of them, you see a one of

these giant man-powered cranes on that relief that's contemporary with the Colosseum. I had no idea that you only actually have one actual depiction of the Colosseum surviving from the archaeology Nathan. Well only one in relief sculpture the other place you see the Colosseum is on coins you actually have it on contemporary coins of the year 80 and then 81. And then it also appears on coins of Severus Alexander in the early third century, who rebuilt the Colosseum after it burned from a fire in 217. And then you also see it on some medallions in the third century. So coins are actually pretty rich sources for ancient depictions of the Colosseum. Well, you mentioned briefly back then, a few minutes ago, the inaugural games of the Colosseum.

So let's focus in on those. You said it's 80 AD. And so at that time, let's say you're in the shoes of one of these Romans who's going to the games on the day. From entering the Colosseum, let's say you've got a place on the wooden levels right at the top of the Colosseum and you've entered from the bottom. What are some key architectural features that Roman would notice as he walks into the Colosseum, as he makes his way to his seat or her seat? Well, one of the things you'll see in the ruins today when you visit the Colosseum is,

I believe it's on the, I'm just kind of thinking of my variance real quick, I guess it's kind of on the northeastern side towards the Ludus Magnus. You see these large, upright tombstone-shaped structures with holes in them. And it used to be thought that these were tie-downs where you

could anchor the velarium, the awning for the amphitheater, and that the tension of the ropes was adjusted here. That doesn't seem to be likely. And instead, this seems to be a kind of an outer area that was set up with rods or chains, again, to help guide people to the appropriate seating areas. So these are the kinds of things that when you came to the amphitheater, you would start moving in lines towards your directed seating area and go into your entrance. And as you say, once you entered your specific numbered entrance, you would go into a series of annular kind of ring-shaped hallways. And then upstairs, they're painted frescoes, of course,

on the corridors and everything. And in fact, over the central axial entrance going into the Coliseum, you know, most tourists don't look up, but you can actually see some fresco preserved. It's not painted, but it's fresco and relief, probably in the area of where the emperor sat. And so this kind of painted decoration would have been everywhere, probably also mosaic floors. They found pieces of mosaics excavated out of the drains in the Colosseum. So it was very richly decorated. And of course, all the sculpture you see on the arcades above the entrances, that would have been filled with sculpture, probably all very brightly painted. So you would have seen all of this stuff. And then, of course, gone up a series of stairways, pushing and fighting among the crowds to

get up to your nosebleed seat. Hi there. I'm Don Wildman, host of the new podcast, American History Hit. Twice a week, I'll be exploring stories from America's past to help us understand the United States of today. Join me as I head back in time to witness Thomas Jefferson write the Declaration of Independence, head to the battlefields during the Civil War, visit Chief Poitin as he prepares for war with English colonists, tour Central Park before it was Central Park, and a city in Tennessee which helped build the atomic bomb. From famous battlefields to secret cities, from familiar names

to lesser-known events, I'll speak with leading experts from across the United States and beyond to bring American history to life. Join me every Monday and Thursday for American History Hit, a podcast by History Hit. and that's a really interesting and i think important point to highlight there nathan i was at the pompeii amphitheater not too long ago and when you're in the center of that amphitheater and you see the curtain wall all around and it being highlighted that originally there were frescoes there were paintings all around the centre of this arena. And as you said there, does it really highlight how for a building like the Colosseum, although it may, forgive my ignorance, I'm saying it wrong, it might feel a bit bland today,

but back in 2000 years ago, this would have been a vibrant place full of beautiful colours. Yeah, absolutely. Everything would have been painted, and it would have been filled with sculpture, not just on the arcades on the outside, but also inside. When you visit the Colosseum today, they do have a small exhibit with some of the sculptural remains from the interior of the amphitheater. So you have sculpted balustrades in the shape of hunting dogs and things like that.

And this is all white marble today, but we now know that the Romans basically saw white marble as a blank canvas to paint. So it would have all been brightly painted. And then of course, you would have had some exotic colored marbles from all parts of the Roman world as well. So yeah, rich with color and sculpture and all kinds of mosaic as well. And where you sat in the Colosseum, did that very much depend on your status? It did. So there's a law that goes back to the age of Augustus, although there were also laws from the Republic that organized seating in different ways.

And basically, the law that was followed in this period from Augustus's time gave precedence to the senatorial aristocracy. So of course, the emperor had his own kind of viewing box on lowest level, right next to the arena, kind of the middle part, the 50-yard line, so to speak, and then surrounded by senators and priests and so on. And then the next level above them, you had the equestrians, kind of a night class. And then above that, you had the Libyans, which were the common citizenry of Rome. And they were subdivided into two parts. And then above that, slaves and foreigners would sit. And then in the absolute top where respectable women would sit. And this is sometimes interpreted by people as kind of a

misogynistic thing to put the women at the very top. But actually, the reason that respectable women were placed at the very top was because this was where the superior shade was. And, you know, aristocratic women don't work. And so they have a pale complexion. It's part of their status to have this pale complexion and this protects that. And of course, non-aristocratic women would have sat in other parts of the amphitheater, perhaps along with their husbands and things like that. But yes, we do have inscriptions and so on that show that there was reserved seating for various groups. So Nathan, well, let's now have a focus on the inaugural games that occurred in the Colosseum.

So what sorts of spectacles happened during these inaugural games? Well, all kinds of things happened. There was a pretty regimented program for amphitheater games that had already developed by the time the Colosseum was built. So the morning begins with a religious procession. So this is just for a day of games in the amphitheater. So you would have probably a series of sacrifices at various locations that the procession would stop at along the city. Gladiators, maybe some of the animals would march in this procession. And you would have priests and images of the gods that would be carried into the amphitheater

as well. And then when they would arrive in the Colosseum, the images of the gods would take their place across from where the Roman emperor would sit and the Colosseum, the images of the gods would take their place across from where the Roman emperor would sit and the games would begin. And the morning was where you had animal spectacles. So these would be animal fights or animal hunts. And so when you think about this in the period after the substructures are built, they would use these elevators in the bottom of the arena for to bring up scenery. So fake trees and mountains and jungles and things.

And then you would let a leopard or something loose and a trained hunter. And people above could see what's going on in the seating stands. But the hunter wouldn't know if the leopard's gonna jump out from this fake mountain or this rock or tree or whatever. And so it was all great fun for the spectators to watch. Sometimes the leopard would win. Sometimes the hunter would win. So that was an important part of the show. Sometimes also they would make animals fight each other. So

these could be like dogs fighting deer, or they could even be more exotic animals, such as an elephant fighting a bull or something like that. After the morning animal spectacles, you would have the lunchtime entertainment, which in the Colosseum, and we know this again from firsthand accounts, were what one scholar, Kathleen Coleman at Harvard, has termed fatal charades, which are executions as mythological enactments. So condemned criminals would be put to death in the guise of some violent myth. And so these can be pretty gory. One example that stands out in my mind actually is of one that took place in the Coliseum, although things similar to it happened. But this happened in Nero's temporary wooden amphitheater, where they dressed a criminal up as Icarus, who

flew too close to the sun, and pushed him off a multi-story platform so that he splattered when he hit the ground. You know, other things could be like playing somebody alive like Marcius, like flaying somebody alive like Marcius or other such gory mythological enactments of execution, burning someone alive like immolation of Hercules, for example. So a lot of respectable citizens would leave the amphitheater and take lunch during these entertainments, but a lot of people would stay. And then everybody came back and reconvened for the afternoon entertainment, which was the gladiatorial combats. And these could be either single pairs fighting or multiple pairs fighting in the midst

of the amphitheater. Now, with the inaugural games, we know there were 100 days of games to celebrate the inauguration of the Colosseum. And the historical sources, they talk a lot in general terms about the extravagance, the thousands of animals that were slaughtered during the inaugural games to share the expense and so on. One of the things they also talk about is flooding the Colosseum on the arena floor of the Colosseum before the substructures are built, mind you, and having naval combat. Now, you can't fit full-size ships in there, so we have to think of something really scaled down, maybe along the line of row boats or something like that, have condemned criminals fight it out. There are, of course, also large-scale, full-size naval battles that are fought. But these are in purpose-built basins

next to the Tiber River. And these also take place in conjunction with the inaugural games of the Coliseum. So this is one thing to remember is that the 100 Days of Games is not just at the Coliseum, but in other entertainment venues as well, specifically the large scale naval combats that take place in the basin next to the Tiber River. Right, because that therefore makes sense as to why they therefore decide Nathan to stop this naval combat entirely from the Colosseum with the construction of that incredible substructure of the Colosseum because they had that other place to do more, can we say, impressive naval battles anyway? Yeah, absolutely. And so, you know, that really raises the question of why did they even bother with these small-scale naval combats in the

Colosseum when they're also doing these full-scale naval combats with condemned prisoners in the purpose-built basin? And the answer to that seems to be because they could. A lot of what you have with the Colosseum and its games and its realization and everything, really, and this is a trope you see in the poems describing a lot of the earliest spectacles in the Colosseum, they couch the emperor, they portray the emperor as master of the world, as master over nature itself. So there is one epigram that talks about, you know, the ground being dry, and then it is suddenly made wet at the emperor's command, and then it is drained, and it is dry again, and they have a battle on it, a gladiatorial combat. So it's really just to show that they can. It's for the spectacle of being

able to do it. The power and the capability of an emperor, isn't it? It's so interesting. I mean, we've got to talk about it a bit because in my opinion, at least, it's one of the most extraordinary parts of the Colosseum, and that is the later creation construction of this incredible substructure. I mean, Nathan, take it away. What are some of the key points of this substructure? When you visit the Colosseum today, you'll see it almost completely exposed because, of course, the substructure was covered with a wooden floor that then had sand on it to soak up blood. And so you'll be able to see it. And I think now they've reopened it to tourists, so you can actually get a ticket and go down into the substructures.

And when you're down in the substructures, you'll see cuttings for cap stands and for elevators and so on and so forth. And so if you imagine 2000 years ago, this must have been a hot, dark place, very noisy. You would have had slaves manning the cap stands to pull elevators and cages up and down. And the purpose of this was, as I said, particularly with either the lunchtime entertainments, the executions, or the morning entertainments, you would often put up scenery to heighten those kinds of spectacles, fake jungles or some kind of scenery, stage equipment associated with one of the myths

that you're going to execute one of these criminals with. But also you have the cages for animals so that they could come up and appear quite theatrically from the floor, or you could bring a group of gladiators up via an elevator in the afternoon for combats as well. So this really just kind of heightened the spectacles and made them appear all that more miraculous in a way, you know, making them something of a wonder.

If you don't know what you're looking at when you're visiting the substructures today, it can be a little hard to discern. But if you look at the brick walls of things, you can see slots where there would be a wooden floor or something for a part of an elevator or a cage. And then, as I said, sometimes you can see in the floor cuttings for cap stands, which if you don't know what a cap stand is, that's where you have like a vertical post and then you have handles on it. And, you know, it would be then manned by slaves or workmen and twisted and pulling a rope effectively to move a elevator or a cage up and down. And of course, you also see

drains and things because remember, this is effectively a giant bowl. So when it rains, you have to drain off the water. So you'll see drains in the bottom of it as well. So a very, you know, nobody really pays attention to the sewer system, at least not popularly. But they had a great sewer system to keep this thing dry. Well, I think sewer systems across ancient civilizations and prehistoric civilizations are sometimes the most fascinating part of structures. And as you say, they're just not, maybe not as sexy as the other parts, but actually they tell so much about the sophistication of these constructions.

So I'm glad you highlighted that there, Nathan. One other thing from me, though, I mean, this is great, and I'd love to ask so much more about it, but we will have to start wrapping up soon. But in regards to these substructures and, say, the gladiatorial combats, now I've got to mention the name of the movie, Gladiator, and them fighting in the Colosseum. But would gladiatorial combat, since somewhere like the Colosseum, once the substructures have been added and so on and so forth,

with the emperor there and all these people all around, would these gladiatorial games have looked anything like that is depicted in films such as Gladiator? Well, yes and no. I mean, I think what Gladiator does is it gives you a sense of, you know, the kind of the spectacle of it. You were like the scenes where the tigers jump up out of the ground seemingly from nowhere as they pull back one of these trap doors that opens up a cage or something like that. You know, that gives you that kind of sense. First thing, of course, is that Russell Crowe's outfit his armor is made for Hollywood and there is nothing gladiator about that the Romans had certain pairs of gladiators that they would fight against each other and you know popular types like Thracians or her Milo and reti arias the famous net man with the trident. So, you know, more like an old film like Spartacus probably gives you a better sense

of what these more traditional pairings would have looked like. So there's a lot of Hollywood in Russell Crowe's Gladiator, but it really depends on what you're looking for. I mean, the fights themselves are really nothing like what they would have been. But the spectacle side of it, you know, the fact that you see these creatures sometimes rising from below and with people all around, that is something that you can more relate to, can't you? Right. Yeah. And now, again, they wouldn't have done that in the midst of gladiatorial combat. In a gladiatorial combat, you know, it's two guys fighting each other, one-on-one combat. What they do in Gladiator is they mix the animal spectacle with the Gladiator fight.

That would have been a completely separate spectacle in the morning. Unless, of course, it was an execution. If you had a mid-time execution, if the point was to give this guy Nov open to kill him, they did things like tie someone to a post or crucify them and then let out a bear or something to rip them to shreds but that wouldn't have been done in the midst of a gladiatorial combat as it is done in uh in gladiator no absolutely not well one last question before we completely wrap up and it's a big one but uh we've only scratched the surface with the whole story of the coliseum like it's early days but i'm presuming you mentioned how we're burnt

down in the early third century and was rebuilt so the legacy and the importance of this building does it remain right at the heart of roman imperial culture well i guess for the rest of the roman imperial period yeah absolutely i mean and i write about this a little bit in the epilogue of my book on the Colosseum, which is, and we talked a little bit about it already, but in the early days of the Colosseum, this is not just a grand amphitheater for grand games in the city of Rome, but it's also got a lot of political and dynastic symbolism for the dynasty that built it. And as with any monument, especially politically charged one like the Colosseum, that political dynastic message is most resonant when the generation who experienced Nero and

Vespasian and so on are alive and remember it. And as those generations die off, what the Colosseum becomes is more simply just the place in Rome where you go for gains. And so it loses, as the generations pass, this grand political aspect to it. Nonetheless, it is the scene for numerous episodes, an attempt on the emperor Commodus' life, very famously in one of the substructures. And Commodus, of course, 100 years after Vespasian, famously fighting as a gladiator. So it is the locus for all kinds of tales from Roman history. And then, of course, in the third century, as you mentioned, it burned and is rebuilt. And that rebuilding is celebrated on media like coinage and talked about in ancient

literature. And it remains the venue for games in Rome until about the fifth century, in the early fifth century, Honorius, the late Roman emperor Honorius, outlaws gladiatorial games after a monk is killed for protesting and trying to stop the games. And then animal spectacles seem to end thereafter. And in the early Middle Ages, it just becomes a place for public execution. One of the popes has criminals executed here in the early Middle Ages. So this association with death and execution remains even into the early Middle Ages. Well, it's interesting to hear how even in Christian times, its function, its use continues and is very much associated with death chillingly. So last but certainly not least, though, you have mentioned it already. You have

written a book all about the Colosseum, which is called? A Monument to Dynasty and Death, the Story of Rome's Colosseum and the Emperors Who Built It. Fantastic. Well, Nathan, it just goes to me to say then, thank you so much for taking the time to come on the podcast today. Thank you very much. Well, there you go. There was Dr. Nathan Elkins giving you an introduction, an overview into one of the most incredible structures

of the ancient Roman world. One of the most amazing ancient buildings in Rome itself, the Colosseum. As mentioned at the start, you must go and see it in person one day if you can, because just seeing it, its monumental scale, the architectural prowess of it, it really does take your breath away. It's an incredible structure from the ancient Romans. Now, I hope you enjoyed the episode.

Last thing from me, if you did and you want to help support the podcast, well, you know what you can do. You can just leave us a lovely rating on Apple Podcast and spotify wherever you get your podcasts from it really helps us the team as we continue to share these incredible stories from our distant past with you but that's enough rambling on from me and i'll see you in the next episode Thank you.