Page 99 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Rome

FORUM  97

The Colosseum by Antonio Canaletto
Roman Gladiators This 18th-century view of the Colosseum shows
These were usually slaves, prisoners of war, the Meta Sudans fountain (now demolished). Water
or condemned criminals. Most were men, “sweated” from a metal ball on top of its brick cone.
but there were a few female gladiators.

Sea Battles in the Arena
The historian Dion Cassius, writing in
the 4th century AD, relates how, 150
years earlier, the Colosseum’s arena
was flooded to stage a mock sea
battle. Scholars now believe that
he was mistaken. The spectacle
probably took place in the
Naumachia of Augustus, a water-
filled arena located across the
Tiber in Trastevere.

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