Did someone mention the Roman Colosseum?
Ugh, where are those pictures and when was that?
I will search the archives, would I not find my personal photos, to remind of that trip 13 years ago and to write on the topic that was given by galenkp:
If you had to choose between being a Gladiator fighting in the Roman Colosseum or a government executioner which would you choose and why?
I remember, when I was a little boy, when my mom and dad read me stories from these Disney books.
Stories about history, about places on a planet, about travels, stories about beautiful princesses, dragons, knights, about ancient Greece and ancient Rome.
They read me stories and brought me up to become a good, noble and hardworking person.
Not to sell my soul to the devil no matter how much money they throw at my feet. To be brave, fair and honest.
And not to be afraid if sometimes because I walk on the right side of the street, I find myself in front of great challenges and in front of danger.
Raised like this, I do not believe that I would ever accept the job of executioner (bloodman) under the command of the authorities in my (or any) country.
I could never put a noose around another man's neck and knock a chair out from under his feet, I could never cut off another man's head with a great sword or an ax. I don't know if I could press the button that would send a grenade to another man.
To be an executioner in the service of the government (such as today's Serbian government, against which protests have been going on for three months and whose hands are bloody), would be unthinkable for me.
Having other people's blood on your hands, when you took their life while they were tied. And that it is called a profession.Horror.
Only a person without a shred of conscience, compassion and empathy can be engaged in such a profession, all while executing an absolutely guilty convict every time (and there is always a dilemma - is the accused really guilty).
It is even a question whether I could ever judge an animal. I would be sorry to take the life of a chicken, a pig, a lamb, a fawn, a calf, even if I had nothing to eat. Maybe just pests 🙂
Rather, even as a slave, for the entertainment of the rich Romans, although I know it would be my last, I would go out on the sands of the Colosseum with shield and sword in hand.
With a great noise from the stands, under a tin helmet, sweat would pour down my face, while with every breath I would fight for my bare life, the little sword above my shield.
In that fight for bare life, I would give the last atom of strength, I would not surrender as long as I could hold my sword and if the opportunity arose I would be ready to take human life, just to get out of that sand.
It may sound a bit contradictory. I write that I could not behead a chicken, but here I could do it to a man. But that's the point, the bound convict and the chicken cannot fight back against their executioner, while the opposing gladiator fights with the same weapons and the will to survive. With a gladiator, you have a fair fight, so whoever is more dexterous and has more luck, goes further...
I would rather accept the option to die as an calm man than to spend my whole life in nightmares with the lives of other people on my conscience.
And what did that Roman Colosseum look like in its full glory, at the beginning of the first millennium? Magnificent and much more beautiful than today (or 13 years ago 🙂).
And 2000 years after it was built, it looks like in these pictures or similar. I believe that in 13 years it has not changed as much as it did in 2000 years.
Huge corridors and staircases, high walls, a large number of places for tribunes and a veritable labyrinth of underground chambers, which was located under the podium where the bloody gladiatorial games were held.
A few statues of Roman emperors and a modern information board that explains what the "games" looked like on this field in the centuries after Christ.
I would enter the arena to fight for my life, and at some point I had to sit down and take a break from walking around the walls. I wouldn't have lasted a minute in the arena, I would have greased someone's sword in the first attack 😀
This ancient building, an architectural and engineering masterpiece, has stood for centuries in the heart of Rome, and it fell into disrepair in two millennia, less than I did in these 13 years 😀.
Thank you for stopping by my post and I hope you enjoyed the photos and the story I shared with you
All photos are my property, taken long ago with a camera