what were fights called in the colosseum

Gladiators usually signed 10-year contracts with managers, on the condition that if they survived to the end, they’d win their freedom. As anyone who’s watched the movie “Gladiator” can tell you, fighters were usually prisoners of war “with nothing to lose,” Lucia says. Some things have changed for the better, of course. Musicians staved off boredom between exciting bits in Roman times-just like the DJ who took to the decks at the Stadio Olimpico at half-time. Women did their makeup (again, their tools are displayed on-site) just like the woman perfecting her lipgloss next to me at the soccer game.

Like us, they snacked-and 1,700-year-old chicken bones and fruit stones that were found in the Colosseum are on display on the second floor. Spectator sports may have become less bloody over the past two millennia, but I can’t imagine the roar of the crowd in the Colosseum being louder than that in the Stadio Olimpico. It was a propaganda move that worked for four centuries, until the fall of the Roman empire. Around 5,000 animals were killed in the inaugural games-a bid to appease a public angry about inequality. Keen to curry favor with the public, the Flavian dynasty, who took power following Nero’s death, wanted to give the land back to the city-so they drained the lake, and vowed to build the empire’s largest amphitheater as a present to the people. The games in Rome started almost as an apology to the people-the emperor Nero had appropriated swathes of the city for his outrageously opulent villa, the Domus Aurea, and he’d flooded this valley at the foot of the Esquiline, Caelian, and Palatine hills to make himself a lake. They did the same in ancient Rome, Lucia says-since many people only worked mornings, the games took place in the afternoon. Floodlights because it’s evening-the match is being played after most people finish work. Even the lighting is the same-the Colosseum had a retractable sunshade for spectators, Lucia tells us, while the sun blazed down on the fighters in the Stadio Olimpico, the seating is covered, with floodlights on the pitch. The next morning while touring the Colosseum, Lucia points out the gleaming white-marble seats for the Roman senators, closest to the arena floor for the best views.

What were fights called in the colosseum