Antar Abdellah
The Poet (Italian) praises the Coliseum and compares it to other wonders of the world like the pyramids in Egypt (Barbarous Memphis), and the Babylon cities in Iraq (Assyrians). He describes the Coliseum as the house where the Roman gods (Venus, Mars) serve the Caesar.
He mentions some gladiatorial games where men were fighting with animals like (tigress, elephant, a wild lion..etc) He also mentions the spectators who were watching these games and celebrating the coliseum opening.
He tells the story of a robber who was sentenced to death, by joining in a gladiator game against a beast. He describes the animals, the cages, the spectators, and the fierceness of the game.
The Roman historian tells of the animal games and shows that were popular in Pompey. He criticizes these shows and considers them of no real pleasure And wonders about the values of such shows where both man and beast are killed.
The writer addresses a dead lion who was killed in one of the gladiatorial games. He pities that the beast was killed although it had magnificent appearance. The writer may be addressing a human gladiator who was killed and considers him a lion. The writer seems to criticize these games.
A recent study on the history of Rome at the time of the coliseum. The tradition of gaming with animals and beasts was a popular one and still is in Spain with the bulls. Most of the killed victims were Christians as they were opposing the creed of the pagan Romans. That’s why there is a cross in the area- a sign of the victory of the church.
It was the tradition of the Romans to build amphitheaters for shows and meetings in different major cities they invaded. There are amphitheaters in Tunis, Egypt, Syria, and Britain. the Greek on the other side did not build such big amphitheaters although they had their older games- they thought that the onlookers would be out of rational thinking when viewing animals in contests.
Blood shed was fascinating to the Romans- this may have been a way of purging out their anger. People were thankful for the emperors that they kill the animals which cause a source of terror for them Emperors were identified with killing heroes like Hercules who was depicted killing many animals.
The area was also used for executing punishments for the wrong doers. The community as a whole may have participated in undertaking the punishment. Gladiators were “dead men” who had the chance to restore their life if they win in the combat. Most gladiators were condemned people, but also captives, and rivals.
He tells the story of building the Colosseum. Although Flavius and his sonTitus spent much money in building it, the name was not attributed to them but rather to their enemy who they hated most; Nero. Nero had a nearby statue which resembled Apollo. The statue was called the Colossus- thus the place was called: Colosseum.
The writer describes the grand ceremony of opening of the collosseum and the many beasts that were killed. The magnificent place was ornamented with marble and colored golden and purple.
1- Nature of the course 2- Art analysis 3- Literature analysis : Eveline 4- History analysis: sources 5- philosophy analysis: personal identity 6- getting deep in analyzing art 7- reading poetry: sonnets 8- more on history: methods of research 9- more on philosophy: reasoning 10- more on History and Art: the colosseum