暢談世界文化:25 羅馬競技場 (2/2)

Before, you could watch amazing contests there. I mean, really disgusting things with lots of blood, fights to the death. Yes, just like in the movie. Around 80,000 spectators followed these combats that could go on from sunrise to sunset and sometimes well into the night. Some sports were to kill Christians, too. You know, throwing Christians to the lions and all that. The Coliseum was associated with the persecutions suffered by Christian martyrs, but according to recent studies, there is no documented proof to tell us that these slaughters actually happened. Anyway, in AD 313 the Emperor Constantine proclaimed Christianity the official religion of the empire, obviously forbidding the executions of Christians but also the combats between gladiators and the hunting spectacles. After that, they used it as a cemetery, then a fortress and then a place to store building materials, which seems like a waste of such a beautiful piece of architecture. So, a visit to Rome is not complete without making a trip to the Coliseum. I'll go to the bookstore later and get a guidebook.