#the Colosseum

[silverskye13]

thinking about tanguish giving helsknight some sort of favor before the colosseum fight.... not sure what he has that would be a good token of his care but yknow. the concept :]

-leechwife anon

Helsknight turns the little copper coin over in his gauntleted hands, trying to be gentle. Trying not to drop it. Tanguish has done him the favor of putting it on a chain, but still. He doesn't want to tarnish it by letting it touch the ground. His heart does funny things when he looks at it, feels its weight in his hand, and he thinks [Gods and Saints, he'd be so pissed if he dropped it.] Not Tanguish of course. Tanguish probably wouldn't know. Helsknight would get angry. At himself. At what it meant.

[The stupid little pest probably doesn't even know what he's given.]

Knights. Favors. Tokens. It was all very chivalrous. Very steeped in Courtly Love and honor and intrigue. It was the kind of thing Welsknight idolized. The kind of thing romantic people thought knights actually did -- the kind of thing only the very showy did in real life. Helsknight didn't do Courtly tournaments. He didn't joust. Well -- not often. And if he's being completely honest, not well either. Chivalry has a lot to do with horses, and there aren't a lot of those in hels. They're not wasted on jousts often.

Still. Helsknight palms this little coin on its little chain, and his heart dances. To win someone's favor, to be given a token of their affection, is to be reminded he isn't fighting for his own glory. His own honor. He is fighting for someone else's. And the crowd is chanting and roaring past the gate. And he is surrounded by a dozen fighters all going through their rituals before the fighting starts. And Helsknight is staring at a coin, the thing Tanguish uses to escape, the most precious thing his little pest owns, the thing they fought the Demon for. The thing the Demon rigged this event for. And he thinks [not for his own honor, but for Tanguish.] And his heart flips again.

What is this? Nerves? Returned affection? Something deeper maybe. A dog being offered something long deprived in exchange for loyalty already inexorably given. A sword that rusts in its sheath feeling a hand rest on its pommel in trust and promise.

A knight given something to fight for, when previously all there was, was himself.

----------

"I uh... For you," Tanguish had stammered when Helsknight was armed and armored, bashfully holding out the trinket like he was ashamed to give it. "I was talking to Red and-- well-- it's-- it's for luck."

He'd dropped it into Helsknight's palm, face stern in that strained way of someone trying desperately to give importance to something they found silly. "Uhm... G-give it back to me when this is over, okay?" He hesitated and amended. "You give it back. No one... No one picking it up for you after-- because--"

Tanguish winced in that way he did when he was avoiding unpleasant thoughts, like they might come alive and bite him. It was a motion that always struck Helsknight as uniquely superstitious. Forbidden words that, once uttered, became prophetic.

"Just get it back to me, okay?"

Helsknight smiled. It was hard not to. Not when someone was being so earnest. He was much better at being earnest about things. It might as well have come with the knighthood. The first tenet of wearing armor and swearing tenets to a god somewhere: take everything far too seriously.

So Helsknight had calmly handed it back and said with as much gravity and gentleness as the situation would allow him. "Would you bestow your favor on me, Fair Sir, that I might fight for your honor?"

Tanguish blinked at him, baffled. "I-I just--"

Then Helsknight knelt and bowed his head, and Tanguish whispered "Oh." in that quiet, startled way he did when he spotted some new and precious stained glass window in a grand church facade. With nimble fingers he slipped the necklace chain around Helsknight's head, and pulled his hair free. The little coin, seated over Helsknight's chest, chimed a delicate bell against his breastplate. Before Tanguish could whisk his hands away, Helsknight reached forward and gently clasped one. He kissed the back of Tanguish's hand, swallowing a chuckle when Tanguish let out a squeak of embarrassed bafflement.

"I accept your favor, and fight for your honor as if it were my own," Helsknight told the back of Tanguish's hand. He stood, Tanguish's hand clasped in both of his now, and leaned in close. "And my heart is glad for the chance to bring your name glory."

Tanguish looked up at him, breathing just a little too quickly, the half-panic of someone who had stumbled on gravity and ceremony, and a depth of emotion, when they had expected none. His eyes were wide with the pale yellow of quiet sunrises in far away places, and the sculk-lights of his freckles glittered in a blush of starlight. Helsknight could have stared like that forever, pinning Tanguish there in a moment of depth and promise that only two people inexorably linked could share. The panic of realizing your fear for someone's safety came from a place so close to your heart, it might even be your own soul.

But Helsknight, by tenet and intention, wasn't allowed to be cruel. So he didn't hold Tanguish in suspense over silly courtly rituals that didn't matter. Instead, he and ruffled Tanguish's hair, and laughed, "And now you know what to do the next time some stupid romance knight strikes your fancy."

Tanguish sputtered his own surprised laugh and shoved Helsknight's hand away, "Oh whatever. Nobody else around here does the knight thing but you."

"Nobody does it as well as me, you mean," Helsknight preened, turning to the mirror to check the drape of his cloak.

"I meant it, Helsknight." Tanguish said, his voice suddenly sober. Helsknight could see Tanguish watching him in the mirror, the hand Helsknight had kissed clasped in the other, like he could trap the sensation there. "Don't die."

"I won't die," Helsknight said, trying to sound serious, but finding the request a little ridiculous in spite of himself. "I haven't lost yet. I don't intend to lose anytime soon."

"I don't think intentions mean much, in the Colosseum."

"Intentions mean everything in the Colosseum," Helsknight corrected, tying his hair back in a quick ponytail. "And I intend to win. Saint willing."

----------

Helsknight sits on a bench just outside the gate, and turns Tanguish's coin in his hand one more time. In the stands, in one of the boxes for honored guests, Tanguish is sitting alone, waiting for the world to turn around Helsknight's next fight. The knight smirks, and drops the chain behind his breastplate where the coin will stay safe. He feels the weight of expectation, of one person among thousands who desperately wants him to win. It is heavy as a cross, and light as angels' wings. Somewhere else the Demon sits, prideful in his perfect trap, expecting Helsknight to lose -- to humiliate him, to prove he's powerful, to prove Tanguish's little resistance means nothing. It doesn't bother Helsknight to know he is a piece in someone else's game. That has always been what the knight is for.

Helsknight wonders again if Tanguish knew what he was doing. If he knew what tokens meant, what favor truly was. If he knew about giving a Champion his honor to fight for, if he knew what that would mean in a fight against the Demon, who hates him so much. Who rigged this match just to spite him, to prove Helsknight can't protect him.

"Saint willing or not," Helsknight vows quietly, "I'll win."

And he stands and draws his sword.

[missladym1981]

The Colosseum. This took about 3 days to do because the details killed my hands🤣 I needed breaks. I wanted to be as precise as possible and I am shit at drawing buildings. I am pleased either way.

[travelella]

The Colosseum, Rome, Italy

Linda Gerbec

[alberta-sunrise]

I love Rome ♥️

[proserpnias]

"It is because we enter into the meditations, designs, and destinies of something beyond ourselves that the contemplation of the ruins of human power excites an elevating sense of awfulness and beauty. It is therefore that the ocean, the glacier, the cataract, the tempest, the volcano have each a spirit which animates the extremities of our frame with tingling joy. It is therefore that the singing of birds, and the motion of leaves, the sensation of the odorous earth beneath, and the freshness of the living wind around is sweet. And this is Love. This is the religion of eternity, whose votaries have been exiled from among the multitude of mankind. O Power!"

Percy Bysshe Shelley, "The Colosseum" (1818)

[have-you-been-here]

The Colosseum, Rome, Italy

[innervoiceartblog]

(via Rome Comes to Life in Photochrom Color Photos Taken in 1890: The Colosseum, Trevi Fountain & More | Open Culture)

[blueiscoool]

Roman Concrete: Mystery of Why Roman Buildings Have Survived so long has been Unraveled

The majestic structures of ancient Rome have survived for millennia — a testament to the ingenuity of Roman engineers, who perfected the use of concrete.

But how did their construction materials help keep colossal buildings like the Pantheon (which has the world's largest unreinforced dome) and the Colosseum standing for more than 2,000 years?

Roman concrete, in many cases, has proven to be longer-lasting than its modern equivalent, which can deteriorate within decades. Now, scientists behind a new study say they have uncovered the mystery ingredient that allowed the Romans to make their construction material so durable and build elaborate structures in challenging places such as docks, sewers and earthquake zones.

The study team, including researchers from the United States, Italy and Switzerland, analyzed 2,000-year-old concrete samples that were taken from a city wall at the archaeological site of Privernum, in central Italy, and are similar in composition to other concrete found throughout the Roman Empire.

They found that white chunks in the concrete, referred to as lime clasts, gave the concrete the ability to heal cracks that formed over time. The white chunks previously had been overlooked as evidence of sloppy mixing or poor-quality raw material.

"For me, it was really difficult to believe that ancient Roman (engineers) would not do a good job because they really made careful effort when choosing and processing materials," said study author Admir Masic, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"Scholars wrote down precise recipes and imposed them on construction sites (across the Roman Empire)," Masic added.

The new finding could help make manufacturing today's concrete more sustainable, potentially shaking up society as the Romans once did. "Concrete allowed the Romans to have an architectural revolution," Masic said. "Romans were able to create and turn the cities into something that is extraordinary and beautiful to live in. And that revolution basically changed completely the way humans live." Lime clasts and concrete's durability

Concrete is essentially artificial stone or rock, formed by mixing cement, a binding agent typically made from limestone, water, fine aggregate (sand or finely crushed rock ) and coarse aggregate (gravel or crushed rock).

Roman texts had suggested the use of slaked lime (when lime is first combined with water before being mixed) in the binding agent, and that's why scholars had assumed that this was how Roman concrete was made, Masic said.

With further study, the researchers concluded that lime clasts arose because of the use of quicklime (calcium oxide) — the most reactive, and dangerous, dry form of limestone — when mixing the concrete, rather than or in addition to slaked lime.

Additional analysis of the concrete showed that the lime clasts formed at extreme temperatures expected from the use of quicklime, and "hot mixing" was key to the concrete's durable nature.

The benefits of hot mixing are twofold," Masic said in a news release. "First, when the overall concrete is heated to high temperatures, it allows chemistries that are not possible if you only used slaked lime, producing high-temperature-associated compounds that would not otherwise form. Second, this increased temperature significantly reduces curing and setting times since all the reactions are accelerated, allowing for much faster construction."

To investigate whether the lime clasts were responsible for Roman concrete's apparent ability to repair itself, the team conducted an experiment.

They made two samples of concrete, one following Roman formulations and the other made to modern standards, and deliberately cracked them. After two weeks, water could not flow through the concrete made with a Roman recipe, whereas it passed right through the chunk of concrete made without quicklime.

Their findings suggest that the lime clasts can dissolve into cracks and recrystallize after exposure to water, healing cracks created by weathering before they spread. The researchers said this self-healing potential could pave the way to producing more long-lasting, and thus more sustainable, modern concrete. Such a move would reduce concrete's carbon footprint, which accounts for up to 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the study.

For many years, researchers had thought that volcanic ash from the area of Pozzuoli, on the Bay of Naples, was what made Roman concrete so strong. This kind of ash was transported across the vast Roman empire to be used in construction, and was described as a key ingredient for concrete in accounts by architects and historians at the time.

Masic said that both components are important, but lime was overlooked in the past.

The research was published in the journal Science Advances.

By Katie Hunt.

[you-need-not-apply]

Ok this was a fucking experience

[random-jot]

I don’t think I will never get used to the real spelling of coliseum being that

[marcelskittels]

A general view of the peloton passing The Colosseum during the 106th Giro d'Italia 2023, Stage 21 a 126km stage from Roma to Roma on May 28, 2023 in Rome, Italy. (Photos by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)

[tomoleary]

William Timlin (1892-1943) “The Colosseum” (1932)

Source

[thewildbelladonna]

Stevie performing at The Colosseum at Caesers Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada, May 10th, 2005.

[travelella]

Colosseum, Rome, Italy

sander traa

[alberta-sunrise]

History dump

[bonerdonorxxx44]

Colosseum From Above - Rome, Italy