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ilvorangeiceblocks's avatar

What Roman writers wrote about the shows at the Colosseum, the Roman theater and the Circus Maximus?

Asked by ilvorangeiceblocks (865points) March 23rd, 2011

I’m really interested in what happened at the Colosseum, Circus Maximus and the Roman theater each day. I’ve read so much on the internet that my brain is filled with secondary accounts, so now I’d like to read it from the first hand perspective. Do you know what writers wrote about any of these subjects?

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3 Answers

MyNewtBoobs's avatar

I don’t know, but I would search Google Books for whatever terms you know plus the word “documents”.

bkcunningham's avatar

I believe what you will find are brief accounts by historians like Cassius Dio and Titus Livius, and others like statesman/writer Pliny the Younger. I believe Younger’s letter 9.6 may help. I don’t know of any writings of day-to-day events. I hope someone else can help.

http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/Liv1His.html

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/1*.html

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/pliny-letters.html

janbb's avatar

Check out the writings of the Roman satirist Juvenal. He is the writer who coined the phrase “bread and circuses” per this citation among others.

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