Case Study: The Roman Colosseum

Reenforcing Power and Identity through Material Culture

Can the constructed space serve as a microcosm of society whereby societal values, beliefs and attitudes are reenforced? How does the constructed space do this? Would it make a difference if the society is homogenous in culture or pluralistic like the United States, and can there be a super culture that permeates throughout a pluralistic society whereby making the population ultimately more homogenous while maintaining its diversity? How does any of this look like and why? 

The constructed space may both symbolically and through performance (ritual) achieve within the cognitive space of those in society a means to reenforce shared values and attitudes toward such things as authority, social class, gender notions, and governance. The Roman Colosseum, for example, could do these things and not be a religious space – as we tend to think religious spaces serve these functions – and do so with ritualistic precision and cult like devotion even though it is simply entertainment. Is there something innate in how a space is designed – intentional or not – that achieves this effect?

Background Information for the The Case Study

How to live like an American? How to behave like an American?

What do these questions even mean? What do these questions mean to our identity and how we relate to authority and power? What is the role of culture in answering these questions?

Culture is a very powerful force. Culture can even have more power and influence over our behavior than social controls like laws, the police, and judicial system. 

A cultural group’s size and strength influences their power over a region, area, or other groups. Cultural power lends itself to social power that influences people’s lives by controlling the prevailing norms or rules and making individuals adhere to the dominant culture voluntarily or involuntarily.

Culture is a defining feature of a person’s identity, contributing to how they see themselves and the groups with which they identify. A person’s understanding of their own and other’s identities develops from birth and is shaped by the values and attitudes prevalent at home and in the surrounding community.

Cultural values can be deeply embedded within material culture, and material culture can reenforce our behavior and attitudes regarding how we act and live within a society. 

Material culture refers to the physical aspects of a society, the objects made or modified by a human. These objects surround a people and its activities and are defined by their properties, be they chemical, physical, or biological.

Material culture can include such things as the products of commerce, means of transportation, technology, architectural spaces, the manipulated landscapes, clothing, and much more. 

Material culture can be symbolic and have a profound influence over our cognitive space; helping to shape and influence our identities and reenforce the power structure and institutions of society.

Cultural institutions such as academia, religion, entertainment, the arts, and sports can promote and reenforce culture, and often do so through the symbolic nature of material culture.

For example, the design of a classroom can reenforce the cultural attitudes and beliefs regarding authority and the role of others having authority over our lives. Movies and the technology they are presented on along with the design and type of spaces people engage watching movies (i.e., movie theater and living room) can reenforce cultural values that shape our attitudes regarding such things as social class, gender and power and how we internalize these things with regard to our own standing and interactions with others in society. 

Religion, as an other example, may go beyond the questions of existence, God and afterlife, and reenforce our cultural ideas regarding such things as kinship organization and influence the way we approach authority in our lives. Religious art, sacred spaces and ritual practice could all reenforce obedience to cultural values. 

Material culture can be used by those in power to reenforce their control over society and compel submission to their authority. This could also apply to institutions of power versus people. In other words, material culture can promote the institutions of power as part of our identity and reenforce our relationship to those institutions such as the state’s legal system, policing powers and laws. Material culture can be an institution of power and identity in and of itself that shapes who we are and how we interact with others in society. 

A temple, a palace, a sacred object, a flag, a monument, to name a few examples of material culture, can all impress upon the mind – the psyche – our position in society and control how we behave and influence our attitudes. They can shape the entire human experience and impact our cognitive space consciously and subconsciously. Material culture can direct human interaction and symbolically serve as a reminder of our station in life. 

The following are journal articles that you can read to help with your assignment:

The Roman Colosseum

How to live like a Roman: Strength, courage and honor.

The History Channel has released a new documentary series about the Roman Colosseum.  

In the first episode, the documentary series provides a good demonstration how the Roman Colosseum, both as material culture and a cultural institution, culturally reenforced Roman identity and power relationships between those in authority and the masses along with reenforcing attitudes regarding social classes.  

The Colosseum in Rome was known by the Romans as Amphitheatrum Flavium, and it was named after Vespasian, who found the Flavian Dynasty that ruled the Roman Empire for 27 years. Flavian Dynasty followed the Julio-Claudian dynasty, which comprised the first five Roman emperors: Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. These symbolic power houses of Roman authority were hard shoes to walk in; therefore, to reenforce his power and authority Vespasian embarked on the construction of the largest ancient amphitheater in the Roman Empire.  The Colosseum was built in the center of Rome and was to serve as a symbol of Rome’s power, strength and authority while reenforcing the emperor’s own legitimacy and security in power over the empire. While construction of the Colosseum began under Emperor Vespasian, it was completed in 80 AD under his successor and heir, Titus.   Titus inaugurated the Colosseum by declaring 100 days of Games. The highlight of the games was the gladiatorial battle between Priscus and Verus. Their combat in the Colosseum was something of legend. The poet, Marcus Valerius Martialis, was present to watch this epic fight and wrote an eye witness account of it that serves as some of the best contemporary evidence of what took place in the Colosseum.

Priscus was a Roman gladiator of Celtic origins. His combat with his friend Verus, who was of Germanic origin, was the highlight of the opening day of the games conducted by Titus to inaugurate the Flavian Amphitheatre in AD 80 . This spectacular show was recorded in a laudatory poem by Marcus Valerius Martialis and is the only detailed description of a gladiatorial fight that has survived to the present day. Their fight was on the first day of the games and marked the beginning of the celebration. Both gladiators were declared victors of the combat, and were awarded their freedom by the Emperor Titus in a unique outcome.

Further modifications were made during the reign of Domitian, who reigned from 81 to 96 and was the son of Vespasian and the younger brother of Titus. While Domitian had his brother deified, it is believed he always had his sight on Rome’s seat of power. 

The following three clips from the History Channel’s first episode gives a good description in how the Colosseum and the gladiatorial battle between Priscus and Verus reenforced Roman ideas about social class, identity, power obedience, and authority. 

• After watching these three clips, consider how similar material culture and cultural institutions serve to reenforce similar cultural aspects in American society. 

The Videos

Please be advised! The following videos contain scenes of a graphic nature. 

The Questions

In addition to the questions asked above, please address the following questions in your response to this discussion:

How does material culture and cultural institutions reenforce cultural values, identity and power relationships in our American Society? 

Are there any specific examples similar to the Roman Colosseum that reenforce cultural ideas regarding power and authority in the United States? 

With regard to social class, are there any constructed spaces that demonstrate how members of our society are differentiated into different groups? 

How is power and identity mediated within the cultural space throughout the American societal landscape? 

Additional Reading Materials

The following are additional reading materials regarding the Roman Colosseum and Priscus and Verus: