Games of Gore

Looking back to a time when ‘fun’ and ‘games’ were intrinsically bound to ‘blood’ and ‘gore’. The Colosseum, the monument where some of the most gruelling tournaments were held

Wild beasts, exotic animals, slaves and criminals made up the sum of half a million human beings and over a million animals that were estimated to have died in this gigantic, elliptically whorled spectacle. Set to satisfy the bloodlust of the Romans, the Colosseum or the Flavian Amphitheatre became a cradle of life and death.

The Colosseum was built around A.D. 70–72 by Vespatian, who was the chief general of the tyrannous ruler Nero. After defeating Nero, Vespatian was determined to make his mark as an emperor and commissioned the building of this amphitheatre where Nero’s Golden House once stood. It would take about a decade, and the labour of sixty thousand Jewish slaves for the Colosseum to be built.