Sunday, April 11, 2010

Gladiators At Work

One of the (fantastically) kitschy things about Rome is the way that certain modern Romans choose to remember their ancient counterparts. These memories take many different forms; one of my favorites is the long-standing March 15th tradition of putting flowers and horrible poetry on the altar in the Forum where Julius Caesar's body was cremated. Something about the ancient Romans sends the modern Romans into histrionics- they can't really like Julius Caesar that much, can they? I mean, he was assassinated by half the Senate, and 23 stab wounds (22 more than were needed to kill him) were considered just punishment for his behavior. Nonetheless, every year his altar is covered in flowers, both real and plastic, and the bad poetry keeps flowing.

My favorite homage to the ancient Romans, however, is the small contingent of men (and at least 2 women) who dress as centurions, emperors, and gladiators and stand outside the Colosseum harassing tourists for money. I've never been exactly clear on how approaching women with a wooden sword and yelling 'I killah your husband!' is a sound career choice, but something about them is unusually charming. The men themselves are often brusque and look absolutely nothing like someone who fights for a living, but each person who passes them finds something to like. For me, it is the strange pleasure of watching these men in full ancient costume do things the ancient Romans never would have done, like smoke cigarettes or talk on cell phones. This is fairly regular behavior for the gladiators, but every once in a while they make my day by going above and beyond atypical ancient behavior. Today, it was this:


Yes, the centurions take the bus! I guess this is what happens when your chariot is in the shop... This man hopped on the bus as I was hopping off it, and struck up a conversation with the other man in the picture, thus accomplishing two of my favorite things to observe at once: gladiators doing modern things, and people having absolutely absurd conversations on the bus/in public without acknowledging how bizarre they look or sound.

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