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Monday, April 11, 2011

Essay on the Coliseum

Essay on the Coliseum

In the ancient world, there stood uncountable slaves building a structure not only important to their past civilization but also important to the present and future civilizations of this rich land, Rome. This elliptical shaped structure known as the Coliseum or the Flavian Amphitheatre, took nearly ten years to build. Reaching almost 48 meters up high, it was the largest structure of its type. The Coliseum was used as theatre in which comedic contests, exotic animal shows, and professional gladiator events took place, some say that Christians were burnt to death in it while others say that's only a rumor. Although nowadays the Coliseum isn't used the way it was years ago its still admired by many all over the world that's what makes it important now, it's a huge tourist attraction, in the past it was used by the rulers of Rome and its citizens to watch those incredible events that took place in it. Many roots lie and will lie within the Coliseums past, present and future.
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The construction of the coliseum started during the time that emperor Vispasian ruled (70-79ADE), and was finished by his son Titus after his death. The coliseum was dedicated the year after Vispasians death by Titus. The opening of the coliseum was celebrated by holding a hundred days worth of games. Day after day the Romans would go to the coliseum just to watch the plays, concerts and bloody sports that took place in it, going to the coliseum was probably the most popular thing to do at the time. The number of people going there just for the events that took place in it was never an issue since the coliseum could hold up to 50,000 people. For four centuries men, women, and animals died as an entertainment for the crowd. At first there were fights to death between wild animals; bear against buffalo, buffalo against elephant, and elephant against rhinoceros, later on the fights between men and wild animals, and combat between gladiators began. After ADE404 the coliseum was largely abandoned so later on in the middle ages, stones from the structure were used to construct other buildings.


The four floored, oval coliseum like said earlier could seat up to 50,000 spectators on marble and wooden chairs. This ancient structure is about 48 meters high, 190 meters long and 155 meters wide. The arena on the floor of the coliseum is about 85 meters long and 55 meters wide. The spectators were separated from the arena by a wall about 4.5 meters high. The coliseum is made of brick and concrete with stone covering the exterior, it had Greek columns decorating the outside without supporting the architecture. With eighty entrances all numbered except for the four main entrances wider than the others and reserved for the emperor, it was designed in such a way that made the crowds able to leave in less than 5 minutes. Wooden flooring was used to cover the subterranean chambers where the gladiators as well as the animals were kept prior performance. During the first ten years of its existence, the stadium was filled with water and used for mock naval battles. However, over time the Romans found it was damaging to the foundation as well as to the flooring. Now more than two-thirds of the original building is missing. The coliseum is very much similar to other amphitheatres, except this one is much bigger.

Nowadays Tourists from allover the world would love to see such an amazing and breathtaking structure. The Significance of the coliseum today is that it is a huge tourist attraction in present time Rome. Everyday in Rome people going to work, kids going to school, and people just going out for a peaceful walk might see the coliseum and just stand there and stare at it, studying every tiny detail about it, amazed by how someone from the ancient world could possibly come up with such an amazing design so complex and advanced. Tourists allover the world go to Rome just to see the amazing accomplishments of the ancient Romans. The coliseum obviously is a very important structure for both the past, present, and future civilizations of Rome.

In the past the coliseum was built for the publics benefit, now the coliseum is visited by more than a million tourist a year. In the past people would go to this amazing structure to get entertained by all sorts of ways. Now the coliseum is one of the most famous and architecturally advanced structure all over the world. Everyone understands just how important our ancient ancestors were and are when they see structure like the coliseum or the pyramids, both these ancient structures show us that without our ancestors who helped us have such easy lives we would be nothing! Many roots lie and will lie within the Coliseums present history and past.

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Warning!!! All free online essays, sample essays and essay examples on Coliseum topics are plagiarized and cannot be completely used in your school, college or university education.

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