The Appeal of the Colosseum

Up to today, even in its ruinous state, the Colosseum still fills millions with a sense of awe and wonder. The numerous films, books, games and other modern artifacts depicting the Colosseum bear testimony to this. One can only imagine how it must have felt to behold the awesome splendour of the building during its heyday. However, it was much more than just the building that attracted the ancient peoples. There were many other reasons why they found going to the Colosseum such a compelling experience. Some of the more popular ones include being able to make demands and grant life, witnessing crime getting punished and the destruction of enemies and threats, enjoying the “gift” that has been bestowed upon the people, attending the games as a funeral tribute to well-loved rulers and public figures, celebrating an occasion, being able to gamble and getting entertained by a wide array of performances.

The ancient Roman society was highly hierarchical with the emperor being at its helm. This gave those at the lower end of the spectrum little say in almost everything. However, in the arena, the crowd was taken as a collective and wielded the power to make demands and grant life. Apuleius writes of a young man, Lucius who has to have sexual intercourse with a condemned woman at the demand of the audience (Resource Book 1, C2, p.94).

As for the right to grant life, when it came to the gladiators, the people and only the people had it. “That was not in the gift of the president of the games, magistrate or even emperor, but in the gift of society as a whole; of the Roman people, present in the amphitheatre” (Resource Book 1, C11, p.106). One can only imagine how it would have felt to be able to command such authority.

Today, the media provides the assurance that crime gets punished in a manner that is commensurate with the crime that has been committed through broadcast. In the ancient Roman society, such media was nonexistent hence the need for personal witnessing of punishments being meted out. Weidemann says that when this assurance is destroyed, the public tends to react beyond what is necessary for a particular situation (Resource Book 1, C13(a), p.110). The Colosseum, being a place of public punishment, provided this assurance and compelled many Romans to visit it for this reason.

“Another group of those executed in the arena were defeated military opponents” (Resource Book 1, C11, p.106). Watching these executions must have given Romans a real high knowing that they were part of such a mighty empire. Also, just like how people today enjoy watching the “good” defeat the “bad”, the ancient Romans enjoyed watching their “good” government reign victorious over its “bad” enemies.