Fortunino Matania - A Naumachia Battle in the Colosseum

Very cool piece by a great artist

That's great creativity and imagination with how elaborate the ships are designed and placed somehow in the arena!  Like a gladiator demolition derby.  Fantastic painting that looks like it came from a history text.

These things happened in Rome, more and more elaborate and terrible. Life was cheap. Yes this was used in an historical article. My first encounter with the work of Matania was buying the book on the Roman games called "Those About to Die" by Daniel Mannix in the 1980s. The book featured an incredible wraparound cover by him.