Today was the opening ceremony for the Palace for Nero our emperor. This extravagant palace was built out of brick and concrete in the very spot where downtown Rome was burned down. Some citizens are not happy with the emperor some even have come up with conspiracy theories on how and why the fire started. We interviewed a man who at one time lived where Nero’s palace is being built, Lets take a look at what he had to say.
“ I can’t believe our own emperor would do this to the people of downtown Rome. This was my home, this is where I was born and raised and this is where I planned to raise my children but because of Nero we now are living with the in-laws. I heard from one of the neighbors that Nero purposely set the town on fire. She said that she saw him standing on a nearby hill playing his lute while he watched his city burn.”
As you can see not many citizens are happy about this incident but unfortunately for these folks the palace has already been built. Now lets look at a speech that emperor Nero said to his people at the ribbon cutting of his new lavish palace.
“My fellow romans, today is a new day of Rome. After the tragedy that has struck us years ago, we were able to come out of it on top. We were able to turn a disaster into a grand feat of engineering. I thank you all for your patience. My condolences go out to all the people that have lost their lives, lives of loved ones, or homes. Thank you”
This palace was built by the best architect the world has ever seen, The time and effort that goes into building a palace one hundred square acres must have been enormous. I’m sure that if the walls of this architectural feat could talk it would say, “I was the most lavish and most expensive building project Rome had ever seen. My ceilings were lined with precious gems such as quartz and lapis lazuli. At the time when I was built Rome was being ruled by possibly the most sadistic and insane emperor of them all. He valued himself and himself only. He didn’t care much for anyone else, he even killed his own mother to gain full control of the throne.” The palace that Nero has built isn’t even for the good of the people its for his own pleasure. If the rumors that say he burned down this section of Rome on purpose to build this architectural feat some people may attempt to assassinate him. This. This architectural feat will have a large impact on the people of Rome because this palace was built on the rubble of downtown Rome so most people will be without a home, at the expense of their emperors one hundred acre mansion.
Today was a great day in the world of Roman architecture! Today we watched the grand opening of the Coliseum! WE celebrated this marvelous day with food, drink and Bloody, gory battles. Today we started off with the execution of the prisoners, then we moved on to the man vs. animal portion of the day where a gladiator fought a man-eating lion! Finally, at the end of the night we watched the main event, Man vs. Man. An all out bloody gladiator war which pined gladiator on gladiator in a fight to the death. Some people at the grand opening ceremony said If the walls could talk they would say to the people that “Rome is at its height at its peak at the moment It couldn’t get better than this, I am a building for the public, I show that rome is superior because it doesn’t just build things for the emperors and rich people, we care for everyone. We value the way our people look at our government. When people come to see what I have to offer they think better about their government knowing that this was built for them.”
This affected the daily life of many romans because now romans can do many more things in their free time. The coliseum was a big part of the Roman culture and how they entertained their people.