To the Romans entertainment was very important. The two
most important things to them were Bread and entertainment. This same promise
was used by Lenin about bread within this last century to the Russian people.
They had different buildings for different types of entertainment.
The Roman circus
The Circus was where there were horse races or chariot or foot
races. The largest circus was Circus Maximus which is in Rome. They had to do a
10 lap race and so they had to have a way to find out at which lap they were.
They did this by keeping a stick with different coloured fish. This was to find
out at which lap they were. The chariot competitors used to tie the reins to
their body so that if they fell then they could cut themselves free. If they
didn't manage they would get dragged along the sand and grit ripping them apart.
Oditorium
The Oditorium was where people went to watch plays or listen to people speak.
They went their favourite actors. They tried to make it as real as life in order
to keep the people entertained. The actors wore masks during shows. When they
did scenes where someone was killed they took a condemned man and then they
killed him such that someone did die on stage.
Amphitheatres
The
Amphitheatre in Nīmes (
(South of France)
The Amphitheatre was a circular building where the Romans
went to watch gladiator fights or other things. The largest amphitheatre is the
Coliseum in Rome. It can accommodate 600,000 people. People went there to watch
gladiator fights. Gladiators were slaves that had to fight in the arena. They
had a shield, a sword or a dagger to fight there opponent. Sometimes they had a
net and a fork to kill the enemy or opponent. The Romans enjoyed watching the
fights. This gave them the reputation of being blood thirsty. When they watched
they could choose if the opponent had fought well so they put the thumb up to
say "let him live" or down to get him killed. Sometimes the arena
could be used for battles. When they staged a sea battle they filled the pit
with water and then brought ships in. These battles were or could be as good or
realistic as real life battles. They also had animal fights in the arena. They
could be between animals such as bears and humans or tigers and dogs. There were
lots of other animals but I don't have a list of them. The crowds used to bet on
the outcomes of fights and in gladiator fights the thumbs up or down decided the
outcome on whether or not the gladiator would survive to fight once more.
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