C O L O S S E U M
R O M E B U I L T : 8 0 A D
Emperor Vespasian wanted a new amphitheater for
fifty thousand Romans to view gladiatorial contests,
animal hunting and public executions. Tunnels and
chambers below the arena floor provided space for
workers, contestants and animals to wait for their
turn in the arena.
Colosseum seating was broken into tiers to separate
the various social classes. The best seats were closest
to the arena and were set aside for Senators, high ranking
officials and important priests. The Emperor had his own
private viewing box as did the six Vestal Virgins, situated
across the arena, opposite the Emperor. These were
powerful women of the priesthood, and chosen for their
service between the ages of 6 and 10. They were sworn
to thirty years of chastity. Breaking their oath meant being
buried alive outside the walls of Rome in a stone chamber.
Natural causes was the reason given for their death.
The highest tier, or nosebleed section, had the worst
view of the arena and was reserved for the
lowest classes, slaves and women.
G L A D I A T O R
C O L O S S E U M
Gladiators were professional combatants that fought
in the arena for public entertainment. They were
enslaved persons that included war captives and
condemned criminals. The most famous of the
gladiators was Spartacus, a man who never fought
in a major arena. Instead he escaped from gladiator
training school to assemble an army of a hundred
thousand enslaved people, in a rebellion against
the Roman Republic. The war lasted two years
before Spartacus and his force were finally defeated.
P A N T H E O N
R O M E B U I L T : 1 2 6 A D
The temple was built to honor all gods:
pan - all / theon - gods (Greek)
but was gifted to the Pope by the Byzantine
Emperor Boniface IV in 609 AD, and has remained
an active Catholic Church ever since. Raphael,
the famous Renaissance painter and Vatican favorite,
is among those entombed in the Pantheon's mausoleum.
It is unique among Roman structures in that the Pantheon
is a round building with a traditional Greek portico
for its entrance. Its sixteen massive granite columns
are sixty tons apiece and were imported from Egypt.
P A R T H E N O N
A C R O P O L I S O F A T H E N S B U I L T : 4 3 2 B C
The Parthenon has become a symbol of ancient Greece,
democracy and Western Civilization. It's Doric architecture
is a marvel of ancient engineering and has served as a
template for Roman design. The temple was severely
damaged in 1687 when a Venetian bomb exploded
the powder magazine stored inside by the Ottomans.
The Parthenon has been undergoing restoration
since 1975.
P A N T H E O N
D O M E D I N T E R I O R
The interior of Rome's Pantheon is covered with
the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome,
and rises to a height of 142 feet above the floor.
At the apex of this dome is an oculus, a 27 foot
circular opening, that provides the structure's
only natural source for lighting and ventilation.
The flooring is slightly slanted towards drains,
embedded amidst the tiles, to handle the water
that falls through the oculus on rainy days.
P O N T D U G A R D
A Q U E D U C T B R I D G E 1 S T C E N T U R Y A D
This Roman three-tier bridge aqueduct supplied the
ancient city of Nemausus in southern France for over
500 years. Gravity propelled natural spring water
thirty-one miles at a shallow declining gradient of
one inch for every one hundred yards. Precision cut
rocks never needed mortar. This aqueduct system
was a masterpiece of Roman engineering, continuing
to stand firm after nearly two thousand years.
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OVER EASY
