How Dangerous was the Front Row of the Colosseum?

Stray arrows, leaping tigers, and unstable emperors made the first rows of the Colosseum a dangerous place…

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Chapters:
0:00 The Elephant Incident
1:25 Seating at the Colosseum
3:19 Factor
4:18 Safety measures
5:15 Disasters in Roman arenas
6:10 Escaped animals
6:54 Gladiatorial mishaps
8:02 Imperial whims

[EndOfSmallSanctuary]

That story about a child-eating python lurking in the slums of Rome sounds exactly like something that would be a side quest you'd find in an RPG.

[PopeLando]

I love that an engraver from about 1500 years later still had only the sketchiest idea of what elephants looked like. He must have been particularly sceptical when he was told about their height.

[AgentHeroic]

I now actually want to see Paulus Blartus, Colosseum Cop as a movie

[LumpyFPV]

0:35 I'm glad the artist placed such emphasis on the beast's protruding starbolt 🙏🏼

[CHET]

Just like being in the splash zone at Sea World.

[Sarnarath]

20.000 people died in a wooden amfitheater collapse? That's a lot of people.

[myfairlady]

Killing random spectators. Thats the ancient Imax experience

[ash]

Imagine being able to time travel and be able to witness something like this first hand.

[marcrigor]

8:20 the emperor was like "blasphemy. I don't have ANY control over what happens at these games. And to prove it, I'm going to control what happens next by feeding you to the dogs."

[limesebastian]

Last time I was this early, Rome was still a republic!

[stankythecat]

I’m in Arles, France right now. It’s like living in an ancient Roman town, I’m loving it

[GavTatu]

0:22 "you can draw elephants yeah" ?
"don't worry fam, i got ya"

[historicaltidbits]

Great video as always.

There's a show called Spartacus Blood and Sand that often showed the crowd getting sprayed with blood, or skewered by a flying sword from the gladiatorial combat. Nice to know those finer details held some accuracy even with the overall show taking enormous liberties.

[Gablesman]

My family lore tells of how one of my Roman ancestors, though a man of meager means, was always able to get great seats at the Colosseum through Stubbus Hubbus.

[Mirokuofnite]

Caligula once ordered his guards to throw an entire section of the audience into an arena during the intermission to be eaten.

[slayerhuh]

Answering questions I never knew I needed answered yet again!

[tacotacotington]

Thank you for all of your videos, I always enjoy them and learning something I may have not known before, and if not just hearing history in an unbiased outlook is always a treat.

[delskioffskinov]

Aboslutely love this channel! one of my favourite subscriptions on youtube thank you Toldinstone!

[gitfoad]

5:57 - that '1, 500-year-old late Roman grasswork "Panama hat" from Flinders Petrie's 1901-2 field season in Egypt' is insane - how the hell is it that the only info I can find on this, is Twitter, F/b & Reddit? How & where was it found?

[perceivedvelocity]

The Colosseum Cop image cracked me up. I wasn't ready for Paulus Blartus.