Ghost or No Ghost?

Life or death is the life of a gladiator. Pitiful and sad is the way they lived; but they did have better than average accommodations with three meals a day and a place to sleep. Most gladiators, as we all know were mainly prisoners of war. Still, few Romans actually become gladiators for glory, fame, and money. Roman gladiators were trained very well for the battles in the Colosseum while the prisoners weren’t trained as well as the Roman gladiators. On the other hand, we can’t only depict battles with gladiators but also with animals. During our walk with Livia, she popped a question none of us could answer. The question was how many days per month do the Romans have the shows in the Colosseum? These battles were not held everyday as what one would see in a movie. In fact, there were about only 2 shows per month. Surprising isn’t it? This was interesting because we would normally think that something as big as the Colosseum would hold enough animals and gladiators for battle everyday, but in truth the shipping of animals and prisoners were a tedious task. Even with so little battles per month, a lot of blood has been spilled and stained into history the tragedies and sins of that era, the era of the live battles. Unfortunately, we would never think of this when we enter the Colosseum, but it did happen so much in the past and now we have to wonder, is there a supernatural presence in the Colosseum today? 

Today, we all are very ignorant of the Colosseum’s bloody past and only see what is physically there. The Colosseum is so huge and magnificent that people tour Rome to take quick pictures in the Colosseum and leave without the proper knowledge of what the Colosseum is for. As I walked through the Colosseum today, I see Spanish, English, American, Japanese, Chinese, and all sorts of people who enter not paying attention to the fragile architecture and strong history when there is definitely something deeper in the Colosseum. Who knows what is lurking in the Colosseum when there are no tourists there? Well, I am a big believer of the supernatural because of my family, but the Colosseum, to me, has a presence that is sad, painful, and lonely. Maybe because as I go through this Roman Antiquity walk with Livia my eyes started opening more to the gore of the amphitheater instead of just the structure.  Maybe there are ghosts in there, maybe not, but who knows? It’s just interesting because if others would think of the Colosseum as a haunted theater then no one would go there.

The human mind works in a weird way; the making of the actual structure and the history behind the structure is just very intense. The structure of the Colosseum is so great that there are many replicas around the world; yet the history is all different. This is just another mystery to the art life that we are digging deeper to find.

-Susan Vang