Rome: A Virtual Tour of the Ancient City Week 5
The final week of the Rome course focuses on entertainment. Juvenal, a satirical Roman poet, wrote in 133BCE:
But what about Remus' mob? They follow fortune, as always [...] they discarded their responsibilities long ago [...] for the people who once handed out power, political office, command of the legions, everything, now holds itself in check and anxious hopes for only two things - bread and circuses.
Juvenal, Satire 10, 72 - 81.
At this time, the democratic Roman Republic was falling and the time of the Roman Empire began. Previously, the Romans elected their government and political officers so they had some control over it. However, under the emperors, the 'mob of Remus' - the common folk - no longer concerned themselves with any of that, as long as the supply of cheap food and entertainment continued. This resulted in Juvenal's statement, suggesting that 'bread and circuses' were all it took to stop the public from doing their civic duty.
The most popular of all Roman entertainments was chariot racing and the professional charioteers could make some serious money from it. It's thought that the richest sportsman in all of human history was a charioteer called Diocles. The main location for the racing was a long strip of flat land between the Palatine and Aventine Hills, the Circus Maximus. It had probably been used for horse racing for hundreds of years but under the Romans, it was transformed into a huge arena with banked seating for 250,000 people, automatic starting gates and a central barrier or spina that was ornately decorated with obelisks, fountains and lap counters. As well as the racing, there were places you could get something to eat or drink, place bets or even, according to the poet Ovid, pick up a girl. A smaller circus was built by Maxentius near the Appian Way as part of a funerary complex and Domition built yet another. His was a 30,000 seat stadium in the Campus Martius in 86CE. It was built in the circus style with long straight sides and one curved end for turning. Here there was stone seating for around 30,000 spectators to watch running races and athletic sports in the Greek manner. The remains of this stadium, now hold the current buildings for the Piazza Navona which were built on top. It was possibly also used for bloodier entertainment; the Church of St Agnes in the Piazza commemorates the saint's martyrdom as part of a public execution which was held there.
In addition to the chariot races and athletics, there was also stage plays, gladiatorial contests, hunting, bathing and a whole variety of other entertainments. Originally the Circus Maximus had staged horses and boxers; later on both Pompey and Julius Caesar staged an exotic show with elephants, so it was used for anything that required space and plenty of seating. [Panorama of the Circus Maximus]
The theatre was another popular pastime. Rome's first permanent stone built theatre was built by Pompey the Great, as part of his competition with Julius Caesar to provide the best forms of entertainment for the public as well as the most impressive architecture. The theatre was built in the Greek style: a half round building with rows of banked seating, a temple to the goddess Venus at the top and behind it, huge gardens with porticoes and an audience hall. This hall was where Caesar was stabbed at a Senate meeting which was using the hall temporarily. In its time, it was one of the most lavish buildings in Rome. The building itself is long gone, however its imprint remains in the shape of the street that housed it. The Via di Grotta Pinta is curved, showing where it would have bent round the semi-circular walls of the theatre. Modern Rome has been built upon the remains of ancient Rome and this means that sometimes, when you go into the cellars and basements of various buildings, you might find a trace of those ancient remains. The foundations of Pompey's theatre was a series of radial barrel vaults, a row of adjoining arches which shift the weight of the supported building from the ceiling to the side pillars. These vaults could then hold the immense weight of the entire theatre: the rows of stone steps, the spectators and the temple at the top. These foundations still remain, buried below the Pancrazio restaurant in the Campo de' Fiori. The vaults are clearly visible and the wall at the end is made up of opus reticulatum, small diamond shaped pieces of concrete. While the theatre and temple was all gleaming marble, coloured columns and statues, the business end buried all the way down at the bottom was a massive concrete wall.
Although that theatre is no longer standing, the Theatre of Marcellus, built by Augustus in around 13 BCE is much better preserved. It now stands clear of the buildings around it due to Mussolini who pulled down a lot of mediaeval buildings that surrounded it in order to enhance the ones built by his hero, Augustus. The building is three storeys high with the bottom level containing multiple arches which were the entrances for spectators. It could hold about 20,000 people and Augustus decreed who could sit where in the theatre, depending on their social status. The top of the building now contains luxury flats! This theatre was included as part of a festival that took place over seven days in June and involved ceremonies and sacrifices during the day and night, chariot races, hunting and theatre. The events started at the second and fourth hour after daylight - without artificial lighting, the Romans used daylight hours as much as possible and would get up at dawn. [Panorama of the Theatre of Marcellus]
3D model of the Theatre of Marcellus: https://www.kubity.com/p/RwSZEx
This was fun to explore! I took a bit of a wrong turning early on and ended up on the stage. Thankfully not the first time I've been there. Quite a view from there though it must have been rather nerve-wracking for a new actor with all those rows and rows of people watching. I managed to get right up into the nose-bleed section at the very top, it must have been dreadful up there because of the sheer amount of columns. Talk about restricted view! I wonder how long the plays tended to last because those seats must not have been comfortable for very long. The backdrop is impressive though, for all that it reminds me of the opening credits to the Muppet Show...
As mentioned earlier, bathing was another popular pastime of the Romans. Considering how hot, cramped and dusty Rome would have been at the time, being able to get nice and clean would have been quite a treat. And the Romans really loved to bathe. One catalogue lists around 900 balneae (private bathhouses) in addition to the thermae (public baths)! It became embedded in the culture and was something Romans were keep to import to other parts of the Empire - there are even bathhouses right up on Hadrian's Wall at the very border between the Empire and the wilds of Scotland. Each successive emperor built their own bathhouses, getting larger and more lavish as they attempted to outdo the previous ones. The first bathhouse was built in 19BCE by Agrippa around the same time as his aqueduct, the Aqua Virgo, because he needed lots of clean, fast flowing water for the bathhouse's fountains and pools. However, the first extensive imperial bathhouse was built by Trajan early in the second century on the Esquiline Hill. Trajan and his architect Apollodorus levelled out the top of the hill and created a huge terrace on top of it. The bathhouse was a massive structure, comprising of a central bathing block with a huge open air swimming pool, rooms of different temperatures and great halls with statues everywhere, towering marble columns supporting vaulted ceilings with glass mosaic and pools of water beneath to reflect the light. Outside of that was an outer wall with ornamental gardens, trees, more statues, lecture halls, libraries, and spaces for athletics and sports. Underneath was a series of shops where the Romans liked to do their shopping for Saturnalia. So right in the heart of the city was this massive space where you could meet friends, have a relaxing massage and bath, get a snack or drink of wine, play ball, or listen to poetry and philosophy in the evening. An entire day out all in one place.
3D model of the Baths of Caraculla: https://www.kubity.com/p/Lrktn4
This looked so impressive even before I'd started exploring it. I entered it from the arcades at the front and up the steps which brought me out into the gardens, that first impression as you come up into the gardens is really quite something. It's a massive complex, so many rooms that lead into each other, I rather could have done with a map! I can see that it would have been nice to stroll round the gardens or relax in the swimming pool that's open to the sky.
Gladiatorial combat had been popular with Romans for a long time. It started out as a sort of ritual combat which took place at aristocratic funerals but quickly became a form of entertainment. Initially, it took place in temporary wooden structures which were quickly thrown up near places such as the Forum and just as quickly dismantled and moved somewhere else. When the emperors arrived on the scene, with their increasing need to please the public and their vast wealth, it made more sense to have a purpose built permanent venue instead. The emperor Nero had taken a huge part of the city for his private palace and gardens, a move which was hated by the Romans so when his successor Vespasian came to power, he demolished the entire complex and built instead a massive stone amphitheatre to be used for public entertainment: the Colosseum. No longer the private domain of just one man but given back to the people of Rome. It was a huge feat of engineering. It contains 100,000 tonnes of travertine stone, 300 tonnes of iron clamps to hold it all together, tufa, brick and concrete. Its 545 meters around and seats 50,000 people but it was built in just 10 years. As well as holding gladiatorial combat, it also was used for beast hunting and public executions. It was also possibly flooded in some way to hold aquatic entertainment as well. There were also wooden masts at the very top which supported canvas awnings that were stretched out to provide shade from the sun to the spectators. These were controlled by a special detachment of Roman sailors who were housed in nearby barracks.
In addition to that building, there were other establishments in the area which contributed to the running of the Colosseum such as the gladiatorial training schools. One of these, the Ludus Magnus (big games school) was only discovered in the 1930s. It's an elliptical arena about a quarter smaller than that in the Colosseum but also contained seating for around 3000 people as even watching the training was considered good entertainment. They also had accommodation, storage, armouries etc. on site and when it was time to participate at the Colosseum, a secret tunnel - which still exists! - took them underground and into the holding area underneath the Colosseum arena. The events held there could go on for days at a time. Trajan held one games which lasted 123 days and involved 11,000 animals and 10,000 gladiators. The sheer logistics, organisation and management involved must have been incredible. [Panorama of the Colosseum - it's a bit dark because it was taken at 6am to avoid the crowds!]
3D model of the Colosseum: https://www.kubity.com/p/WarNkw
If I thought the highest level of seating at the Theatre of Marcellus was bad, it was nothing compared to the top row here! Talk about being up in the gods! It was fun going through the entrance and walking up all the flights of steps inside, trying to imagine what it would have been like when it was packed full of people. The noise and the heat must have been intense. And where were the toilets?! :)
And with that the course comes to an end. It has been a fascinating course and I'm very glad that I decided to do it. I think a lot of the enjoyment has come from Dr Nicholls' enthusiasm and obvious love for his subject and passing that on to the learners. I've always had an interest in the Romans but never really known much about Rome itself so this has been a good way to fill in that gap in my knowledge. I'm now feeling an interest in perhaps looking at learning Latin - oh, the things these courses inspire me to do! :)
But what about Remus' mob? They follow fortune, as always [...] they discarded their responsibilities long ago [...] for the people who once handed out power, political office, command of the legions, everything, now holds itself in check and anxious hopes for only two things - bread and circuses.
Juvenal, Satire 10, 72 - 81.
At this time, the democratic Roman Republic was falling and the time of the Roman Empire began. Previously, the Romans elected their government and political officers so they had some control over it. However, under the emperors, the 'mob of Remus' - the common folk - no longer concerned themselves with any of that, as long as the supply of cheap food and entertainment continued. This resulted in Juvenal's statement, suggesting that 'bread and circuses' were all it took to stop the public from doing their civic duty.
The most popular of all Roman entertainments was chariot racing and the professional charioteers could make some serious money from it. It's thought that the richest sportsman in all of human history was a charioteer called Diocles. The main location for the racing was a long strip of flat land between the Palatine and Aventine Hills, the Circus Maximus. It had probably been used for horse racing for hundreds of years but under the Romans, it was transformed into a huge arena with banked seating for 250,000 people, automatic starting gates and a central barrier or spina that was ornately decorated with obelisks, fountains and lap counters. As well as the racing, there were places you could get something to eat or drink, place bets or even, according to the poet Ovid, pick up a girl. A smaller circus was built by Maxentius near the Appian Way as part of a funerary complex and Domition built yet another. His was a 30,000 seat stadium in the Campus Martius in 86CE. It was built in the circus style with long straight sides and one curved end for turning. Here there was stone seating for around 30,000 spectators to watch running races and athletic sports in the Greek manner. The remains of this stadium, now hold the current buildings for the Piazza Navona which were built on top. It was possibly also used for bloodier entertainment; the Church of St Agnes in the Piazza commemorates the saint's martyrdom as part of a public execution which was held there.
In addition to the chariot races and athletics, there was also stage plays, gladiatorial contests, hunting, bathing and a whole variety of other entertainments. Originally the Circus Maximus had staged horses and boxers; later on both Pompey and Julius Caesar staged an exotic show with elephants, so it was used for anything that required space and plenty of seating. [Panorama of the Circus Maximus]
The theatre was another popular pastime. Rome's first permanent stone built theatre was built by Pompey the Great, as part of his competition with Julius Caesar to provide the best forms of entertainment for the public as well as the most impressive architecture. The theatre was built in the Greek style: a half round building with rows of banked seating, a temple to the goddess Venus at the top and behind it, huge gardens with porticoes and an audience hall. This hall was where Caesar was stabbed at a Senate meeting which was using the hall temporarily. In its time, it was one of the most lavish buildings in Rome. The building itself is long gone, however its imprint remains in the shape of the street that housed it. The Via di Grotta Pinta is curved, showing where it would have bent round the semi-circular walls of the theatre. Modern Rome has been built upon the remains of ancient Rome and this means that sometimes, when you go into the cellars and basements of various buildings, you might find a trace of those ancient remains. The foundations of Pompey's theatre was a series of radial barrel vaults, a row of adjoining arches which shift the weight of the supported building from the ceiling to the side pillars. These vaults could then hold the immense weight of the entire theatre: the rows of stone steps, the spectators and the temple at the top. These foundations still remain, buried below the Pancrazio restaurant in the Campo de' Fiori. The vaults are clearly visible and the wall at the end is made up of opus reticulatum, small diamond shaped pieces of concrete. While the theatre and temple was all gleaming marble, coloured columns and statues, the business end buried all the way down at the bottom was a massive concrete wall.
Although that theatre is no longer standing, the Theatre of Marcellus, built by Augustus in around 13 BCE is much better preserved. It now stands clear of the buildings around it due to Mussolini who pulled down a lot of mediaeval buildings that surrounded it in order to enhance the ones built by his hero, Augustus. The building is three storeys high with the bottom level containing multiple arches which were the entrances for spectators. It could hold about 20,000 people and Augustus decreed who could sit where in the theatre, depending on their social status. The top of the building now contains luxury flats! This theatre was included as part of a festival that took place over seven days in June and involved ceremonies and sacrifices during the day and night, chariot races, hunting and theatre. The events started at the second and fourth hour after daylight - without artificial lighting, the Romans used daylight hours as much as possible and would get up at dawn. [Panorama of the Theatre of Marcellus]
3D model of the Theatre of Marcellus: https://www.kubity.com/p/RwSZEx
This was fun to explore! I took a bit of a wrong turning early on and ended up on the stage. Thankfully not the first time I've been there. Quite a view from there though it must have been rather nerve-wracking for a new actor with all those rows and rows of people watching. I managed to get right up into the nose-bleed section at the very top, it must have been dreadful up there because of the sheer amount of columns. Talk about restricted view! I wonder how long the plays tended to last because those seats must not have been comfortable for very long. The backdrop is impressive though, for all that it reminds me of the opening credits to the Muppet Show...
As mentioned earlier, bathing was another popular pastime of the Romans. Considering how hot, cramped and dusty Rome would have been at the time, being able to get nice and clean would have been quite a treat. And the Romans really loved to bathe. One catalogue lists around 900 balneae (private bathhouses) in addition to the thermae (public baths)! It became embedded in the culture and was something Romans were keep to import to other parts of the Empire - there are even bathhouses right up on Hadrian's Wall at the very border between the Empire and the wilds of Scotland. Each successive emperor built their own bathhouses, getting larger and more lavish as they attempted to outdo the previous ones. The first bathhouse was built in 19BCE by Agrippa around the same time as his aqueduct, the Aqua Virgo, because he needed lots of clean, fast flowing water for the bathhouse's fountains and pools. However, the first extensive imperial bathhouse was built by Trajan early in the second century on the Esquiline Hill. Trajan and his architect Apollodorus levelled out the top of the hill and created a huge terrace on top of it. The bathhouse was a massive structure, comprising of a central bathing block with a huge open air swimming pool, rooms of different temperatures and great halls with statues everywhere, towering marble columns supporting vaulted ceilings with glass mosaic and pools of water beneath to reflect the light. Outside of that was an outer wall with ornamental gardens, trees, more statues, lecture halls, libraries, and spaces for athletics and sports. Underneath was a series of shops where the Romans liked to do their shopping for Saturnalia. So right in the heart of the city was this massive space where you could meet friends, have a relaxing massage and bath, get a snack or drink of wine, play ball, or listen to poetry and philosophy in the evening. An entire day out all in one place.
3D model of the Baths of Caraculla: https://www.kubity.com/p/Lrktn4
This looked so impressive even before I'd started exploring it. I entered it from the arcades at the front and up the steps which brought me out into the gardens, that first impression as you come up into the gardens is really quite something. It's a massive complex, so many rooms that lead into each other, I rather could have done with a map! I can see that it would have been nice to stroll round the gardens or relax in the swimming pool that's open to the sky.
Gladiatorial combat had been popular with Romans for a long time. It started out as a sort of ritual combat which took place at aristocratic funerals but quickly became a form of entertainment. Initially, it took place in temporary wooden structures which were quickly thrown up near places such as the Forum and just as quickly dismantled and moved somewhere else. When the emperors arrived on the scene, with their increasing need to please the public and their vast wealth, it made more sense to have a purpose built permanent venue instead. The emperor Nero had taken a huge part of the city for his private palace and gardens, a move which was hated by the Romans so when his successor Vespasian came to power, he demolished the entire complex and built instead a massive stone amphitheatre to be used for public entertainment: the Colosseum. No longer the private domain of just one man but given back to the people of Rome. It was a huge feat of engineering. It contains 100,000 tonnes of travertine stone, 300 tonnes of iron clamps to hold it all together, tufa, brick and concrete. Its 545 meters around and seats 50,000 people but it was built in just 10 years. As well as holding gladiatorial combat, it also was used for beast hunting and public executions. It was also possibly flooded in some way to hold aquatic entertainment as well. There were also wooden masts at the very top which supported canvas awnings that were stretched out to provide shade from the sun to the spectators. These were controlled by a special detachment of Roman sailors who were housed in nearby barracks.
In addition to that building, there were other establishments in the area which contributed to the running of the Colosseum such as the gladiatorial training schools. One of these, the Ludus Magnus (big games school) was only discovered in the 1930s. It's an elliptical arena about a quarter smaller than that in the Colosseum but also contained seating for around 3000 people as even watching the training was considered good entertainment. They also had accommodation, storage, armouries etc. on site and when it was time to participate at the Colosseum, a secret tunnel - which still exists! - took them underground and into the holding area underneath the Colosseum arena. The events held there could go on for days at a time. Trajan held one games which lasted 123 days and involved 11,000 animals and 10,000 gladiators. The sheer logistics, organisation and management involved must have been incredible. [Panorama of the Colosseum - it's a bit dark because it was taken at 6am to avoid the crowds!]
3D model of the Colosseum: https://www.kubity.com/p/WarNkw
If I thought the highest level of seating at the Theatre of Marcellus was bad, it was nothing compared to the top row here! Talk about being up in the gods! It was fun going through the entrance and walking up all the flights of steps inside, trying to imagine what it would have been like when it was packed full of people. The noise and the heat must have been intense. And where were the toilets?! :)
And with that the course comes to an end. It has been a fascinating course and I'm very glad that I decided to do it. I think a lot of the enjoyment has come from Dr Nicholls' enthusiasm and obvious love for his subject and passing that on to the learners. I've always had an interest in the Romans but never really known much about Rome itself so this has been a good way to fill in that gap in my knowledge. I'm now feeling an interest in perhaps looking at learning Latin - oh, the things these courses inspire me to do! :)