Posted on 02/06/2016 10:26:13 AM PST by EveningStar
The enormous arena was empty, save for the seesaws and the dozens of condemned criminals who sat naked upon them, hands tied behind their backs. Unfamiliar with the recently invented contraptions known as petaurua, the men tested the seesaws uneasily. One criminal would push off the ground and suddenly find himself 15 feet in the air while his partner on the other side of the seesaw descended swiftly to the ground. How strange.
In the stands, tens of thousands of Roman citizens waited with half-bored curiosity to see what would happen next and whether it would be interesting enough to keep them in their seats until the next part of the "big show" began.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
I’d say the modern American movie and TV audience is about as bloodthirsty, but through the miracle of special effects the victims aren’t actually dying.
Whereas we have the spectre of blood in the streets, the Romans had the real thing. :’)
They started slow, with a ritual struggle that was at least occasionally part of funeral rites, and of Etruscan origin. The Roman way was to have a duel between two gladiators of some sort, slaves or criminals who had no real choice than to participate. Eventually larger, longer festivities were mounted as memorial to very grand people, and they were opened to the public. I’m sure there were carpers carping about how this wasn’t how it was supposed to be done. The competition between the great families of the republican period led to larger venues. The arena in Pompeii (which was over a century old by 79AD) seated more people than probably lived in the town.
Here’s a link to a tomb painting of a hooded man on a leash of sorts, trying to fight off a vicious dog. I think I’ve seen a similar tomb painting with two dogs. It’s very possible that this portrays a special penalty, perhaps the punishment of the murderer of the deceased. Etruscan inscriptions are short, practically no long texts exist, and it hasn’t been cracked to the satisfaction of the consensus-seekers.
If I played the thought game of time travel, I'd like to go back to the Etruscans and ask them where the heck they came from and could they teach me their elusive language.
Maybe I could get Stewie to rebuild his time machine . . .
:’) Like everyone, the Etruscans identified with a distant homeland, and were widely known in antiquity for having migrated to Italy, but they intermarried with the locals, and adopted or continued to obtain some local ware, e.g. pottery; there may well have been a lower social class made up of the descendants of the previous inhabitants.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1811652/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1851847/posts
I spent a few days in Volterra once. There is an Etruscan museum packed with funerary art, which seems to be the main thing that has survived to the present.
“while Lady Gaga may be very *weird*, she’s a great singer.
Let’s hear how she does it; she may just do it up right.”
Lady Gaga has a wonderful voice, I was very moved by her Star Spangled Banner, as it appeared were many others.
Skipped the half-time show, so what do you think, did I miss anything?
Later in this thread I modified my expectations for Lady Gaga doing the NA.
I wrote: “Actually, of all the “comparatively new” singers around today that I’ve heard (last 10-15 years), she definitely seems to be one of the better ones. But to sing the National Anthem? Then again, maybe you’re right. Could perhaps be a nice surprise.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3393739/posts?page=38#38
However, as for “Coldplay”, I stayed the course on my expectations that they would be terrible. And boy was I right!
...I still have no idea what that other “thing” was up on stage with CP and that vastly overrated, slutty looking Beyonce. I’m referring to the thing that was wearing what appeared to be some sort of uniform. Was that “Bruno- something...”?
I did not go to slate.com, but I did watch Gaga sing the National Anthem because everyone said she did a great job. I expected her to do some “look at me” edgy performance with a PC promotion like kissing another girl or something. I saw everyone was impressed so I watched. I was very impressed with her, she was respectful, she showed class and poise, she displayed her talent. I would not have predicted that from someone like her, but BRAVO... she did a very good job. I am very happy to have guessed wrong, nice job Gaga... well done.
I skipped the half-time, too. I had heard that it would be exactly as subsequent reports indicate that it was.
The predictions saved me from wasting my time :-)
-JT
Lady Gaga wasn’t in the halftime show, she sang the National Anthem at the beginning and did a great job.
I agree
Interestingly, I was reading that the Romans almost never persecuted anyone for merely being a Christian (a few exceptions).
They persecuted ANYONE who didn’t pray to the official gods for the empire.
The only exception were the Jews who had early been friends of the Romans and the understanding is that they Jews would pray TO their god FOR the empire and emperor.
If you were accused of being a Christian the first thing the Romans would often do would be to give you a chance to get off the hook by making a sacrifice to the Roman gods, if you did, they let you go.
NOT sacrificing to the gods was considered treason and something that would bring their wrath on everyone.
That is the reason that the whole controversy over were Christians Jews or not was so vital. If they were a subset of Judaism it was one arrangement with the Empire, but if you weren’t a Jew and wouldn’t sacrifice THEN you were a traitor. The Romans didn’t care who believed, they cared about who obeyed. There were exceptions, but overall even if someone accused you of being a Christian all you had do to was make a small sacrifice and they let you go. However, of course, the true Christians wouldn’t do so and thus hello arena.
I nearly always skip the halftime show; the only times I remember seeing any of them was the “wardrobe malfunction” and the Paul McCartney performance, had no choice in either case.
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