 What happened inside the Coliseum? Let's discover the complex nature of all amphitheater events. The morning show, animal hunts, noontime public executions, and the main event in the afternoon, gladiator fights. Such was the activity in any amphitheater throughout the Empire, but in the Coliseum, the Emperor raised the stakes and offered games and spectacles that were unrivaled. Let's look at the activities inside the Coliseum. Gladiatorial games took place in Rome as early as 264 BC, and it became standard taking place in the Roman Forum as the key location by 216 BC. The idea was that the games were a mooness, an obligation tied to funerary games to honor the deceased. When gladiatorial games were held inside the Roman Forum, a temporary venue was constructed out of wood filling the entire piazza, about the size of a football field. And it's this elongated shape fitting into that long rectangular piazza of the Forum that eventually gave way to permanent stone structures, the amphitheaters we know from the Roman Empire. And at the same time, the whenattiones, or hunts, became very popular in the Circus Maximus, with a growing demand for more and more exotic animals as Rome conquered far off lands. By the imperial period, these two components, animal hunts and gladiators, became enshrined in the amphitheater structure. The first stone one in Rome was constructed only in the time of Augustus. When the games took place, the performance began with a pompa, or parade, of the protagonists. We can see such a parade on the tomb of Naus Aelius Nighirius Myus. We see animals, vestiarii, gladiators holding their helmets, statues of gods carried on litters, musicians to bikines, and the editor, the person who's paying for the spectacles. Okay, let the games begin. We start with the whenattiones, or the beast hunts, who were the vestiarii, or the venetores. They were condemned criminals, or prisoners of war, and they were trained to fight wild animals. Now, there's some discussion as to just how trained they actually were. Now, Samakas writes about 29 Saxon prisoners actually strangling one another in their prison cells the night they were supposed to perform. Seneca also wrote about the German who, to avoid fighting in the games against the wild beasts, actually took the sponge on a stick used to wipe yourself in the Roman latrines. He shut it down his throat to strangle himself to avoid those games. So it was an awful reality, and even though you were armor, and were armed with swords and spears, even on horseback, it seemed like a deadly proposition to combat a bear, or a panther, or a lion. The vestiarii were housed in Rome in the Demiscianic Era Lutus Matutinus, the morning school nearby the Colosseum. Was it of lesser value then to be a vestiarii in respect to the gladiators? Well let's see. Because the games took place in the morning, it seems like it was essentially a glorified warm-up act. Although in North Africa, the games against the wild animals seemed to have been more popular than the games against the gladiators. What a spectacle it must have been. And Commodus, the famous emperor who performed as a gladiator, also famously killed countless animals, including beheading ostriches and eliminating hundreds of bears with a bow and arrow. In the Colosseum, the animals were hoisted up through small elevators underneath the wooden floor, and one has been recently reconstructed to give us a sense of the technology employed by the Romans. After the morning show, the Matutini, it was time for the noontime events, the mereriani. And noontime was reserved for criminal persecutions of people condemned in a court of law, the so-called noxii, or captives for war. Now typically, the upper classes would head out of the Colosseum for an extended lunch, and it was the masses that typically remained in the stands. And we know that they consumed food from the concession stands in the Colosseum, because archaeological remains of chicken and goat bones, as well as various fruits and seafoods have been identified in the drains of the Colosseum. People were even known to cook in the stands. The upper classes typically departed to avoid the more vulgar or base violence, namely the execution of captured enemies of war and people found guilty of heinous crimes like murder in arson. The bottom line is that these people had lost their rights, and because of their atrocities committed, they were served up for public humiliation and exacting the rule of law. They were typically burned, crucified, and also thrown to the beast, ad bestias. Now here is a famous example from Elgem in Tunisia where we literally see a person whose arms are tied behind his back and a large feline chewing on his face. You had no chance of reprieve as a condemned criminal. Here's an example from Zlatanlibia where you have another person being attacked by a feline and another person who's literally being carted out to the wild animals. It's a way of exacting justice. And also at noontime, that's where the real creative execution of criminals took place. The Noxi, the criminals, took on that theatrical aspect and know where it was more impressive than in the Colosseum. But there were many examples of punishments documented throughout Rome and in many venues before the Colosseum. Here's the case of Celerus, who called himself the son of Etna, who led an all-out rebellion in Sicily in the environs of Etna. When he was finally captured, he was put on display in the Roman Forum during the gladiatorial games and he was put in a cage atop a contraption that looked like Mount Etna. And when it was time to kill him, the actual shell of the volcano dropped away and it was revealed there was a large cage filled with wild animals then Celerus was dropped into that horrific environment torn apart by wild beasts. Such was the ending of the man who claimed to be the son of Etna. In Nero's wooden amphitheater that preceded the construction of the Colosseum were told the story of a man swung around as Icarus, flying with his wings with his father Dedalus. Icarus came crashing down into the arena and literally his blood splashed out and splattered the emperor Nero himself. Other amphitheater games recall a criminal being castrated publicly following the myth of the god Addis who was driven mad and castrated himself to please the goddess Cibale. In the Colosseum itself we have documented reenacted myths in the book of the spectacles written by Marshall during the inauguration games of the Colosseum. We have the spectacle of a criminal a woman dressed up as pacify who was made love to by a bull according to the myth of Dedalus and Minos. It was enacted in the arena floor. There's the Roman Republican tale of the defiant Skyvilla who actually put his hand in a fire and it melted away as he defied his captors the Etruscans. Now a criminal did the same act his hand thrust into fire until it melted away. Marshall also records the story of Orpheus. The musician who was so talented he could charm wild animals but in this case a criminal was dressed up as Orpheus he was literally torn apart by wild animals. He also then recounts the story of L'Orealus a noted brigand who's chained up like Prometheus but instead of having his liver pecked out by an eagle he was mauled to death by a Scottish bear. Again it's that inventiveness that would take place at noontime for the enjoyment of the crowd also exacting just punishments Rome was the law of the land and you saw justice enacted at noontime in the amphitheater. And there are many more horrific examples of the inventive persecutions of the Romans throughout the Roman Empire. We see many of those scenes depicted in the 5th century church on the Cayenne hill since Stefano in Rotondo again underlining just how creative the Romans were in the persecution of criminals and in this case the persecution of Christians. But for the Colosseum there is no Christian tradition that details the persecution of a Christian inside the amphitheater. And now for the main event the afternoon spectacles the gladiators. The gladiators would be paraded into the Colosseum from the gladiatorial schools and there were three built by Domitian for their exclusive use. The most famous of all the Lutus Magnus partially excavated and the adjacent Lutus Gallicus and Lutus Dechicus. Gladiators would also appear from underneath the wooden floor in the Hippolyjam area. We get a sense of what it was like to be a gladiator on his way to an elevator shaft to be hoisted up to appear before the crowd much like in the same way that the exotic animals like lions, tigers, bears and crocodiles would appear. The editor was the host of the show and in the Colosseum exclusively the emperor. He had the ultimate say in the fate of the gladiators. The Lanista was the owner of the gladiators and he would encourage his gladiators commission for the spectacle in the Colosseum. There was musical accompaniment during the fighting, water organs, trumpets and more. There were referees with long sticks that they would use to direct and regulate the matches. This was not a slaughter but rather an orchestrated bout of real showmen and experts at fighting. They were performers and artists as much as trained killers and they typically fought in pairs. They were usually wearing heavy equipment that weighed up to 40 to 50 pounds so a given bout in the Colosseum wouldn't last that long. What were the gladiator types that fought in the Colosseum? There was the Secutor or the Pursuer who wore heavy armor and was usually matched against the Retiarius who was armed with a trident and a net that he used to ensnare his opponent. He was only protected with a shoulder piece called a Galeris on his left side. As they fought against the heavier armed Mermillo whose helmet had a crest like a fish so in a certain sense the Retiarius was fishing for his prey, sometimes the prey could win. And the Mermillo in turn competed against also the Thrakes or the Thracian who had a Cymatar, a Sica and a small square shield or the Hoplomachus who fought with a small round shield and carried a short straight sword. There were also Equites who fought in the arena on horseback. There were Laquati who used a Lasso to ensnare their opponents, a Sagittarius who used a bow and arrow and a Demacaris who fought with two swords. There were other Gladiators, some of whom were free citizens that entered as free agents and also even on occasion, particularly in the reign of Demission, women Gladiators. According to Petronius and Seneca, Gladiators swore an oath at the beginning of their performance they offered to be burned, flogged, beaten or killed if ordered. When they fought, there was that moment of asking for a reprieve. You raised a finger, a Digitum, we're not sure which one. And then at that point the crowd could step in and voice their interests in either the Gladiator who was defeated to be given a reprieve or to be executed and the execution sign was given with Policiverso, we're not exactly sure which angle the thumb was turned but probably was tied in with calls for Eugolatio, meaning to slit the throat of that Gladiator. So sometimes the Gladiators were put to death, it had to be approved by the person who paid for the games, the editor and then that Gladiator would be dispatched without complaint so much were they trained to face death. But statistically we know that Gladiators weren't killed that often in the arena, one in ten bouts concluded with the actual death of a Gladiator, it doesn't mean they couldn't be wounded, it doesn't mean they couldn't hurt and there were doctors in attendance to take care of wounded Gladiators. But the spectacle was mind boggling in the Colosseum, both the inaugural games and in the triumph of Trajan we were told in each occasion no less than 5,000 pairs of Gladiators fought over a hundred days. That's in addition to thousands and thousands of exotic animals including rhinos and hippos and elephants were killed in the Colosseum. Such was the grandeur of the spectacles in the Flavian amphitheater, the Colosseum of Rome. Thanks for joining us on Ancient Rome Live. You can find a lot more content on our website AncientRomeLive.org and of course you can also donate so that we can make more fantastic content. We're so excited about Ancient Rome and Empire and all that has been left behind throughout the Mediterranean. Let us know in the comments what you'd like us to make next.