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“Oh, Spaniard, You Should See the Colosseum!”

July 5, 2011

Here's a snippet from a manuscript I'm roughing while here in Italy; musings on the Colosseum in Rome.

I also struggled, as I guess most do, with the purpose behind this amphitheatre. This enormous, beautiful structure was constructed as a showcase of cruelty. Only God knows how many murders occurred here, how many innocent victims, how many ferocious animal fights, the scope of the tragic destruction – all this, shockingly, in the name of entertainment. As I stared down into what was once a celebrated killing field, I wondered what the Romans unashamed bloodlust had to teach us about our own society, and ourselves. Were they worse than us, or just more public and shameless with their atrocities? I tried relating a little of this to the children, but with a five and a six year old the answers didn’t exist for their predominant question: “Why?”

Why, indeed.

It was a sober moment, in which it was impossible to forget that the power of Rome came from its violent conquests, just as in the arena it fed off the blood of its victims, by conquering, subjugating, enslaving, and systematically thieving. Although Rome is famous for developing an effective system of jurisprudence, the “glory that was Rome” was anything but just, and certainly not glorious.

Posted in Travel

7 responses to ““Oh, Spaniard, You Should See the Colosseum!””

Jaime Shaw

July 6, 2011

It seems to me in many ways that today’s television has taken the place of the Colosseum, Although we know television shows, movies, programs are just acting, and are not real, Today’s society “watches” the tv in the same way the roman people “watched” or enjoyed the horrific acts that took place on that circle of sand.
Thank you Chris for being the “Gladiator” of principle and character that today’s society truly needs.
Gladiator…. Freedom

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Kat

July 6, 2011

and when witnesses the lack of concern by the current government at the price on the US head keeps going up and up; one has to think of how did our nation get so powerful, but can’t manage our bills. Hmmmm

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Cathy – Team Rascals

July 6, 2011

Chris,
You could almost say the Colosseum was Rome’s own version of what we now define as “reality television.” What they did openly and obviously (and before those who could pay for it), our society does more subtly at night with the insider games and backstabbings on shows like “Survivor” and its ilk.
The emperors described it as the “circusses” half of their maxim to keep the masses quiet. Bread and circusses, or what they saw as the basic human needs of food and entertainment, kept the masses of Romans distracted from the miseries of their daily lives.
Watching someone else get maimed and/or killed in the Colosseum (just the biggest venue, really) helped folks forget for a time the plagues, the poverty, the injustice, the slavery, the diseases caused by sheer ignorance of the roles cleanliness and containment play in infections, and countless other issues the average Roman faced daily. It could all be endured, after all, if they believed someone else was worse off than they, and the Colosseum’s games gave them this.
There was another purpose the emperors and those in power had for the Colosseum. It was a place of incredible attrocity and persecution. It was there the Roman emperors placed the implacable steel of their sandaled feet on the necks of their political and religious enemies, most notably the Christians.
The Christian faith was a threat to their political and religious power, and the games were a show of that power. They vilified and demonized Christians before the populace, with Nero’s after Rome burned being the best example. He blamed it on them, and used the Colosseum to punish those he called responsible, when reliable history suggests it was in fact he who truly was. It was out of the crucible of the Colosseum Christians rose to conquer Rome by the sheer power of the love of the Gospel, something those Romans in power could never understand.

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Perekam Suara

July 21, 2011

May be I can go to Rome next time. I’d like to see the Colosseum myself.

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John Hayward

July 25, 2011

Great post Chris,
Escapism.
Reality (Fake) TV shows us today the worst in humanity without getting dirty, showcase greed and mediocrity and call it fame and normal, the best in humanity without participating or sharing your own gifts. And for the blood lust lost in the Collisium, just watch Ultimate Fighting for five minutes and tell me that the gladiators have not returned.
Bread and circuses have returned and very few of us can recognize it for what it is.
Respectfully,
John

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Hunting.Targ

September 13, 2011

What comes to mind as I read the article and attending comments are two sayings. One the now-infamous ‘entertaining ourselves to death’ (a disturbing pun in present context), the other something written by Francis Shaeffer:
“The Christians were persecuted, not because they worshipped Christ, but because they refused to worship Caesar.”
The Christians and certain Jews (such as those who died in the siege of Massada) were two groups who would not be titillated or taken in by the ‘bread and circuses’ strategy of social and moral subjugation. A man may suffer injustice, but he is not completely enslaved as long as he remembers that there is injustice. The real function of excessive entertainment is not to deceive, but to distract, to massage away the memory of wrong without any apology or redress. Dignity, not spite, is behind the motto ‘We will never forget.’
Here’s to history, to the studying of lessons.
-GW

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wellbutrin

February 7, 2012

Hello! , diovan.

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