How Dangerous was the Front Row of the Colosseum?

BC foreigner Pompey the Great organized an elephant hunt in the Circus Maximus 20 elephants were released onto the track pursued by North African spearmen the elephants defended themselves by tearing off the hunter's shields with their trunks but as more and more javelins struck, The enormous animals tried to escape by throwing themselves against the iron fences that protected the spectators. The barriers bent and shook, terrifying the audience. Only the quick response of the hunters who surrounded the elephants and knocked them down prevented the disaster. The Roman games must have been often bewildering to see hunt beasts routinely featured big cats, lions, leopards and tigers that could leap high walls and elephants and rhinos formidable enough to traverse almost any obstacle.

Beast hunters threw spears and shot arrows in all directions, just like gladiators, sometimes entire battles involving hundreds of men with real weapons were staged. Guns amidst all these jumping cats and flying spears How often did spectators get hurt or worse at Roman games? Let's focus on the Colosseum, where the grandest Roman spectacles took place, by most estimates. The Colosseum had seating for about 50,000 spectators, as I mentioned in my old video. When finding good seats in the Colosseum, the worst seats were at the top, where slaves and women stood on rickety benches. Below were the non-elite sections of the minionum, the General Admissions section, where spectators crowded onto narrow stone benches.

The lower part of the minionum was separated. A walkway from the rose window was reserved for members of the equestrian order. These benches were made of marble and were further signs of the high social status of the men who occupied them, but the truly luxurious seats were on the podium closest to the arena where Members of the Senate sat with their wives, children and aides. The podium consisted of several wide marble cuts. There were no benches. Senators brought their own padded chairs. The best seats in the Chamber were on the smaller axes of the podium in the middle.

The long sides of the coliseum, on one side was the imperial box where the emperor and his entourage sat, on the other was probably the pulvenar where the images and attributes of the gods and deified emperors were displayed on elaborate chairs, other special sections They were reserved for the vestal virgins. and visiting dignitaries, the seats on the Colosseum podium had easy access to all the amenities of the amphitheater, the water fountains and bathrooms in the hallways, the perfumed mist that some give off from the walls in hot weather and, with all probability, the wine and snack sellers. who worked the seats talking about food a quick word about the sponsor of this video ready to feel better while making the most of your summer adventures with our partner Factor you can avoid extra trips to the supermarket and the tedium of meal prep while still getting everything done The taste and nutritional quality you need Factors Fresh, never frozen, meals are ready in just two minutes, so all you have to do is heat them up and enjoy them, especially in the summer when I never seem to have time to cook.

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Most scholars assume that it resembled the fence that protected spectators in Nero's amphitheater. Elephant tusks protruding from the sand supported by a wall. Golden wire nets. Climbing the wall in the Colosseum, armed guards probably patrolled the path between the barrier and the first level of the podium. It appears that snipers armed with bows were also stationed at intervals along the base of the podium, ready to react if an animal or gladiator attempted to climb. barrier despite such precautions several disasters occurred in Roman amphitheaters, the most notorious taking place during the reign of Tiberius when a temporary wooden amphitheater in the city of Fitnai collapsed and killed 20,000 spectators during the reign of Nero during a gladiator show and a fight broke out on the steps of the Pompeii Amphitheater.

The escalation went from shouting and throwing stones to a full-scale battle that left dozens dead. The Senate, fearful of future unrest, banned Pompeii from hosting gladiatorial games for the next 10 years. We also heard about the mundane risks of watching the games. Heat stroke, for example, appears to have been a problem in the lower ranks who were constantly exposed to the sun. It was probably in response to some dramatic incident that Caligula allowed senators to wear sun hats during games in which animals gathered to hunt beasts, sometimes escaping first. reached the arena, we heard, for example, about a rogue leopard that attacked an artist and about a huge Indian python that, as far as we know, was rumored to hunt children in the slums of Rome, yet no animal managed to cross the Colosseum barrier.

We are also unaware of any deaths in the stands caused by the arrows and javelins of the Beast Hunter Gladiators. Gladiators typically posed little danger to Spectators, partly because their weapons were designed for hand-to-hand combat and, generally, because no gladiator hoping for Freedom was likely to achieve it. risk his future on a shot wild enough to end up in the stands yes Gladiators caused deaths of spectators at least outside Rome according to Valerius Maximus wrote during the reign of Tiberius an equestrian named Rufus dreamed one night that a gladiator would kill him. The next day, accompanying some friends to the theater in Syracuse, Rufus was surprised to recognize the gladiator from his dream, persuaded by his friends that he was being ridiculous.

Rufus took his seat and washed the Gladiator, he knocked his opponent to the ground as the Gladiator prepared to meet the final blow he raised his sword high and skewered Rufus, who was sitting in the

front

row, piercing his heart, although we have no way To know if this anecdote is founded, in reality its setting in the Syracuse theater gives it a certain plausibility. Greek theaters were not designed. for claudiatory bouts and Beast displays only a low wall, if anything separating its stages and orchestras from the seats, unless temporary barriers or nets are installed. Spectators in the

front

rows were uncomfortably vulnerable, although high walls and nets protected spectators in the Gladiator Coliseum.

Still exposed to the whims of the emperors during the reign of domination, a spectator sitting near the imperial box complained that the emperor had rigged the games so that his favorite gladiators always won. The furious division sent guards to remove the man from his seat and feed him. wild dogs in the arena a century later it was rumored that Commodus planned to shoot random spectators in the coliseum in Imitation of Hercules in The Stephalian Birds. We do not know how many spectators were injured or killed over the centuries at the Colosseum. Our sources are. incomplete and only mentions such accidents if they involve an emperor or a famous figure, but judging from what we know, it seems that a day at the Colosseum was never free of danger, even for those in the stands, to learn more about the Coliseum.

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