Arles

Yesterday we saw a Roman arena in Arles. That’s where they did a lot of Roman games like, gladiators showing off their strength and lion fighting. Mostly people who they thought had done something wrong, and people who were Christians, got thrown into the lions. The arena was like a football field only it was a circle. If you were rich you’d sit in the front seats, close up, and if you were poor you were put way up, far away – so you weren’t very lucky if you were poor back then. The arena was about 2,000 years old. Now they use it for matadors.

We didn’t just see the arena in Arles; we also saw the Roman baths. They were very, very big and they were made of stone. They looked kind of like swimming pools, with fires underneath them, because I don’t think they had any electric heaters. The Romans, when they were having baths, wore nothing at all and the women and men didn’t bath together.