In response. i shall post a paper that I wrote, in which I recieve a very undeserved B+.
The beating heart of Rome is not the not the marvel of the senate but rather the sands of the Coliseum. So said the senator Grachus in the 2000 best motion picture of the year Gladiator . The passion and conviction for the gladiatorial combat games that was in the hearts of the roman citizenry still exists today in the citizens of the United States. Professional sports in modern America today play a similar role to that of the Coliseum and the games of ancient Rome. Today it may not be as important that Presidents hold games for the people, but it is important that he throw first pitches, fly the Navy’s jets overhead, and choose a team he wants to win the Super Bowl, and make sure that millions of his countrymen read and hear about his actions in the news. This is similar to the way the Coliseum was used as a political device by the emperors and other politicians in antiquated Rome. There the games were a present for the people, with fifty thousand Romans chanting for victory, and having a good time all thanks to their emperor. The importance, cost, and how public figures garner public favor from supporting professional sports and the games of Coliseum are very unique and comparable.
To understand the importance that the Coliseum and the games held within it played for the citizens of Rome its construction and the history of the time around its construction must be understood as well. The emperor Vespasian constructed the Coliseum, and its official name is the Flavian Ampetheatrum. It was built in response to public dismay towards the Imperial family created by the emperor Nero, and was commissioned following the death of Nero. The public was upset because emperor Nero had acquisitioned much previous public land after the fires of 68. Nero seized the land and turned it into private land to construct his new palace and safari park both, which were private and not accessible to the citizens of Rome. Flavian drained the lake that Nero had in his safari park and built the Coliseum over the drained lake. This reversal of private land for the emperor into now a public arena for spectacles and enjoyment by the public pleased the gentry and ended the public dismay over the private lands that Nero had taken. The Coliseum was finished under Domitian’s rule, and was finally dedicated by the emperor Titus in 80.
The Coliseum was constructed of travertine marble, tufa, and concrete/brick. It had an under area below the surface floor that contained 32 stalls to house wild animals. The floor of the coliseum itself had a hinged platform system that allowed for scenery changes. One unique characteristic of the Coliseum was the velarium, which was a huge awning that worked like a ships sail with a rope, rigging, and bollard system that provided shade to the audience. The Coliseum was constructed with 4 floors and used the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders were superimposed on the Columns. It is also believed that the windows in the Coliseum all had statues on them, as coinage from antiquity that has the Coliseum on it has statues in the windows .
The uses of gladiatorial games were originally only for the celebration of one’s life at their funeral. Gladiatorial games had been funerary celebration events, such as when Julia, Julius Caesar’s daughter died, Caesar held gladiatorial combat to honor her. It was not until emperor Augustus used the games as a way to improve his standing of the citizenry that the games began to be more than just special expositions. The reason why the gladiatorial combat had just been only for funerary events was in part because of the cost associated with putting the events on. The gladiators, armor, and the space to conduct them combat all had to be paid for and the combined costs of all that was necessary to hold an events was expensive. This made it so that only the wealthy could truly provide enough funding to hold events. Augustus used his loot from his different campaigns to pay for the games and provided them to his people. This then became a staple to the people as to what was expected from their emperor. The people wanted their emperor to show his generosity to his people buy supplying his people with entertainment, and the emperor would do this to gain his subjects favor. A good way to do this was to use the Coliseum. The use of the Coliseum was not limited to gladiatorial combat. Chariot racing which was very popular among the masses was held in the Coliseum. Naumachiae, or mock sea battles, were very popular among the people were also held in the Coliseum. The Coliseum also played host to wild beast hunts and the killing of Christians and other spectacles.
The Coliseum was designed to have a capacity of fifty thousand attendees. Special seating arrangements were created for the Imperial family, as well as the Vestal Virgins. General seating was also designed to situate the attendees in a class based hierarchal seating arrangement with the Senators and other wealthy persons sitting in the lower rows closer to the action on the arena floor. The Coliseum had over eighty exits to make it easy for the fifty thousand people to enter and leave the events held there. There was a very intricate stairwell system for people to reach their required levels without having much interaction between the wealthy and the poor. The Gladiators and competitors in other events were themselves somewhat famous. Gladiators would sometimes win over twenty-five matches and they would become beloved and develop a fan following. In fact, there was an amount of sex appeal to gladiators. It was very common for wealthy matrons to pay top dollar to have conjugal visits with gladiators.
Today it is a very different story. The Coliseum in standards by today’s measure is a small stadium. Today the largest stadium in the United States for just college football holds over one hundred and seven thousand screaming wolverines . The size of fifty thousand attendees at an event today is even almost surpassed by some convention centers. Needless to say that by the standards of today an event of fifty thousand is not too impressive, much unlike it was in ancient Rome. Today the venues are not even very special. In fact almost every major city in the United States sports at least one major professional sports team . These major sports teams play in stadiums holding on average over fifty thousand, and many holding well into one hundred thousand. The sizes of our sporting venues themselves have changed and the capacity of the crowd that watches, but the sporting arenas still are built, and are expensive to do so. With many costing close to half a billion or more dollars to build . So while the cost and size has changed, the need for them has not, and although the size of the Coliseum, and the stadiums of today are in contrast, their use still holds many similarities.
In Antiquity the training, care, maintenance, and production of the gladiatorial games required much time and money. Today the same is true of professional sports. While it is never truly considered in part of the cost of the production of professional sports, but there is much training that is involved. For instance, many professional athletes participate in athletics at an early age, and doing so requires money. Some even receive specialized training. Some possibly go to private schools so that they can participate on the best sports teams high schools have to offer. Over two hundred NCAA athletes participate in intercollegiate athletics. There some hope, and some do, transition into professional sports. The cost of college tuition averages around twenty-five thousand dollars a year for private schools and around four thousand seven hundred dollars a year for public schools . Training a professional athlete costs at the bare-minimum what it costs to have them play collegiate sports . Care and maintenance of our professional athletes is also very expensive. Average salaries in professional sports are on the rise. The minimum salaries for professional football and baseball have risen dramatically, in part because of the strong unions that the players have created. The maximum salaries have also seen a drastic increase. With players signing eight figures per year salaries with their teams. While the player salaries may seem huge, what is often over looked is who would be willing to pay such a salary. Yes players make a lot of money, but the owners of teams are the ones who pay these salaries. In order to pay such salaries, and also still be able to pay for such things as, team housing, maintenance of the stadium, staff fees, and other such amenities, one would need to make a lot of money to afford such costs. Owners of professional sports teams make more money than their players, and that is why they are able to pay their players so much money to begin with . In fact, the local Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim had a team roster salary of one hundred million dollars for the 2004 baseball season. This does not even take into consideration of the salaries of office staff and ballpark staff, as all of those personnel are necessary to run a baseball team. Contrary to baseball is football, which is usually most associated with Gladiatorial games to do its more violent nature. Football team rosters usually average around eighty million dollars a year . It is easy to see the similarities between the expensiveness of professional sports, and those of the games in the Coliseum. However, professional sports are not gifts of generosity from emperors or other wealthy patrons. They are for profit entities that make money off of their viewing public. This is one distinct difference from the world of history and the world of today. The monetary similarities between the gladiatorial games and professional sports are not where the similarity between the two ends.
The production of professional sports today is one of the most amazing aspects of the financial side of how sports today are played. In the days of ancient Rome where hinges in the floor allowed for fast scenery changes, today we have HDTV, which makes the view as if one was present at the live event. Microphones in the helmets of football players allow us to listen and hear what the plays the players are going to be performing. Overhead cameras allow us to watch as the kickoff returner receives and then runs down the field to score a touchdown. Computer tracking systems follow the path of the baseball to give us a to the foot distance of how far last home run was hit, and whether or not the umpire got the call right on whether or not it was a strike. The production costs of professional sports are hard to determine. What is commonly known is that the advertising time during the super runs about three million dollars for thirty seconds of ad time . However, advertising is sometimes by the fans seemed as a gift when it comes in the form of a commercial that has comedic value to the viewing public.
However, unlike television ads, is the intrinsic advertising that the US government has in professional sports, similar to the role that the emperor had in ancient Rome. After 9/11/2001 Major League Baseball started to sing God Bless America during the seventh inning, as a way to recognize the troops fighting over seas. Which is very comparable to the emperor putting on spectacles from spoils of war. In fact, now it is much more common before sporting events to see the United States Blue Angels fly overhead. Which in a way could be viewed as an attempt by the equivalent of the emperor, the president, to gain favor with the presenting of his military force to the public. The president’s involvement in professional sports doesn’t end in his sending his jets overhead, for a long time now it has been commonplace for the president to throw the first pitch out at baseball games. In fact, President Bush even rooted for the, now super bowl champions, Patriots to win the big dance, and had quarterback Tom Brady attend his state of the union address . In fact, President Bush to use to be the owner of the Texas Rangers, a Texas baseball team, tying him closer to the passions of the people through athletics, and not just by showcasing his support of them with his military personnel.
The similarities between professional sports in our modern era and the games of Coliseum in history are quite amazing. Whether it is the immense size and amazement over the creation of concrete monuments called Mile High, Petco Field, or the Coliseum. Or if we focus our attention on the use of wild and extravagant beasts, and the impressiveness of high and fast flying jets over our heads. Perhaps, we even focus on how the realm of sports and the former games are a testament to economic management with their being a direct tie to wealth and prosperity associated with the means of production of our entertainment. Or one can focus on the cost to train gladiators or collegiate athletes. Whatever specific one wishes to focus on the amazing of the sensation that we arrive from watching our spectator sports is one that existed in antiquity and is carried on today. The pride and passion we used to feel for our favorite gladiator, or for our hometown team today, is one in the same. We used to cheer for victory and death, and now we cheer for championships and playoffs.
Did you type this over to post on this site, or cut and paste? Maybe you could have gotten A- if you didn’t repeat ‘… Rome is not the not the marvel…”. Other than that, ít’s a very nice paper. I wish I didn’t drop out of college, maybe I could’ve used some of the papers here. :)
If I can leave another comment…
Many believe that at the end of some gladiator fights, ceasar held up a thumb up or thumb down to decide the fate of losing fighter… well I’ve heard that it was not a thumb up or down, but it was a thumb pointing at his throat, a gesture to have the fighter killed. Not sure if it’s really true, but to me it sounds more authentic than thumb up or down.
![The DORK Club [Index]](http://www.dorkclub.com/index/indexhead2.jpg)
In response. i shall post a paper that I wrote, in which I recieve a very undeserved B+.
The beating heart of Rome is not the not the marvel of the senate but rather the sands of the Coliseum. So said the senator Grachus in the 2000 best motion picture of the year Gladiator . The passion and conviction for the gladiatorial combat games that was in the hearts of the roman citizenry still exists today in the citizens of the United States. Professional sports in modern America today play a similar role to that of the Coliseum and the games of ancient Rome. Today it may not be as important that Presidents hold games for the people, but it is important that he throw first pitches, fly the Navy’s jets overhead, and choose a team he wants to win the Super Bowl, and make sure that millions of his countrymen read and hear about his actions in the news. This is similar to the way the Coliseum was used as a political device by the emperors and other politicians in antiquated Rome. There the games were a present for the people, with fifty thousand Romans chanting for victory, and having a good time all thanks to their emperor. The importance, cost, and how public figures garner public favor from supporting professional sports and the games of Coliseum are very unique and comparable.
To understand the importance that the Coliseum and the games held within it played for the citizens of Rome its construction and the history of the time around its construction must be understood as well. The emperor Vespasian constructed the Coliseum, and its official name is the Flavian Ampetheatrum. It was built in response to public dismay towards the Imperial family created by the emperor Nero, and was commissioned following the death of Nero. The public was upset because emperor Nero had acquisitioned much previous public land after the fires of 68. Nero seized the land and turned it into private land to construct his new palace and safari park both, which were private and not accessible to the citizens of Rome. Flavian drained the lake that Nero had in his safari park and built the Coliseum over the drained lake. This reversal of private land for the emperor into now a public arena for spectacles and enjoyment by the public pleased the gentry and ended the public dismay over the private lands that Nero had taken. The Coliseum was finished under Domitian’s rule, and was finally dedicated by the emperor Titus in 80.
The Coliseum was constructed of travertine marble, tufa, and concrete/brick. It had an under area below the surface floor that contained 32 stalls to house wild animals. The floor of the coliseum itself had a hinged platform system that allowed for scenery changes. One unique characteristic of the Coliseum was the velarium, which was a huge awning that worked like a ships sail with a rope, rigging, and bollard system that provided shade to the audience. The Coliseum was constructed with 4 floors and used the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders were superimposed on the Columns. It is also believed that the windows in the Coliseum all had statues on them, as coinage from antiquity that has the Coliseum on it has statues in the windows .
The uses of gladiatorial games were originally only for the celebration of one’s life at their funeral. Gladiatorial games had been funerary celebration events, such as when Julia, Julius Caesar’s daughter died, Caesar held gladiatorial combat to honor her. It was not until emperor Augustus used the games as a way to improve his standing of the citizenry that the games began to be more than just special expositions. The reason why the gladiatorial combat had just been only for funerary events was in part because of the cost associated with putting the events on. The gladiators, armor, and the space to conduct them combat all had to be paid for and the combined costs of all that was necessary to hold an events was expensive. This made it so that only the wealthy could truly provide enough funding to hold events. Augustus used his loot from his different campaigns to pay for the games and provided them to his people. This then became a staple to the people as to what was expected from their emperor. The people wanted their emperor to show his generosity to his people buy supplying his people with entertainment, and the emperor would do this to gain his subjects favor. A good way to do this was to use the Coliseum. The use of the Coliseum was not limited to gladiatorial combat. Chariot racing which was very popular among the masses was held in the Coliseum. Naumachiae, or mock sea battles, were very popular among the people were also held in the Coliseum. The Coliseum also played host to wild beast hunts and the killing of Christians and other spectacles.
The Coliseum was designed to have a capacity of fifty thousand attendees. Special seating arrangements were created for the Imperial family, as well as the Vestal Virgins. General seating was also designed to situate the attendees in a class based hierarchal seating arrangement with the Senators and other wealthy persons sitting in the lower rows closer to the action on the arena floor. The Coliseum had over eighty exits to make it easy for the fifty thousand people to enter and leave the events held there. There was a very intricate stairwell system for people to reach their required levels without having much interaction between the wealthy and the poor. The Gladiators and competitors in other events were themselves somewhat famous. Gladiators would sometimes win over twenty-five matches and they would become beloved and develop a fan following. In fact, there was an amount of sex appeal to gladiators. It was very common for wealthy matrons to pay top dollar to have conjugal visits with gladiators.
Today it is a very different story. The Coliseum in standards by today’s measure is a small stadium. Today the largest stadium in the United States for just college football holds over one hundred and seven thousand screaming wolverines . The size of fifty thousand attendees at an event today is even almost surpassed by some convention centers. Needless to say that by the standards of today an event of fifty thousand is not too impressive, much unlike it was in ancient Rome. Today the venues are not even very special. In fact almost every major city in the United States sports at least one major professional sports team . These major sports teams play in stadiums holding on average over fifty thousand, and many holding well into one hundred thousand. The sizes of our sporting venues themselves have changed and the capacity of the crowd that watches, but the sporting arenas still are built, and are expensive to do so. With many costing close to half a billion or more dollars to build . So while the cost and size has changed, the need for them has not, and although the size of the Coliseum, and the stadiums of today are in contrast, their use still holds many similarities.
In Antiquity the training, care, maintenance, and production of the gladiatorial games required much time and money. Today the same is true of professional sports. While it is never truly considered in part of the cost of the production of professional sports, but there is much training that is involved. For instance, many professional athletes participate in athletics at an early age, and doing so requires money. Some even receive specialized training. Some possibly go to private schools so that they can participate on the best sports teams high schools have to offer. Over two hundred NCAA athletes participate in intercollegiate athletics. There some hope, and some do, transition into professional sports. The cost of college tuition averages around twenty-five thousand dollars a year for private schools and around four thousand seven hundred dollars a year for public schools . Training a professional athlete costs at the bare-minimum what it costs to have them play collegiate sports . Care and maintenance of our professional athletes is also very expensive. Average salaries in professional sports are on the rise. The minimum salaries for professional football and baseball have risen dramatically, in part because of the strong unions that the players have created. The maximum salaries have also seen a drastic increase. With players signing eight figures per year salaries with their teams. While the player salaries may seem huge, what is often over looked is who would be willing to pay such a salary. Yes players make a lot of money, but the owners of teams are the ones who pay these salaries. In order to pay such salaries, and also still be able to pay for such things as, team housing, maintenance of the stadium, staff fees, and other such amenities, one would need to make a lot of money to afford such costs. Owners of professional sports teams make more money than their players, and that is why they are able to pay their players so much money to begin with . In fact, the local Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim had a team roster salary of one hundred million dollars for the 2004 baseball season. This does not even take into consideration of the salaries of office staff and ballpark staff, as all of those personnel are necessary to run a baseball team. Contrary to baseball is football, which is usually most associated with Gladiatorial games to do its more violent nature. Football team rosters usually average around eighty million dollars a year . It is easy to see the similarities between the expensiveness of professional sports, and those of the games in the Coliseum. However, professional sports are not gifts of generosity from emperors or other wealthy patrons. They are for profit entities that make money off of their viewing public. This is one distinct difference from the world of history and the world of today. The monetary similarities between the gladiatorial games and professional sports are not where the similarity between the two ends.
The production of professional sports today is one of the most amazing aspects of the financial side of how sports today are played. In the days of ancient Rome where hinges in the floor allowed for fast scenery changes, today we have HDTV, which makes the view as if one was present at the live event. Microphones in the helmets of football players allow us to listen and hear what the plays the players are going to be performing. Overhead cameras allow us to watch as the kickoff returner receives and then runs down the field to score a touchdown. Computer tracking systems follow the path of the baseball to give us a to the foot distance of how far last home run was hit, and whether or not the umpire got the call right on whether or not it was a strike. The production costs of professional sports are hard to determine. What is commonly known is that the advertising time during the super runs about three million dollars for thirty seconds of ad time . However, advertising is sometimes by the fans seemed as a gift when it comes in the form of a commercial that has comedic value to the viewing public.
However, unlike television ads, is the intrinsic advertising that the US government has in professional sports, similar to the role that the emperor had in ancient Rome. After 9/11/2001 Major League Baseball started to sing God Bless America during the seventh inning, as a way to recognize the troops fighting over seas. Which is very comparable to the emperor putting on spectacles from spoils of war. In fact, now it is much more common before sporting events to see the United States Blue Angels fly overhead. Which in a way could be viewed as an attempt by the equivalent of the emperor, the president, to gain favor with the presenting of his military force to the public. The president’s involvement in professional sports doesn’t end in his sending his jets overhead, for a long time now it has been commonplace for the president to throw the first pitch out at baseball games. In fact, President Bush even rooted for the, now super bowl champions, Patriots to win the big dance, and had quarterback Tom Brady attend his state of the union address . In fact, President Bush to use to be the owner of the Texas Rangers, a Texas baseball team, tying him closer to the passions of the people through athletics, and not just by showcasing his support of them with his military personnel.
The similarities between professional sports in our modern era and the games of Coliseum in history are quite amazing. Whether it is the immense size and amazement over the creation of concrete monuments called Mile High, Petco Field, or the Coliseum. Or if we focus our attention on the use of wild and extravagant beasts, and the impressiveness of high and fast flying jets over our heads. Perhaps, we even focus on how the realm of sports and the former games are a testament to economic management with their being a direct tie to wealth and prosperity associated with the means of production of our entertainment. Or one can focus on the cost to train gladiators or collegiate athletes. Whatever specific one wishes to focus on the amazing of the sensation that we arrive from watching our spectator sports is one that existed in antiquity and is carried on today. The pride and passion we used to feel for our favorite gladiator, or for our hometown team today, is one in the same. We used to cheer for victory and death, and now we cheer for championships and playoffs.
Comment by Piyonugget — June 30 [2005] @ 9:09 PM
Did you type this over to post on this site, or cut and paste? Maybe you could have gotten A- if you didn’t repeat ‘… Rome is not the not the marvel…”. Other than that, ít’s a very nice paper. I wish I didn’t drop out of college, maybe I could’ve used some of the papers here. :)
Comment by Androyd — July 2 [2005] @ 7:10 AM
If I can leave another comment…
Many believe that at the end of some gladiator fights, ceasar held up a thumb up or thumb down to decide the fate of losing fighter… well I’ve heard that it was not a thumb up or down, but it was a thumb pointing at his throat, a gesture to have the fighter killed. Not sure if it’s really true, but to me it sounds more authentic than thumb up or down.
Comment by Androyd — July 2 [2005] @ 7:25 AM
Shh — we don’t pay attention to piyonugget.
Comment by vector_black — July 2 [2005] @ 7:36 AM
I only pay attention to Androyd.
Comment by wedge55 — July 2 [2005] @ 7:43 AM
They did something like that.
Comment by Piyonugget — July 2 [2005] @ 8:19 AM
Also, a lot of my facts are inccorect. That’s why I got the B+ rather than say, a good grade.
Comment by Piyonugget — July 2 [2005] @ 8:31 AM