Fahrenheit 451 Unit 9 Final Project

Ancient Rome is one of the greatest and most influential societies in the history of the world. From the basic rules of how the Roman Empire is set up to the infrastructures in the city, the strict hierarchy of Roman social structure can be reflected clearly all over the whole ancient Rome. In fact that “public architecture presents people with the official view of a society and provides the background against which its individual markers live their lives.”1 With the great desire of Roman for entertainment and their special taste for blood, the amphitheatre is considered as the most popular and most representative type of the entertainment building in the ancient Roman culture. And

During this period the Romans focused their architectural abilities on creating very large and polarizing buildings. The Romans wanted the sheer size of their buildings to be intimidating. The Romans where terrific engineers and this showed in the completion of there great buildings. Many achievements in architecture were achieved by the Romans during the Pax Romana. One of them being the great Roman Coliseum, which is still standing today after 2000 years, serving as a monument to the size and strength of the Roman Empire. The Coliseum was a major achievement for the Romans and it held the Roman gladiatorial games, chariot races, and many other great events. Even to today the amazing Coliseum is the basis for every major sporting arena. The Romans not only built great stadiums but they also built what is know as the Roman Aqueducts, a huge step forward for Roman civilization. The Roman aqueducts were built initially for the purpose of supplying water to the public bath houses, but it soon became evident to use the aqueducts as the major water source in the city. The water that was brought to Rome through the aqueducts was also used in public drinking water fountains. Along with the great architecture of the Romans, art work was also at a high point during the Pax

Early gladiator fights took place in funerals of wealthy Romans, but their main purpose was to give the people a good show. As the gladiator games grew in popularity, the funeral ritual tradition was eventually dropped and the games were staged for what they were—a display of wealth and entertainment for the masses. By approximately 90 B.C., gladiator games began taking place in circuses and forums. Circuses were elongated arenas with a spine down the middle, designed for chariot racing. In a circus, the audience had good seats but a poor view of the event. Since circuses were built for chariot races, their long and narrow shape made it difficult for someone sitting on one end to see an event going on at the other end. A good example of a circus is the Circus Maximus. This structure was the first and largest circus built by the Romans and it could hold up to 250,000 people. Forums were open gathering places in the center of a town, often with a monument in the middle. Audiences watching a gladiator event in a forum still experienced problems because the ground was flat, so only the people in the first few rows could see anything. Over the years, the gladiator games became even more elaborate to the point where some fights included fights with wild animals. So the Romans now had a problem on their hands: how to fit a large number of people in a way that let them see everything that was

The Flavian amphitheater has gone through a substantial amount of transformation in the last two thousand years. This is because its function has changed through the years, affecting its structural composition and soundness. In its earliest years, it has served as a location for entertainment to the ancient Roman civilization and had fell into drastic neglect when Rome’s culture changed. People’s demand for bloody gladiatorial combats as well as wild animal fights grew less (History, 2009). Later, it transitioned into becoming widely used as a source of building materials and been scavenged to the point where two-thirds of the original

The Roman Colosseum was built throughout 70-80 A.D. It was a large, circular stone arena and was a very popular attraction in Rome. The Colosseum was used as a place of entertainment for the Romans (Doc 5). The Colosseum was the entertainment center of Rome and it was used as an amphitheater, arena, held gladiatorial events and people socialized there. The Colosseum influenced the U.S because in the U.S we have entertainment centers including movie theaters, wrestling matches, and sports games where people socialize and are entertained.

It is nearly impossible to look at the field that holds the remains of the Circus Maximus and understand what it once held without the aid of a vivid reconstruction. The remains of Circus Maximus lie in the Valley between the Aventine and Palentine hill. Traditionally, the history of the Circus Maximus began with chariot races held in honor of the God Consus in a less permanent structure in the area near Consus’s altar. In later years, this lead to the construction of a circus under the first Etruscan king, Tarquinius Priscus around 600 bc. Previous to Tarquin’s intervention, an underground stream kept the valley swamp like. Tarquin diverted the water and drained the area and began to hold chariot races in the area. The

The art I selected from the Roman Empire is the architectural structure of the Colosseum, or amphitheater. This structure reveals the importance that the Romans’ placed on entertainment, in so much that Benton and DiYanni indicate “it was official policy that the state should provide entertainment for the public” (Benton, DiYanni, p. 108). The relationship between the art and the culture is distinguished and represented by the size of the structure; it being able to accommodate such large crowds of people indicates that the Romans placed much importance in attending the entertainment provided. The Colosseum influenced the culture by providing ample space for everyone to enjoy entertainment. The culture influenced the art by supporting through attendance to the different entertainment during that time.

The idea for the Colosseum came from a man named Titus Flavius, this was due to the amount of people coming to the games before the Colosseum was built. Up to 60,000 people would come and watch the games in a field. Titus saw that too many people were coming so he thought about building a structure that was able to hold up to 80,000 people at a time. This was also for people to be comfortable at the games.

Entertainment in Roman society, specifically in Pompeii and Herculaneum, was very significant, which can be seen in the large number of buildings in both of these towns that serve the purpose of entertaining the Roman citizens. One of the most notable of these buildings was the Amphitheatre in Pompeii, as it one of the earliest built Roman amphitheatre and is one of the oldest that still stands today. From paintings, such as source A, a Fresco painting found in the house of Actius Anicetus, it can be made clear that gladiatorial matches were held in the amphitheatre in Pompeii, which was a main source of entertainment for the people of the time. The matches in the amphitheatre were largely popular, as it accommodated the people of all classes, with 35 rows of seating, being able to hold 20,000 people, which can be seen in the remaining structure of the building today, as it was so well preserved, even during the eruption of Vesuvius in

Towards the city’s heavily trafficked center the Roman Forum was constructed for convenient easy access of all the citizens. The foreground of the forum was occupied by a paved square with monuments to famous citizens. The temple to the Divine Julius, dedicated in 29 BCE to the deified Caesar, built in a Hellenistic style, is located in the background on the left; to the right is the temple of Vesta and the house of the Vestal Virgins, guardians of the everlasting flame; further to the right is the temple of the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux dedicated in 6 CE Here the office of weights and measures was situated. The podiums of the temples of Caesar and the Dioscuri were often used as orators' platforms and it is in this part of the Forum that the meetings of the comitia took place. On the far right is the Basilica Julia built by Caesar. Its long façade occupies the entire south side of the Forum. (Owens, 154) Semi-circular in plan and having consisted of a tall stage building, theaters were a semi-circular orchestra and tiered seating area. Unlike Greek theatres, which were built on natural slopes, they were supported by their own framework of piers and vaults and so could be built anywhere and not where nature dictated. Amphitheatres (literally, ‘double theatres’) were elliptical in plan; with a central areana. (Bowra, 38)

‘The Colosseum’ is regarded as one of the best work of the Rome architecture and engineering. It is situated in the centre of the city of Rome in Italy and is also known by the name of ‘Flavian Amphitheatre’ (Origins of the Colosseum, 2015). ‘The Colosseum’ is considered as one of the largest amphitheatre in the Roman Empire and also in the world. The building of ‘The Colosseum’ is highly impressive and is an important landmark for signifying the past history of Roman culture. The amphitheatre

The Colosseum was first built in 70-80 CE in Regio IV Templum Pacis, which is in Rome Italy today. Measuring some 620 by 513 feet, the Colosseum was the largest amphitheater in the Roman world. Unlike many earlier amphitheaters, which had been dug into hillsides to provide adequate support, the Colosseum was a freestanding structure made of stone and concrete. The Colosseum could seat up to 80 thousand people. The Colosseum was a gift to the Roman people from Emperor Vespasian.

This new building type differed in striking ways from the traditional Greek theater. The latter consisted of two separate structures: a horseshoe-shaped seating area and a freestanding stage-building. The Roman theater, in contrast, was a fully enclosed edifice, unroofed but often covered with awnings on performance days. The seating area in the Greek theater was supported against a natural hillside, whereas the Roman theater was carried at least in part on concrete vaults, which provided access from the exterior of the building to the cavea. In the Hellenistic world, the stage-building was a relatively low structure, ornamented with painted panels but rarely with large-scale sculpture.

     The arches of the Coloseum allowed great ventilation, stability, and passageways to keep the crowd comfortable all day. The most amazing construction had nothing to do with the show. The Romans had actually constructed a roof for the Coloseum. The roof was like a retractable sail covering most of the audience during the current event.

The Roman Colosseum, a colossal amphitheater, was built in the first century under Flavian's rule. Many events such as gladiator games, beast fights, naval battles, and much more took place inside the huge elliptical arena. People of all ages and classes attended these well-known spectacles. The Colosseum is a huge Roman architectural achievement and the fact that it is still standing today only amplifies the importance of this structure. Hundred of thousands of people attended the ancient games, and even more continue to visit the arena today.