Italy is devastated. It’s still the epicentre of history. The virtual reconstruction of the life and times of Rome by talented graphic artists at NoHo Ltd explained by a voice-over so surreal that it appears real races over the Tiber, the temples and crowded streets until it hovers over the Coliseum—the Romans called it the Flavian amphitheatre then. Stepping into the 8th century is a bit of a shock.
The statue of the sun god Colossus, outlined against a bright blue sky, dominates the scene, followed by the majestic Constantine’s arch, until top shots of the oval amphitheatre appear with two gladiators sparring as a pleasant disembodied voice explains the city's class structure through the Coliseum's seating arrangement. I could imagine the roar of 50,000 bloodthirsty spectators watching the gladiators, early Christians and hungry lions emerging from the Coliseum's underground cells to kill, be killed and devoured by hungry wild animals; Ben-Hur and Gladiator comes to mind.
The first three levels of the amphitheatre are circled with gallery arches and the fourth with rectangular windows. The columns represent the transition of architecture from Greek to Roman—Doric and Corinthian to Ionic. Virtual tours are high-tech time travel and this 15-minute trip took me back to ancient Rome, back-to-back temples of the goddesses Venus and Rome, acqueducts, palaces, the campus Martius, city ponds, imperial palaces and the Pantheon’s hidden rotunda—a majestic feat of deceptive architecture, whose immense height and breadth correspond exactly to the edges of human vision.
review: Virtual Tour
what & Where
Virtual Tour in Ancient Rome. A Smart History presented by Khan Academy. Product Director: Bernard Frischer. Video Production: Nial O Hoison, Klemens Kopetzky. Integrations of 3D Data: Kim Dylia. https://www.il-colosseo.it/en/