Bread & circuses

, a photo by Colin J Sheehan on Flickr.

Every Roman had a ticket for the Colosseum that guaranteed them a seat for the whole of the festival of games which could last for up to 100 days at a time - rich poor slave free even women. Although the slaves and the women had to sit right at the very top on precarious wooden stands. Free bread was served every morning but the best gladiatorial fights were held in the afternoon. Unfortunately your ticket only allowed one entry per day so if you wanted both bread and fights you had to stay all day. The photo shows a reconstruction of part of what would have been the entire floor of the arena and which was covered with sand to absorb the blood of tha animals and dead and injured fighters. Public executions happened at lunchtime. There were many lifts which brought the animals ( like tigers, lions and bears) up from the chambers below directly onto the surface of the arena through trapdoors. The whole set up was massive propaganda for the emperors to keep the people compliant, to reinforce and laud the might of Rome and as a not so subtle reminder that rebellion and antisocial behaviour would bring down the wrath of Rome - hence the public executions - the event was likened to a Super Bowl or FA cup game in terms of spectacle and crowd manipulation with the goal of distracting the masses from the act ions of their rulers and the state of the nation.