Customer Reviews

The Roman Colosseum: The story of the world's most famous stadium and its deadly games (Wonders of the World Book)

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3 star:		(1)
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I admit I wasn't expecting much when we bought this book for my third grader studying Ancient Rome. I thought it would simply be a book on the history or science of building the Colosseum. I was wrong!

Elizabeth Mann delves into the history of Rome surrounding the gladiatorial games and politics of the Emperors. There is quite a bit of text on each page, around 2nd to 4th grade level. The illustrations are big, bold, and accompany each text selection. There is some science of the building, but how each Emperor saw and used the games is more of a focus.

At first I was a little surprised at the amount of warlikeness covered. She doesn't get too gritty in her explanation of the gladiators, but the brutality of Roman culture is adequately explored. For example, "In wartime, blood was provided for the souls of comrades killed in battle by forcing captured enemy soldiers to fight to the death." And, "As corpses were dragged out through the Gate of the Dead at the eastern end of the arena...slaves raked fresh sand over the blood-soaked arena floor." Needless to say, this might not be a hit with many little girls. But the book is much more than that, so it's not a dealbreaker.

I was also a little concerned that Mann would avoid taking a moral stance on the subject, but near the end of the book, she begins (gently) to offer her condemnation of the way gladiators and slaves were treated. She ends with the martyrdom of Telemachus and the outlawing of gladiatorial games due to growing Christian influence within the Empire--a brave inclusion. The text is otherwise non-judgmental and shows proper awe and respect of the Romans. Lots of vocabulary words too! But I was glad the children did not come away with some naive acceptance of Nero and other ruthless emperors. They started to grasp the politics of Roman government and the context of the extraordinary Colosseum... more than other books we've had on Rome and more than I expected!

If you are into the history of the Colosseum or aren't you willbe now! This book features excellent quoatations and vividdescriptions of every little aspect you could think of about the Colloseum. But it could have used some more pictures. The author paints a world with excellent detail right down to the size of there shields! Believe me, at first I thought I wouldn't be interested in barbariens fighting but after reading this I needed more! It also tells about the marvelous chariot races and the foreign animals. This book is worth every cent that you pay for it!

I was disappointed that the book was more of a children's book.
It did give some good information.