In Rome two buildings typify the social changes that occurred in the centuries after the Death of Christ. The first is the Colosseum.
The Colosseum was started in 72 AD and completed in 9 years, built by 60,000 Jewish slaves and funded by the spoils of war. When completed it held 55,000 spectators, who could be moved in or out of the Stadium in 20 minutes . They were admitted for free and fed while watching the performances for nothing. At this time of Empire, social stability was paid for with bread and circuses and the blood of the 400,000 people who died in the 390 years it was open for entertainment.
Photographs taken inside the stadium do not give any idea of the huge scale of the building, but the cross section with human figures gives a better perspective.
The second building is the Temple of Mars, now known as the Parthenon.
Built in the century before Christ it was a place to worship many Gods (that is the meaning of the word Parthenon in Greek) but especially Mars and Venus. When most of the ancient buildings in Rome were destroyed, this one survived because it was donated to the Church in 609 AD, stripped of the ancient idols and rededicated as a Church. It continues to function as a working church today, services were being held, amongst hundreds of tourists, when the image was taken.
There are only two sources of natural light in the building -through the opening of the massive Bronze doors and through the oculus (hole) in the centre of the dome which allows light to make striking patterns on the walls and floors of porphyry, granite and yellow marbles.