In the first of three episodes about gladiators in ancient Rome, Emily and Cam explore the world’s most iconic remnant of ancient gladiator games: the Roman Colosseum. They talk about the appearance of the building, then and now; the origins of the building as part of the emperor Vespasian’s effort to legitimize his power; and the cycles of destruction and renewal that produced the ruin that survives in Rome today.
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00:10 - Introduction
- 00:23 - The Colosseum: an iconic remnant of ancient Rome and its gladiator games
- 00:57 - First impressions of the Colosseum in Rome from the exterior
- 03:31 - The Colosseum’s interior: the exhibit spaces in the upper ambulatory and the arena
05:38 - The Colosseum as it was in ancient Rome
- 05:59 - The Colosseum, or the Flavian Amphitheatre?
- 06:58 - What’s an amphitheatre? A southern Italian innovation, influenced by Greek theaters
- 09:04 - The spread of amphitheatres in ancient Italy and elsewhere
- 10:05 - The Roman Colosseum in its heyday: its appearance, its structure, and its amenities
16:08 – Why was the Colosseum built? Vespasian and the legitimacy of the Flavian dynasty
- 16:39 - Augustus and the legitimacy of imperial power
- 19:05 - The fall of Augustus’ dynasty and the rise of Vespasian
- 20:39 - Vespasian and the ideological importance of the Flavian Amphitheatre
- 22:47 - A digression on Nero and his murder of his mother, Agrippina
26:06 - The survival of the Colosseum after antiquity: cycles of destruction and renewal
- 26:46 - Fires and earthquakes and flooding, oh my!
- 27:35 Fit for plunder: the Colosseum as a source of building materials
- 28:37 - Social, political, and economic transformations: the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and the decline of the Colosseum
- 30:17 - New Life in the 11th century: the palaces of the Frangipani and Annibaldi
- 31:15 - A loss of memory: did anyone remember what the Colosseum was for?
- 32:28 - Flavio Biondo and the “rediscovery” of the Colosseum
- 33:05 - The Catholic Church, the Italian government, and restoration
33:54 - Final Thoughts and a meditation by the Venerable Bede
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