Life in Ancient Rome: Entertainment
What did the Romans do for fun?
Some things which people in Roman times did for fun are similar to things we do today. Board
games with counters and dice were very popular with the Romans. Counters and marked out boards
for these games have now been found. However, nobody knows the rules for the games! Hunting
was also popular. People in the countryside would hunt animals for fun as well as for food. The
Romans even introduced fallow deer to Britain to make the hunting better. Some things the Romans
did for fun were horrible. Animals and people were sometimes killed for entertainment as part of
shows put on in amphitheatres.
What did the Romans see in the Amphitheatres?
Concivted criminals or specially trained slaves called gladiators would fight each other in
amphitheatres. There were four main types of gladiators, recognised by their costumes and with
what they fought. The Samnite, Thracian and Murmillo were all heavily armed. The fourth type of
gladiator called the Retarius carried a trident and net.
Despite the fact that they were criminals some achieved great
fame and had followers rather like footballers today. They could
even retire from the arena and become trainers.
To make the fights more interesting they normally were not
matched against a similar gladiator and would also fight against
wild animals and in re-enactments of great battles from myth
and history.
The Romans imported wild animals for the arena from all over the Empire. Gladiators would fight
everything from Bears, Wild Boars and Lions to the strange Hippos, Ostriches and Elephants from
Africa. When a gladiator lost a fight the crowd would decide if the loser should live or die. The
audience would wave their handkerchiefs or put their thumbs up if he should live. If they wanted the
loser to die, they would put their thumbs down. Amphitheatres were an incredibly successful form
of entertainment.
The Colosseum
The greatest amphitheatre in the Empire was the Colosseum in Rome. It was built under the order
of the Emperor Vespasian but took ten years to build and was not opened until 80AD. In addition
to putting on the gladiatorial shows and beast shows the Colosseum was also used for public
executions of criminals and later on Christians.
The stadium could hold 50,000 spectators, 45,000 of them seated. There were 80 entrance arches
and the building could be emptied in 15 minutes. The further away from the arena you sat, the less
important you were. Slaves and women could attend performances, but had to sit right at the top.
During the Colosseum's opening ceremonies in A.D. 80, spectacles were held for 100 days in which
thousands of animals and 2,000 gladiators were killed.
A wooden flooring was used to cover the subterranean chambers where the gladiators as well as the
animals were kept prior to performance. During the first ten years of its existence, the stadium was
filled with water and used for mock naval battles. However, over time the Romans found it was
damaging to the foundation as well as to the flooring.
Task
Take a new page and under the headline “COLOSSEUM TO OPEN 80AD” write about 50
words, describing the building itself and 50 words describing the events that will take place
here. Include a picture of the Colosseum or a gladiatorial fight.
A reconstruction of the Colosseum
The Colosseum as it looks today