NOVA
Season 42 Episode 14 - Colosseum: Roman Death Trap
One of the ancient world's most iconic buildings, the Colosseum is a monument to Roman imperial power and cruelty. Its graceful lines and harmonious proportions concealed a highly efficient design and advanced construction methods that made hundreds of arches out of 100,000 tons of stone. In its elliptical arena, tens of thousands of gladiators, slaves, prisoners, and wild animals met their deaths. Ancient texts report lions and elephants emerging from beneath the floor, as if by magic, to ravage gladiators and people condemned to death. Then, just as quickly, the Colosseum could be flooded with so much water that ships could engage in sea battles to the delight of the crowd. Now, archaeologists and engineers are teaming up to recreate a 25-foot lifting machine and trap door system capable of releasing a wolf into the Colosseum's arena for the first time in 1,500 years. Do they have what it takes to replicate the innovation and ingenuity of the Romans?
Episodes in Season 42
Vaccines Calling the Shots
55 min
Rise of the Hackers
55 min
Why Planes Vanish
55 min
Surviving Ebola
55 min
Ben Franklin's Balloons
55 min
First Air War
55 min
Bigger Than T. rex
55 min
Emperor’s Ghost Army
55 min
Killer Landslides
55 min
First Man on the Moon
55 min
Big Bang Machine
55 min
Sunken Ship Rescue
55 min
Sinkholes—Buried Alive
55 min
Colosseum: Roman Death Trap
55 min
Petra: Lost City of Stone
55 min
Hagia Sophia: Istanbul’s Ancient Mystery
55 min
The Great Math Mystery
55 min
Invisible Universe Revealed
55 min
Nazi Attack on America
55 min
Lethal Seas
55 min
Chasing Pluto
55 min
Nuclear Meltdown Disaster
55 min
