Yesterday Wendy and I went to Pula, Croatia, where the 5th largest Roman amphitheater still stands today. When you actually get to see a real one, the movie Gladiator becomes so real in your mind. All I (Brian) could think about was Maximus and the death and carnage that took place in the place. This was also the place of execution for criminals and early Christians, the most common form of execution: wild beasts.
You cannot argue with the fact that Roman architects were some of the most brilliant people in history. The size of this stadium is astounding even today.
If you were a slave forced to fight in the arena and you chose not to fight they would poke you with hot irons and whip you until you fought, I hate red hot pokers, so I suppose I would rather fight, just a horrible situation.
Some lions were let loose in the arena and all I had to defend us was our tour audio guide, I defended Wendy with great honor and in the end made a deal with the lions: if they don't kill us I will buy them each a goat to eat; they were satisfied.
The amount of stone used to make the theater was over 40,000 tons cut from a quarry and then transported to the building site. The entire second row of bleachers was stolen after the fall of Rome to build houses and other buildings in the city of Pula.
At one time the Emperor ordered that the entire theater be dismantled and transported to Italy and rebuilt to show Romes glory. Could you imagine getting that order? " Ok, Emperor let me get this straight you want us to break apart 40,000 tons of rocks and then put it all back together again?"
Wendy preparing for her Gladiator battle. She seems to be relaxing instead of stretching or warming up. After her battle she subdued 3 lions, 2 bears, and 13 Roman Gladiators, they passed out because she was so beautiful.
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