Blood & Glory: The Arena and Power of Rome Audio Walk

Blood & Glory is a self-guided audio walk through Rome, where the spectacle of the arena and the decisions of an empire belonged to the same city. Start whenever you like before the Colosseum, with the story playing on your own phone. Look up at its walls and imagine them white under the sun, with statues filling the arches. The ruin you see today once offered a very different sight. At the Arch of Titus, you meet the other side of Roman glory. A procession passed along this road with soldiers at the front, spoils behind them and seven hundred prisoners in chains. With that image in mind, you look across the Roman Forum, where wars, taxes, laws and sentences were matters of power. The arena gave Rome its spectacle; here, you begin to understand the decisions behind it. From Caffarelli Terrace, you can look back towards the Colosseum and across the Forum, bringing those parts of the story together. This walk is for anyone curious about how Rome displayed its strength, and what that strength meant for the people caught in it.