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Rome Gladiators and Tiramisu
06 Aug 2009 8:44PM
I have recently returned from a week away in Rome where I indulged in far too much pizza, tiramisu and espresso... quite possibly 3 of my favourite things in the world. That said the pasta, bruschetta, Nastro Azzuro, cappuccino and flavoured (whole) supermarket chickens weren’t bad either... oh, and there were some cool, old things to see as well.
Naturally I did the tourist thing and saw all the sights Rome has to offer – the Trevi fountain, the Spanish steps, the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, the Forum, the Palatine, Circus Maximus, Saint Peter’s square, the Vatican museums and so on and so on. However, the highlight, the one thing I desperately wanted to see was the Colosseum. Some might have said that the gladiator in me was trying to get out and I did feel a surge of adrenaline akin to walking out for a fight when I first stepped through the archway into that ancient arena. Now before you worry that I’m going to get all Maximus Decimus Meridius on you I can assure you that I don’t think of myself as Russell Crowe in a toga... in a cage... in any way shape or form.
One thing that did amaze me was the sheer size of the shows they apparently put on. Dana White take note. Over 1 million animals were killed and roughly 500,000 people in the Colosseum’s history and it held about 50,000 spectators at a time. Trajan, to celebrate a victory held 123 days worth of games during which over 10,000 animals were used and about as many gladiators... that’s quite a fight card... Joe Silva would’ve had his work cut out there! As well as gladiatorial battles it was used to re-enact hunts, executions, famous battles re-enactments, including naval ones, where they would flood the floor of the stadium... can you see that happening at Old Trafford? The best thing I found out though had me laughing incredulously, apparently on the coast to the west of Rome a huge whale washed up and caused quite a stir as it was such an oddity for people in those times to see that sort of thing. The Emperor at the time decided it would be fun to build a replica whale in the Colosseum, then when its mouth opened to start the show, 50 bears came running out! What they then did was anyone’s guess but that’s a lot of teeth, claws and flying fur. Something that did chill to the bone was the recall of the Christians who were fed to Lions there (not because of their belief in God, but because they would not worship Caesar, who was considered a living god). Having been lucky enough to have seen a full grown lion in the wild it certainly made me think that being run through with cold steel is a much more preferable way to go. To be eaten by a wild animal has to be one of a man’s greatest fears surely... just remember the first time you saw Jaws.
So I saw the Colosseum, but what does that have to do with MMA? Nothing. Not a jot. People romanticise about MMA fighters being modern day gladiators. None of the above. Gladiators fought each other and animals in fights that very often went to the death or till someone was seriously injured (they would check bodies were ‘dead’ by poking them with red hot irons, to avoid ‘fakers’). People were executed there and terrible, horrific things occurred for the titillation and entertainment of the mouth breathing, blood lusting public. It was the bloody, visceral, voyeuristic equivalent of probably what modern day couch potatoes get from watching a screaming cat fight on Big Brother these days.
Real MMA today is regulated, refereed, monitored and match ups are made as fairly and as evenly as possible. Yes you do get the modern, tattooed, mouth breathers shouting for someone to “rip his head off!”, but as MMA gets bigger I like to think that the baying mob is getting smaller and that instead it is becoming more educated to MMA’s intricacies and skills and is beginning more and more to understand that the fighters aren’t in the fight to kill or be killed. It’s a test of the self, the motivation, the application of skill and the mental strength of 2 people in the ring/cage. As a fighter, if I’d been alive in 70AD I would not have been a gladiator or aspired to be one. But I do like to think that my fighter’s mentality, ethics and beliefs would instead have seen me in with the Christians and the lions... ‘cos I would certainly not have bowed down and worshipped a man in Caesar.
I’ll take my chances with the teeth and claws thankyou.
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