Flavian Amphitheater Analysis

Along with the comfort of the awning, audiences were protected with three safety features that were installed in the Flavian Amphitheater. The walls between spectators and the arena were three and a half meters high, which would have created a blind spot. To prevent either gladiators or animals from being in this blind spot but also to allow people to watch safely, posts were inserted into the arena floor and a sturdy, net barrier was strung between them. Ivory rollers were placed along the wall at the crest so any animals that crawled up the wall or net would be unable to gain traction and continue farther. Lastly, positioned along the front of the arena were crow’s nests in which archers were stationed in case anything attempted to escape

Before the imperial system came into place, it was tradition that these aristocrats would present gladiatorial combats or wild beast hunts to enormously help a man’s chances of winning prestige and public office. The beginning of these type of gladiatorial performances can be dated to 105 BC, in that year two consuls organized the earliest battles. However, the absolute earliest evidence for gladiatorial games in the Roman sphere is from the fourth century BC. A tomb painting was found depicting gladiators battling in southern Italy. By the time the Flavian Amphitheater opened, the games were nearly four hundred years

These games were originally a form of human sacrifice associated with the solemn rites surrounding death for the Etruscan people. The Roman’s adapted the games not as a form of human sacrifice yet did keep them closely tied with their funerary origins. These gladiatorial games were not an exotic side show for the Romans but an entertainment that was integral to their culture. The games became a virtual symbol of what it meant to be Roman. From the very beginning of their history at Rome, gladiatorial games were closely associated with funerals. So much so that the presentation of gladiatorial combat was called a munus. This is a Latin word that means duty or gift and by extension funeral honors or an obligation performed for the dead. The first known gladiatorial combat held in Rome was at the funeral of a Roman aristocrat, D. Junius Brutus Pera. The combat was presented in 264 BC by two sons to honor their father. Pliny the Younger writes in the early second century CE to his friend Maximus: you did perfectly right in promising a gladiatorial combat to our good friends the citizens of Verona, who have long loved, looked up to, and honored you; while it was from that city too you received that amiable object of your most tender affection, your late excellent wife. And since…. you were so unanimously pressed to do so that to have refused