Colosseum: Gladiator Fights and Biological Diversity

The Colosseum is one of the most popular photo subjects for tourists in Rome. However, its history is not for the faint of heart. What plants in the ancient ruins have to do with this, the travel bettercities.net reveals.

The Colosseum was completed around 80 AD and was a venue for gladiator battles and animal hunts. Admission was free for the Roman population. Today, only one section of the once four-story round building still has all its floors intact. The stones were taken over the years after the fights ended to construct other buildings.

When visiting the Colosseum, be sure to pay attention to the numerous plants growing out of every corner and crevice. They are a sad testament to the exotic animals that were shipped in for the fights, from all the areas the Roman Empire had once reached. On the other hand, the vegetation within the Colosseum today represents one of the most diverse plant areas in the world.

Thanks to several botanical studies over the past 150 years, a total of 684 different plants have been cataloged. It is likely that the plant seeds were imported along with the wild animals.

The most recent study, conducted in 2003, however, found only 242 plant species. This is because nearly all plants inside the Colosseum were removed during the intensive archaeological work on the building. In the 18th century, the Colosseum must have resembled an impressive city garden.

Since 1999, the Colosseum has been officially declared a monument against the death penalty. Whenever a country abolishes the death penalty or a convict facing execution is pardoned, the Colosseum is illuminated in golden and green hues. For 48 hours, this celebrates the abolition of such laws and also serves as a reminder that the death penalty is still enforced in 61 countries (as of March 2017).

At the beginning of the Colosseum's history, battles were not only held on dusty floors but also at sea. Well, almost. They still took place inside the Colosseum, which was flooded to a height of up to 150 centimeters specifically for these sea battles. Of course, this was not deep enough to accommodate real warships. Hence, according to legend, ships with a flat bow were built, which were also mounted on a kind of boat cart and moved over the floor of the Colosseum. Once the Colosseum's floor was later equipped with underground levels, these sea battles were no longer possible, as the water would have flooded the cages and dungeons.

Travel bettercities.net