The Empire Strikes Back

Dunh dunh... today was a day of colossal proportions.

We began by an early morning in the Forum and then traveled to Palatine hill. The Forum was the hub of ancient Roman life: a marketplace, criminal trials, triumphal processions, house/temple of the 6 Vestas, Julius Caesar's original burial place, public speeches...
Palatine Hill, just up to the right, was where Rome originated via the myth about the she-wolf and twins. Emperor Augustus also was born there, built a palace, temple, and revived the secular-religious Roman games.

Here is a good view from our first night in Rome together as a class.



I will perhaps add more information later, but it was very confusing tracking which building was which with the map we were given. I need to do some research to clarify the facts.

But onto the most fantastic part of the day!
 The Colosseum!!!
It was almost comical seeing such an ancient, breath-taking building in the middle of a very busy, modern street. It's hard to find words for what it felt like to walk inside, so I will mostly share pictures.

There were 4 floors- 2 that we could access: the ground floor, and then one with a view of everything below.  The pit/maze of walls and doors below the ground floor was actually once covered. It held the wild animals that were released throughout the games.

Below is the Colessium at sunset. The color of the stone becomes very rosy. In the middle of the awe though, it is very sobering to think about how many people were brutally murdered. It wasn't a beautiful place back then, and I don't think I could call it a beautiful place today, even though it is a masterpiece. It's like a caged and crippled lion retired from its younger days . Still majestic and barring its fangs.

Here are some of the crosses I saw there. The biggest one is seen when you first enter, in memorial of the Christian martyrs. As I walked throughout, random crosses were etched in the stone. Outside, here is the arc that commarates the legalization of Christianity in Rome.

If I lived back then, I could have been brought to this very place to be crushed by the tigers. Or in the least, people that I loved would have been. Rome is one very large cemetery, and the Colosseum was the bloodiest heart of it.