The Great Flood: Could the Colosseum Host Gigantic Sea Spectacles? | Blowing Up History

Ancient Rome is home to ingenious innovation in hydraulic engineering. However, practical solutions to infrastructural needs were not the only reason for such inventions.
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[@rachaelreed1658]

I caught about 70% of what the narrator said and now I have an action movie soundtrack permanently etched in my brain

[@brandonbourcy502]

It's not even bad tf?

[@manonfire92]

Open your ears then

[@rachaelreed1658]

I did. I heard music. Learn how to balance audio.

[@manonfire92]

@@rachaelreed1658 why you telling me to learn how to balance audio lol I didnt make the video...

[@rachaelreed1658]

@@manonfire92 you’re right, I meant learn about audio balancing. Obviously, my ears were open, they heard the fact that the music was too loud just fine. A bad mix is a bad mix and a channel, I.e. a business, would want to know. The video is good which is why I said it in a joking way instead of just never watching one of their videos again.

[@a.a.s.3799]

turn the music up a bit i can still hear some of the talking

[@mattdemo6387]

I didn't notice that at first because I only had the music headphone on me.... I wondered when they would start talking🤦🏽‍♂️---😂👌🏽

[@Eman-wj8gq]

Hahahaha 🤣😂😂🤣😂😂

[@keirfarnum6811]

There was a narrator? I just thought it was a slideshow with music. 🤷‍♂️

[@leecoates]

Hahahaha class I was thinking the same

[@needa401]

I came to the comments just to see comments about the audio problems hahaha

[@TheMap1997]

I watched History Channel so much, I thought this video going to say it was built by the Aliens.

[@TheInfoBlast]

They didn’t know if it was built by aliens or not or how much it was worth so they had to call in an expert, but the expert was busy.

[@emmanuel2333]

Lol

[@keirfarnum6811]

Ancient Astronaut theorists say yes! 🛸👽

[@DontLookBehindYou1]

😅

[@MylesHamlyn]

Please improve your audio design. Background music is WAY too loud. Other than that excellent docu.

[@lorenzomagni9200]

It dosen't take a sound engineer to figure out the music is too damn loud

[@billylauwda9178]

It takes beethoven not to know the music is too loud.

[@cherylwilson6821]

I had no trouble hearing all about the Colloseum's aqueducts, and I have a slight hearing problem. Perhaps the music has been turned down since you watched this video two years ago.

[@XXSTEAKYXX]

the sound engineer def DEAF AS FUCK

[@TheGoodfella2012]

Who’s here after watching the trailer for Gladiator 2?

[@sacreed1]

5:57, youre welcome

[@amettamail]

this is like a realistic version of ancient aliens

[@Eman-wj8gq]

What Ancient Aliens isn't realistic? But how could the History channel lie?

[@dima97]

@@Eman-wj8gq it's more like over dramatized

[@keirfarnum6811]

Ancient Astronaut theorists say yes! 🛸👽

[@hulkhatepunybanner]

*Isn't Ancient Aliens that show that credits every non-European historic site to vacationing extraterrestrials.* Because, obviously only white people can build such stuff.

[@cplcabs]

Rather than look at how they got water into the Colosseum, they should look at how they kept the water in. More importantly, they should look at how they got the boats into the Colosseum What were the epic battles fought in? Dinghies?

[@amiman.yesiam.8791]

They would have been built on site, and dismantled on site, I like to imagine.

[@cplcabs]

@@amiman.yesiam.8791 well that would mean only one battle which could last 10 minutes, so all that expense and work for 10 minutes wouldn't be very worthwhile. In addition, there would be much room to manoeuvre.

[@amiman.yesiam.8791]

@@cplcabs Indeed, but during the empire the emperor often threw games at his own expense. I have no idea how these ship battles played out so it's hard to say how long they would last.

[@maxegloff3001]

@@amiman.yesiam.8791 i cant imagine that... building a boat takes weeks to years... even with hundreds of people they just didnt have the tools

[@amiman.yesiam.8791]

@@maxegloff3001 These boats wouldn't have been very big, I don't know how big the arena is, but these ships would probably have been in the 30-50 foot range. It probably would have taken just a few months.

[@Benglestreet]

I love how they give Velerie Higgins such a badass into

[@scottculver]

We need the explosion sounds and battle music, to trick our brains into thinking this video is so awesome!

[@stevebutler8387]

So glad other people notice this trend of too loud background music. Most movies also have to loud background sound so you miss some dialogue. Thought it was just me getting old

[@greensoplenty6809]

i heard theres a small tank nearby too small to flood it. im guessing it was used to clean the sand and blood every few weeks or whenever, can only throw new sand on top for so long. couple feet of water might help push excess sand out too. have slaves drag planks or something through knee high water

[@shaun4787]

I've been to the colosseum. My understanding is that there're underground chambers to keep gladiators, slaves and beast. The chambers and tunnels are directly below the timber/sand covered colosseum ground level. They're "elevators" to raise gladiators, slaves and beasts to the ground level for the games. If you stand on the partial platform they constructed for the tourists today, those under ground tunnels and chambers are like a maze. The platform is at the "ground" level. Now if they stage a naval battle, the flood will surely pour into those chambers. The timber/sand ground is not water tight, probably not strong enough to uphold 5 million gallons of water. The sheer amount of water(pressure!) will really cause problem(stress) to the foundation of the colosseum. If the colosseum floor is a solid ground like the one in Pompeii, no underground chambers, I probably would believe the "naval battle" story. The colosseum is magnificent, as Maximus shouts out "Are you not entertained?!" But the idea of "flooding the colosseum to re-enact naval battle" feels like a far fetched folk lore. This Discovery UK video didn't really answer my enduring disbelief of the "colosseum naval battle" tale...

[@s.mcchristy9704]

Why are you and I the only ones to question this? The arena floor was obviously made of heavy wood planks covered with sand. Impossible to waterproof to keep water out of the basement. Everyone seems to buy into this theory tho without answering this practical consideration...

[@shaun4787]

@@s.mcchristy9704 Yep. It's not hard to use computer to do a simple civil engineering simulation with 5 million gallons of water, the amount of pressure it creates, taking into the fact of structural strength of the underground chambers. We can get answers pretty quickly. Also, timber + sand floor water tightness can also be tested. How much water it will leak per minute, how much water the Romans have to drain that water from the underground chambers so it's not completely flooded.... None of this is rocket science.

[@williamriker2516]

The hypogeum (underground) was built later on by emperor Domitian. The moment this underground was built, the "sea" battles came to an end.

[@shaun4787]

@@williamriker2516 If so there's still unanswered questions like how did they get the water into the colosseum and how they got the water out after the battle is done. They would have to construct some sort of underground water channels to bring the water from the aqueducts(Tiber river most likely) and find a way to pump out all that water...maybe 10,000 slaves bucketing water day and night for 1 month straight? 🤔 If the Romans had an innovative way of doing this, then this ancient dam/reservoir system is just as incredible as the Colosseum itself if not more.

[@alicemercer625]

From what I understand they would have only have done this early on during the colosseum's life. It wasn't until later that they added the underground chambers to hold slaves, gladiators and animals. Though I doubt they'd do naval battles very often even before hand.

[@odd-ysseusdoesstuff6347]

Yes, this is true The naval battles were actually high demand for the audience, and because of this, they made another, larger stadium to host sea battles

[@benhandy8890]

How you getting one of those boats through the gate ???

[@samvs1259]

One explanation is that (much) smaller replicas were used.

[@satriaputrapratama4703]

Could've been assembled inside

[@TheChicagoCourier]

Documentaries have to stop using the over-hyping dramatic music, like damn...

[@blakewalker94]

I agree wholeheartedly.

[@sully1939]

BIG WATER TANK NEXT TO ARENA : 👁👄👁

[@frisbeephil]

9 inches of fall in 30 feet is nothing to sneeze at when you're talking about 1X1 meter of water flowing down it. If this gradient was consistent for and large amount of distance that water would be shooting along and lots of it.

[@latoshaspice5196]

"They discover the remains..." Only an American could say that. For two thousand years nobody saw those remains, but they arrive and there it is, a magnificent discovery! :)) :))

[@jordaneggerman4734]

....I mean, yes, I get what you're trying to say, but segments of aqueducts, roads, walls, h×ll, even _entire Roman towns_ have been disused, overgrown, or buried for so long that they have been forgotten...leading to their rediscovery.

[@Tarquinthetyrant]

They’re not American they’re British

[@ember-brandt]

@@Tarquinthetyrant The narrator who said that line is American though, hence the joke.

[@Tarquinthetyrant]

@@ember-brandt aight

[@beachcomber1able]

How did the water not flood the basement where all the lifts that delivered animals etc into the arena, then just leak away. 🤔

[@minnwaiyan]

How did they row the boats on 1.5 metre depth water surface?

[@boxingmartinez2334]

That's like 5 feet high enough water

[@justdoingitjim7095]

The first thing I noticed was the music was so loud I couldn't understand the narrator!

[@LambdaMMXI]

Like music from a COD lobby lmao

[@wcsah]

This was really well-produced

[@Gaxbiez]

I’ve been there and the colosseum its big, but not Gigantic sea spectacle big 😂. There would be room for like 2 boats, I don’t think they did this but who knows

[@getchasome6230]

They made those water tunnels for something tho

[@DaylonJade]

Ships were a lot smaller then, my best guess anyways.

[@getchasome6230]

@@DaylonJade I'm pretty sure the Colosseum is smaller than modern football stadiums

[@jasonsparks4601]

Hmmm the video only shows 3 ships in the "battle " ....not like they tried to say there were full scale sea battles held there. They were most likely scaled down versions of their ships anyway....kinda hard to drag full size ships through town to have a display in the Coliseum.

[@philingrouille7198]

@@getchasome6230 Maybe water would be pumped in when Gladiators fought Crocodiles or Hippos?

[@AdamSmith-kb7kt]

How did the ships get in?

[@JackieWelles]

They would dismantle it first and bring everything inside, then build it again. Those there not traditional sea ships, but rather special flat bottom ships made just for the show. www.ted.com/talks/janelle_peters_how_romans_flooded_the_colosseum_for_sea_battles/transcript

[@SeamusMcGillicuddy0]

The ships received VIP passes from the Roman Chamber of Commerce ?

[@daniel.falcone]

Bro i cant even hear the narrorator😂

[@Jim-jd4ev]

Music to Voice ratio is higher than Lars Urlich's drums to rest of the band ratio

[@blackjacket7118]

Excellent. Thank you.

[@jamescarter8421]

I believe this is very possible..

[@ceder4696]

so you dont?...

[@AtticTapes14]

CIRCUS MAXIMUS

[@batesvillbilly368]

That woman didn't even lift a finger. Yet her name was announced as those she was in charge. The guy who was doing everything wasn't even named.

[@Grandpa_Grinch]

I can see how they could fill the arena with water but how do they sail the boats in there?

[@michaelpuckett3978]

They would use their oars lol

[@jackshuttleworth6570]

Michael Puckett yeah but how do they get the boats in in the first place.

[@scotts7274]

Id assume they would carry them in pieces and assemble them inside the walls of the Colosseum.

[@TheBlowMachine69]

@@scotts7274 and then fill it up

[@michaelpuckett3978]

@@jackshuttleworth6570 clearly they would pull up console command and spawn it in, use your brain my man.

[@CrazyBrosCael]

Gigantic isn’t really the word I would use. Sure the colosseum may of been big, but the arena itself would’ve only have held small ships.

[@Obytack]

When i went and visited the Colosseum they said that the see battles weren't very liked compared to the traditional fights on sand.

[@WhuDhat]

I bet, imagine seeing dudes literally getting ripped apart every 5-10 mins, and then once every couple months or so you have aquatic days where a couple of boats slowly drift about inching towards each other

[@skygge1006]

@@WhuDhat ships back then would go quite fast with a large amount of people on the oars and the battles most likely would’ve been quite entertaining seeing other people board the ships and fight on them or sink the other ships or ram ships and smash them apart could’ve been very interesting but extremely expensive

[@GTReplayMaster]

I read the opposite, that they were so popular they were moved to their own lake and the colosseum became devoted strictly to land-based battles and shows

[@Obytack]

@@GTReplayMaster i went to the actual Colosseum in Rome and what i wrote is actually there lol

[@angieroxy7550]

¿How do they have water battles inside the Arena if they've got those little Structures in the Battle Area?

[@somewhereintheuk]

It’s possible they got bored of flooding the arena.

[@somewhereintheuk]

It is also possible they moved the animals and whatever else before the flood. Or they invented a system that didn’t drown the animals or whatever below, I mean, considering how advanced they were who really knows?

[@HawkYUNGINMusic]

I think they flooded the colosseum pretty early in its history and later on added more of the underground animal and battle stuff and couldnt flood it anymore and they took the water battles to bigger nearby lakes

[@micheleford4282]

where the colosseum sits used to be a large man made lake that a ceasar built as his own personal boating place and then another ceasar cut that off and built the coloseum and water could be pumped in and retained to fight sea battles in which miniatures holding a few men were built and fought and destroyed for the crowds enjoyment. it wasnt that hard to drain the water afterward to be reused because alot of the buildings especially the nearby palace had hypocaust systems and sewers to regulate and heat water and get rid of waste. but most of the time the colosseum was filled with sand it was easier to fight in and absorbed rain water better. when i went there they had a whole tour available to explain the whole process of what went on there. and if you look at the city from a sky view you can still see the square outline where the old man made lake was there from the palace to the other side of the colosseum. romans and there outlandish architecture.

[@BS-sm8kj]

I enjoyed watching this video 👌🌺

[@psowden76]

Quite interesting. But how did they get huge bastard sized ships into the Colosium?

[@khel1761m]

A mock or a dummy ship that easy to build inside like lego but bigger and floats looks realship outside but hallow inside enough to float

[@scipioprime69]

Romans use their helicopters

[@--novus-ordo-secrolum-un--8820]

@@scipioprime69 very true I've seen them 😂

[@FeNite8]

WHAT? WHAT ARE YOU SAYING? I CANT HEAR YOU OVER THIS MUSIC!!

[@cbluebeard]

music is TOO loud. Who mixed this audio?

[@DontLookBehindYou1]

As a plumber, It's always great to see and hear about my plumbing ancestors...ahhh, the years of learning about the Great Roman Em-poo-re

[@lavykalava1149]

im over here enjoying the video. finishes it. then comes down to the comments to see people complaining about the music being to loud and not being able to hear him talking. i guess people are just deaf.

[@scipioprime69]

I cant hear the background music.

[@danielmorris6523]

Would you like some music with your narration? "Yes."

[@MrVapeShop]

Anyone ever think it could just be flooded by rain?

[@simplyeleza]

wish video was longer

[@thomridgeway1438]

I am still skeptical about this, not just from a huge technical point of view, but from a historical basis of one reliable source only. I think if they were going to have navy battles inside the Colloseum, they would do it just like they do Olympic Opening Ceremonies today ..... thousands of dancers simulating moving water. A very good analogy would be the Barcelona 1992 Opening Ceremony where they simulated a ship with oars very convincingly. So I am saying the galleons would be pushed wooden floats on wheels, there would be island props and water dancers. Just like an Olympics there would be pyrotechnics for sure, it would be pretty spectacular. And importantly much cheaper than hydro engineering, and you can use the arena again the next day for something else. The only difference beingis that the fighting and competition would be for real! Gruesomely men would actually die!

[@larryerwin5135]

Whatever happened to those people? I heard things did not turn out as planned.....

[@zac2780]

The last of them fled to the mountains to Romania and the surrounding hills, war always changes things

[@thomasfowler9427]

It’s like the narrator is fighting to be louder then the sound track

[@mauricematla1215]

Let's keep it simple. Look at the size of the place It is just not large enough for "epic" naval action.

[@sylvainmagne158]

To drive the water into the arena, some slope is required. So, how did they get the water out at the end of the show?

[@stuartdoyle99]

Even the auto generated captions can’t handle this video

[@shaundalejardenico1779]

as long as not proven, it'll stay as theory.... anyhow, great docu. thank u (:

[@walkinshredding2283]

Music is always too loud!

[@jaxsun72]

The music blew my eardrums out and I shit my pants.

[@creativeguy1138]

Lead pipes. Great

[@matthewmann8969]

It might have the Atlantis effect

[@averageman2063]

Amazing. World most uniq, powerful empire

[@jiotaro-uk6ke]

Please add heavy metal or screamo music next time, I could still hear the narrator.

[@notyourbusiness6428]

I love KZbin no idea how I am here. But great stuff

[@Chasemanb]

Did they flood the rooms below the floor? If not, how did they make the floor water tight? If the rooms were flooded, where were the gladiators housed? Is it possible that the inflow and outflow for the arena, was engineered for flooding purposes?

[@williamriker2516]

There was no rooms below the floor at the time the arena was used for "sea" battles. The underground floors were built later on by emperor Domitian, and this was the moment "sea" battles came to an end.

[@deenaxic9134]

How'd they get the ships in. There's no gates that big.

[@kurtlogan6912]

the flooding of the floor happened at the end of the show to clean the blood

[@cakeinspired1435]

No captioning Discovery UK? Really?

[@yourpants194]

Lead pipes you say?

wtf happened to the sound??

[@vice4134]

NO CLOSED CAPTIONS. SO TWO THUMBS DOWN!!! IT'S EASY TO TURN IT ON THRU SETTINGS FOR AUTOMATIC CLOSED CAPTIONS TO BE TURNED ON. WHAT'S THE PROBLEM???

[@user-oo8wt3hr1t]

Hmm you know what this footage of a bridge needs? *Intensely loud and dramatic music*

[@MountainRaven1960]

I got 2 minutes into this, then my ears began to bleed.

[@GabGotti3]

LOWER THE BACKGROUND MUSIC

[@TheLusianPopa]

I dont see how flooding would have been done there was a whole network/maze of storage rooms, cages, cells, corridors right beneath the floor which was wooden planks covered by what im assuming was very thin layer of sand. So the floor isnt water tight, if you tried to flood the thing water would just poor into that whole space beneath. And a naval battle implies battleships, which even then were quite large. How do you get ships inside? Rome isnt that close to the sea...its quite a few km away.And even if they did, the arena space isnt THAT big....its like 87 m long by 55 m wide....no space to maneuver a ship....and there would be little wind inside due to the height of the stands/outer walls anyway.... not to mention that the wall of 4-5 m in height that surrounds the arena had numerous doors , entrances etc which werent water tight either... this thing NEVER happened maybe they tried it once, and it didnt work but somehow someone wrote about it given that theres only one reference, chances are im right

[@hssrrss3380]

I don't need sleep, I need answers

[@PlasmaExe]

I wonder what their water bill is

[@DaveSohan]

Do people not watch these videos before posting them? The sound balancing is shit here! Can't hear anything the narrator says when the sound effects kick in

[@matheusmalagueta4129]

Here after Gladiator 2 trailer

[@szeltovivarsydroxan9944]

Am I the only one who wished they would actually rebuild the Colosseum?

[@anakinskywalker2142]

Lazy europeans dont want to rebuilt their best buildings

[@wolf99000]

Not sure when this was made but we know it was flooded and sea battles were done there now so not sure why this is asking the questions as we know the answer

[@Lustwurzel]

Music too loud who edited this...

[@marketingmasters3550]

Maybe there was a ton of rainfall one of the years that flooded it.

[@kimfintasstubes481]

Can't hear what is being said, just background sounds wtf

[@FinnishArmy]

Who edited the music to be louder than the narrator..

[@Mpayne1472]

I can’t see it personally. I think they’re drains. Too much effort to seal all the entrances/ get boats in to make it viable?

[@anitakelley6447]

The lead pipes a problem of course

[@rudder-room13]

Everytime knew some new is absolutely a gif 🍻🍻

[@ochardkeo9458]

Is that the great wall of Italy?

[@jeffreysalvador7076]

The sound guy needs to chill. Like got damn. The point is to hear the narrator

[@ynny9888]

Who’s here before Gladiator 2? 😎

[@reach831]

KZbin is getting out of hand with these ads

[@bernardmwaba4167]

Here because of Gladiator II

[@Dane3412]

Why don't you learn already that the background volume while a narrator is speaking should be less than 3%? can't hear a thing!

[@waqarsaleem8611]

Romans believed their civilization was here to last. So they didn't hesitate a sec to build extremely expensive and challenging projects even in far away lands.

[@abcdc197]

Roman civilization is still here today. Almost every country uses Roman laws. Rome is still here. Jesuits who were formed in Rome long time ago control NATO, UN and rule the world. Roman Empire exists to this day. It's hiding in plain sight so to say. Literally you can't find a country that's not controled by Jesuits in one way or another from 50s onward.

[@davidellis5135]

The Romans’ were incredible engineers, but I still gotta give the reward to the Ancient Egyptian’s.

[@thomasbrennan1038]

All they did was make big pyramids, I don’t think it’s as impressive as the Romans.

[@davidellis5135]

@@thomasbrennan1038 I think your being a bit unfair,look at those massive temples the huge statues absolutely perfect, I think the Romans were more practical,and the roads they built, the aqueducts were outstanding feats of engineering they new the importance of water, trouble is because Egypt’s a sandblasted brown ruin we don’t see it at its best, but I suppose the same could be said about Rome, but 2 extraordinary civilisations that the world will never see the like again.

[@SeamusMcGillicuddy0]

@@davidellis5135 Don’t underestimate the Chinese and Czechoslovakian’s 🤥

[@davidellis5135]

@@SeamusMcGillicuddy0 Yes those caves in China where they drained the water away were extraordinary. kzbin.info/www/bejne/q4S6eqFvZ5ykgpI

[@KrystylSummers-ho8he]

Phoenicians

[@hajorm.a3474]

Wouldn't you think such a huge event took place in history and was only recorded once in hundreds of years? Sounds weird to me.

[@Username-le4eq]

It happened thousands of years ago, some documents might be destroyed already tho

[@chewsday5760]

But how did they get ships into the colosseum?

[@scipioprime69]

They use helicopter 👍

[@kaliyuga1476]

A time when things were mesnt to be eternal

[@ED2302]

Ok so basically entertainment but with more complexity and detail

[@Asspada]

Welease Woger!

[@garrettmccurley518]

Ok, sure they could flood the colosseum... but how did they get the boats in there?