ROME – Ever wonder what a gladiator fight looked like from the front row of the Colosseum?

“Rewind Rome,” a 3-D simulation presented Thursday in a theater a few steps from the ruined arena, will offer visitors the chance to experience daily life in the ancient capital.

Virtual tourists will see the simulation on a giant screen and animated characters will guide them through the streets of Rome as they appeared in A.D. 310.

The show opens to the public Nov. 20, with earphones available in eight languages. It is based on a simulation created by experts at the University of California in Los Angeles.

Some of the reconstructed monuments include the Forum, ancient Rome’s center of power, and the temple of Vesta, where visitors will spy on a secret rite dedicated to the pagan goddess.

While the setting is based on archaeological evidence, commercial developers jazzed up the simulation by adding characters such as the Emperor Maxentius, who governed Rome at the time, and a host of lions and gladiators battling to the death at the Colosseum.