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Gianluca Pica
The Colosseem - Keith Hopkins & Mary Beard
The Colosseum doesn't need to any explanations, you can think. Millions and millions of tourists and visitors come here every years, going beyond the arches of the main monument of Rome, and breathing the ancient atmospere probably feeling like Russel Crowe in "The Gladiator", the famous movie. Hollywood, but the history itself, made the Colosseum immortal, a must see of Rome, a symbol of the Eternal City, of its ancient society and culture.
The authors of this not so big book, both experts, give us another point of view about the Colosseum. For a tour guide like me it is not easy to explain what the Colosseum could be, because we have a specific image and because of the ruins. Keep in mind that today the Colosseum is just the skeleton of the original structure and architecture. But reading this book you will understand how the giant symbol of Rome is more than we can expect. There's a background, some curious aspects, something that you couldn't expect about the Colosseum.
The simple style is appropriate for a guy like me who would like to discover something more about this worldwide famous monument, but it could be fitting for who has not any ideas about the Colosseum. Try to imagine how many thinks you couldn't expect: the propaganda behind the games and events, the advantages for the emperors or the citizens, the way to create fake backgrounds for the animals, the hidden machineries, the role of the beasts and gladiators... The Colosseum of the Middle Ages, of the Renaissance Age, of the XIX century.
So "The Colosseum" is a book that is very ready to read. The experience will be very nice and you will not able to stop the reading, for the quantity of the information that are offer. Of course, there are many book about the Colosseum, something that is also more detailled, being the biggest anphitheatre in the world and the symbol of an age. But this book, even if it will not tell you all the secrets about the Colosseum, is able to be a good way to start the discovery of this monument. It couls be a good way to know more than an ordinary tourist who has not a tour guide or a guide book. So "The Colosseum" is perfect if you want, just for one second, to feel a real Roman.
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