Ep. 1 – Rome, Italy
The Colosseum at Rome holds thousands of years of history and countless tales of combat between valiant gladiators. Click below to follow the stories of two slightly lesser known gladiators that still managed to make things plenty interesting during their careers.
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Transcription:
*Intro music*
Hello and welcome to the first episode of The Friday Take Five, a podcast where we take about five minutes each Friday to step back from the craziness of life and delve into history and adventure. I’m your host, Mark Moran, and with this podcast I’m aiming to scratch an itch for travel bugs and history lovers alike. Every week, we’ll discover a new place with a new story. It’s my hope that you’ll walk away with a renewed appreciation for history and a new travel destination to add to your bucket list. With that, let’s discover our first city.
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I wanted to kick off this podcast by digging into one of the favorite cities to which I’ve traveled, and coincidentally, one of the most deeply historical cities of the world… Rome. Sure, you’re probably thinking it’s an obvious pick. And no, I won’t just be profiling the biggest and most famous cities in the world through the lifetime of this podcast. However, I did want to start off with a softball, and I hope you’ll forgive me.
When I think of Rome, the first thing that comes to my mind is the Roman colosseum. When I stood in the entryway to the arena, rain pouring down my face, I jokingly threw out a thumbs down like Joaquin Phoenix’s Commodus in Gladiator, and at that moment, history hit.
I was standing in a building that had been constructed 2,000 years prior. In its heyday, the amphitheater seated roughly 50,000 spectators and was the home to thousands of fights between gladiators. Somewhat ironically, it also served as a church at some point, but that’s a story for another podcast.
Many gladiators came and went through that colosseum, and as I prepared for this profile, I was astounded by some of their stories. Most have probably heard of Spartacus and the rebellion he led, but I wanted to bring to light the stories of two slightly lesser known gladiators, with stories just as incredible.
First, we’ll start with Flamma. Flamma, a Syrian gladiator, was a bit of an anomaly, in that he had an incredibly long career by gladiator standards. Many gladiators lasted 10 or fewer bouts before either winning their freedom or being killed in the ring. Flamma lasted an incredible 34 bouts. Furthermore, most gladiators died in their 20s, while Flamma lived to the incredible old age of 30. Interestingly, throughout his 34 matches, Flamma was offered freedom on 4 different occasions, as in, you know, freedom to not fight to the death anymore, but he turned those offers down and continued fighting. Which if it were me and I were being forced to fight and got a chance to get out, I would have dipped quick as heck, but hey, that’s just me.
The second gladiator, and I’m not biased at all by the name here I promise, is Marcus Attilius. Now, Marcus had quite the interesting story too. He, unlike many gladiators, wasn’t a slave forced to become a gladiator. For some wild reason, it’s speculated that he did it to get out of debt, he chose to become a gladiator. Rather than pairing him up against other novices, as was common practice at the time, the officials coordinating the games put him up against a gladiator named hilarious hilarious, I mean, Hilarus, for his first fight. Hilarus had previously won 12 of his 14 fights. Marcus fought valiantly and forced Hilarus to surrender, and in his next fight, Marcus put yet another 12 win gladiator to shame, thus cementing his name in history.
Now technically, Marcus was only a regional gladiator in Pompeii and he didn’t make it to the Colosseum in Rome during his career, but I had to share his story, because well, I mean, he has a fantastic name, right?
Thinking back to my time in the Colosseum, closing my eyes, I felt the history within the walls. I heard the shouting of gladiators like Flamma, like Marcus, and like Spartacus. I heard the throngs of spectators and clanging of metal on metal. It was an inspiration to learn more and experience the history of the space and others like it. Building a community around history and adventure is what I aspire to do for listeners of this podcast in the hopes that together we can explore this awesome world we live in and learn more about its deep history together. I hope you’ll follow along for the journey.
*Transition music*
Hey Friday Fivers, thanks for listening in to this week’s installment of The Friday Take Five. If you’re looking to join the community and keep in the loop, don’t forget to turn on notifications on your favorite podcasting platform and remember to follow us on socials @FridayTakeFive. Got feedback or recommendations on places or stories for us to cover? Give us a dm or email at thefridaytakefive@gmail.com. Stay curious, stay adventuring, and have a great weekend!
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