Rome via Brooklyn

372 words, 2 minutes read time.

I was slightly surprised that the colosseum fights were staged, even though that makes sense. The fact that everything was a spectacle was a big show of power. The rich watch people get executed for fun. The way they did the executions was also all a big show, like what we learned about some prisoners being put in wings and pushed off of a building to imitate the story of Icarus where he flew too close to the son. The rich would also pass this off as a cultural and religious act, something positive in the face of so much torture and death. “…There were no helmets and no shields. Why involve armor, or skill? Such things would just get in the way of death. In the morning, men are thrown to lions and bears…” (Aicher, 183). This is discussing the attitudes of the spectators to the people in the arena, which is a total lack of sympathy or any emotion, it was a huge social divide, and proved how vicious the Roman could be. The little things on the second floor museum were also interesting to see, how people would bring dice and little knick knacks while watching death. 

Jessica and I went back to the Roman Forum to go to the temple of Venus to get a better view of the Colosseum, but it was closed. We saw the temple from the inside along with some bones, art, and sculptures. We then went to a couple of more churches. Enjoyed some figs outside then walked to the Barberini Gallery where we discovered that the Caravaggio was on lease, but still went in and were one of the few people there. A very common theme was some sort of death, destruction, or pain, and it made me think to the colosseum today and just how much pain the Romans created in general, and I think it’s shown well in its art whether it be war, people fighting each other, or even kids strangling animals. It was super hot so we ended the day off with gelato from a place near our house. I got pistachio and dark chocolate so it was like a personal Dubai chocolate gelato and it was amazing.