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I wished I had a time-traveling device so that I could see everything. No matter how much I explored a particular site, I longed to see it in different weathers and different times. A wish to see as it was now, and how it was in the past.
The closest I got to getting my wish was in Pompeii.
The ancient city of Pompeii was buried in 79 A.D. when Mount Vesuvius erupted and covered it in lava and ash. Pompeii was an amazing historic site, and the excavations were incredibly well preserved. I could still see the layout of the ancient town. The city’s historic amphitheater was also stunning.
The site was huge. I spent hours walking and felt that there were hours more to go.
It was a scorching day. I couldn’t quench my thirst, no matter how much water I drank. I refilled my water bottle from the nearby fountains several times. Maybe my thirst was because of walking miles on the 2000-year-old uneven roads and footpaths. Maybe it was because of looking at ash and rocks all day. Maybe it was after learning what happened to the ancient citizens of Pompeii.
My thirst was a minor inconvenience; it was nothing compared to their tragic fate.
Throughout the ruins, I came across harrowing death casts of Pompeii’s citizens. They were plaster recreations of the unfortunate who died with the volcanic eruption.
The plasters still contained their bones.
They painted a vivid picture of life in their last moments. Families died holding each other. Bodies that were in the fetal position.
Researchers said the body positions indicated suffocation, that the victims died when extremely hot gasses went through the city after the volcano erupted. They died of the high temperatures. The people immediately died of dehydration.
I felt my throat dry again, even though I sipped water a few moments ago.
My day at Pompeii ended with a trip to the infamous volcano, Mount Vesuvius. I felt somber while walking over the trails to the summit.
I thought again about the time-traveling device. Perhaps some things in the past should not be revisited. I didn’t want to see the city being buried in lava and ash.
The mountain showed no signs of its destructive past. It offered breathtaking views down into the crater and across the Bay of Naples.
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The Coliseum was an oval Amphitheatre in the center of Rome, the largest Amphitheatre of its time.
Much of the arena lay in ruins because of earthquakes or with the passing of time. I could see part of the hypogeum (or underground) visible from above.
I booked the underground tour so I could see the underground tunnels and dungeons. The underground level looked like a labyrinth, and it was where gladiators and animals were kept before the beginning of each battle. They brought in animals and performers through the tunnel from the nearby stables. Gladiators came in through the tunnels connecting to Ludus Magnus, the gladiator training school. The emperor had separate tunnels to enter and exit the Coliseum. He could go in and out without going through the crowds.
The tour guide told me the hypogeum was the Coliseum’s backstage, and it was astounding to hear how the arena was set up. There were hidden trap doors used to create special effects. Here, they would raise or lower scenery and props with elevators and pulleys. They would lift the cages with the animals to the arena surface and decorate the arena with actual trees and bushes to recreate a forest. The goal was to have a real-looking environment for the animals and the spectators.
The Coliseum had a dark history, as it was where thousands came to see gladiator and animal fights. The coliseum was where they had executions. I thought about the special effects used in movies or video games. At least the audience knows what they saw on screen was not real. The blood and carnage were special effects. That the actors, no matter how brutally accurate, were play-acting.
What about the spectators of the arena? What did they think?
The lust for drama and spectacle drove huge audiences to the coliseum. They flooded the arena to recreate naval battle scenes. They used prisoners in the arena, naked and weaponless, to fight against animals. The prisoners were used to recreate horrific deaths from mythology.
The animal hunt, or Venatio, used wild beasts imported from Africa and the Middle East. They included creatures such as rhinoceros, hippopotamuses, elephants, giraffes, lions, panthers, leopards, bears, tigers, crocodiles and ostriches. Beautiful, majestic animals that were all slaughtered in the arena.
I struggled to imagine killing people and animals in the name of entertainment. I couldn’t think about their last dying moments, their so-called ‘final performance’ in front of a roaring audience.
A creepy figure would appear at the end of each arena fight, like the ferryman who collected souls in the underworld. He would verify if the gladiator was dead. The Coliseum literally became one of the seven doors to hell. The arena was even a cemetery at one point in history, and criminals used the ruins to hide the bodies of their victims.
The west side exit in the Coliseum was the Gate of Death, and it was where the dead bodies were taken out through. I imagined dead bodies as they piled throughout the day. It was the same archway from where I could now see beautiful views of the city.
Even as I know about the dark past, I still feel I can’t judge.
I don’t know what it was like back then.
I just know it touches a very dark side of human history.
There are still dangerous stunts performed today, stunts that injure or even kill performers. Regardless, the show still goes on. The audience’s fascination with death, war, destruction is still there. They are the ones that drive the need for bigger and bolder action movie sequences. The film industry caters to the public.
I hope it was different from the bloodlust of the past.
There are new kinds of entertainment available now, movies, video games and sports long replaced what once was. Past times without actual dead bodies.
The coliseum underwent changes in the later centuries. The foundation blocks of the arena underwent a reinvention, as they reused the massive stones in Rome’s new palaces. The marbles of the coliseum were now part of historical buildings, such as St. Peter’s Basilica and Palazzo Barberini. The arena itself was used as workshops, fortress, and quarry, and even had a link to the Roman Catholic Church. Each Good Friday, the Pope leads a procession that starts around the Coliseum.
I thought it remarkable that a seismic change could happen in the same place. The stones remained what they were. Stones. The difference was how we used them.
I saw that the five-cent euro had the coliseum on one side of the coin. I kept it safe in my pocket.
I kept it to remind me how time can change everything.
I stayed at the Coliseum until nightfall. I visited Ludus Magnus and the Arch of Constantine nearby. The streets became quiet, and silence filled the amphitheater. During the quiet moments, I could feel the weight of history looming in the air.