schmitzstahlcoliseum

The Colosseum **Home** **   Aqueducts Roads  Augustus Caesar Weapons   **

The Colosseum is used to host gladiator shows and other events. Another popular type of show is the animal hunt, which uses a lot of wild beasts, brought from Africa and other places. The animal hunts use creatures like rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses, elephants, giraffes, lions, panthers, leopards, bears, tigers , alligators , and crocodiles. Battles and hunts sometimes have large sets with movable trees and buildings. If you are a gladiator, make sure that you read this. (If not, you can skip this paragraph if you want.) Most tournaments have between ten and thirteen pairs of gladiators, with a single match lasting about ten minutes. Be careful- the audience could request specific gladiators to fight against each other. Don't ever assume that they won't pick you. There's several different kinds of gladiators, but you don't need to know much about that. What you do need to know are some of the rules. Some matches are called “sine missione” meaning “to the death”. The referees //will// allow these fights to go on until somebody dies. If you're wounded, the the crowd might yell things like "//habet, hoc habet//” (he’s had it) or "//habet, peractum est//” (he's had it, it's all over). The referee then will end the fight by separating you and your opponent with his staff. If you've had enough, you can say that you're beaten by raising a finger. But be careful using this method. The referee will stop the fight, and let the sponsor decide whether you should live or die.

Sometimes, the Coliseum is used for simulated sea battles. It is filled with water for a display of specially trained swimming horses, bulls, or ship-to-ship battles. They often use gladiators to man the boats, so the battles can be quite bloody.

The modern connection of the Coliseum is a giant football stadium. A football stadium can hold thousands and thousands of people.