For this Acta, I decided to watch a History channel documentary on the Colosseum and other amphitheaters in Rome. While these amphitheaters were referenced in class, we never took an in depth look at how these amphitheaters were made and what went into them. These are some of the most well thought out structures in Rome and hosted many public events including gladiator fights. One of the characteristics that really stood out to me regarding these amphitheaters, and more specifically the Colosseum, is their versatility. For example, the Colosseum used to be flooded with water in order to reenact naval fights. Not only is this incredibly difficult to do given the technological limitations of the Republic, but it is an almost unheard practice in today’s day in age. It was very surprising to me to learn about this as it seems to be a practice that is unique to the Roman empire and their traditions relating to public events.

It was also interesting to learn about the Lunas Magnus, a school-like structure that served as a training ground and holding area for gladiators awaiting fighting. While most gladiators were unfree slaves, this school was often compared to that of a prison with a focus on training. Gladiators carried out all their daily activities in the Lunas Magnus and often lived in subpar living quarters which were often small, poorly kept, and tightly packed together. When gladiators were called upon to fight in the Colosseum for the city to watch, they would use an underground tunnel that provided a passageway for gladiators to access the arena directly from the Lunas Magnus. Something interesting I found about these fights is that they often used to be advertised as Cena Missione which meant “without release”. This was often used as a nice way to say fight to death to be advertised across the city. However, these fights to the death did not come without serious consequence to the gladiator’s owner. Often, if a gladiator was killed participating in gladiatorial games, the owner was to be compensated one thousand times the gladiator’s value. This often prohibited these fights to the death. 

Finally, I found it very interesting that there have been many structures similar to the colosseum found across the ancient Roman territory. There are many amphitheaters that were used for similar purposes. Many of these structures found originally buried are in much better condition than the colosseum and their layouts and history can still be experienced today. 

For this Acta, I decided to watch the movie Gladiator. I thought this was fitting to watch as my previous acta focused on the Colosseum, Roman amphitheaters, and gladiatorial fights as a whole. I believe that watching this movie helped me have a better understanding of how gladiatorial fights in Rome worked, even though the movie glamorized much of what ancient Rome was like.

The movie follows Roman general Maximus Decimus Meridius and his experience as Commodus, the son of emperor Marcus Aurelius, betrays his trust and kills his father in order to gain political power. The movie follows the story of Meridius as he is sent into gladiatorial practice in order to avenge the death of his family.

Given my past acta on the colosseum and gladiatorial fights in Rome, I wanted to compare and contrast what I saw and learned in the documentary and how well it is portrayed in the movie. At the beginning of the scene the movie depicts many gladiators tightly packed with their weapons in the areas below the arena. In the documentary, they mentioned that gladiators were often kept down here until their time to fight, and stage workers and staff also stayed down here during the “show”. In the movie, I believe they did a good job accurately portraying what these under passages looked like. The scene looked very similar to what you would see at the real colosseum given the building structure and architecture. When the gladiators walked out into the arena, the shape of the colosseum seemed off to me. While the scene did a good job portraying how many people the arena can actually fit, I feel like the shape of the colosseum itself was lacking. The movie depicted a very steep seating area for people that made the arena seem taller than it actually was. Furthermore, there seemed to be some sort of covering or shade towards that top of the arena that seemed unrealistic to me. However, I do believe the movie did a good job accurately portraying the decoration which included heavy marble and a lavish design. When showing the actual fight, I question the realisticness of who was fighting. It seemed as if the gladiators were fighting more important individuals as they were dressed in gold armor and had chariots. From what I understand, these gladiators usually fought each other or fought wild beasts. Finally, the movie does a good job accurately portraying the armor worn by gladiators as it often was not nevey effective and different based on where the fighting gladiator was captured from. The movie did a good job of demonstrating this through the costumes in the scene.

To complete my Acta, I decided to recreate a roman dish known as Ova Spongia ex Lacte, a simple dessert dish that includes eggs, milk, and honey. While it seems simple, the cooking process proved difficult due to the delicate nature of the ingredients. Basically, this is a light, fluffy egg omelet that is seasoned with pepper and drizzled with hot honey. The secret to the fluffiness is the milk, however, the milk also makes it challenging to cook as it is extremely delicate with the milk. I started by beating together 4 eggs, olive oil, and about a cup of milk. I then used a large frying pan to cook the mixture into an omelet. While the dish is not supposed to be folded until cooking is completed, I had to improvise as my omelet flipping skills are not up to par, especially with an omelet of this size and softness. Once cooking is completed, it is then supposed to be folded in half twice to form a sort of triangle. It is then served as a dessert. I was surprised by how long the omelet took to finish cooking. It was cooking for about 10 minutes until it was completed. I believe that the amount of milk used to make the omelet fluffy added to the cooking time. However, once the treat was done, it was delicious. The texture was unlike any eggs I have had in the past. They were light, fluffy, and some of the best eggs I had ever had. I then lightly seasoned it with crushed black pepper and drizzled hot honey over the top. It was very interesting to see that something so simple could prove so difficult to make and still be very delicious. I strived to put myself in a Roman’s shoes and think as a Roman while creating this dish. When I was finished, I was lucky enough to have both my roommates try the dish. They too were surprised by the delightful treat that consists of only milk, eggs, and honey. I will definitely be making this again as it was fun, light, and very good. Below I have attached a picture of one of my roommates eating the dish as well as the recipe. While they were not pretty, they tasted good!

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoon honey
• 4 eggs
• 275ml milk
• 25g butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Good pinch of black pepper

Instructions

1. Beat together the eggs, milk, and oil.
2. Pour a little olive oil into a frying pan and heat. When this is sizzling, add the omelette mixture.
3. Whisk with a fork until the mix starts to solidify (this will make for a lighter omelette).
4. When thoroughly cooked on one side, turn the omelette over and cook on the other side. Fold in half and turn out onto a plate.
5. Warm the honey and pour over the omelette. Fold this over once more and cut into thick slices.
6. Sprinkle with black pepper and serve.