@askrafiki's thread

4/5 🧵 The darkest section is underground in the hypogeum. The article argues victorious gladiators may have been granted access to female captives as part of the “privileges of the victor.” To support that, it points to small stone chambers found beneath amphitheaters, iron rings, fixed chains, benches, and inscriptions scratched into walls—presented here as evidence of purpose-built spaces for systematic abuse. That’s the article’s central horror: not random violence, but architecture designed around it.