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A Gladiator ("swordsman", from , "sword") was a slave, criminal or professional fighter in ancient Rome. Gladiators fought other gladiators, wild animals and condemned criminals, sometimes to the death, for the entertainment of spectators in cities and towns of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, from the 3rd century BCE to the 5th century CE. At their peak, from the 1st century BCE to the 2nd century CE, they were an essential feature of Roman culture and could achieve the status of popular heroes.
Origins
Classical literary sources seldom agree on the origins of gladiators and the gladiator games.
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A Gladiator ("swordsman", from , "sword") was a slave, criminal or professional fighter in ancient Rome. Gladiators fought other gladiators, wild animals and condemned criminals, sometimes to the death, for the entertainment of spectators in cities and towns of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, from the 3rd century BCE to the 5th century CE. At their peak, from the 1st century BCE to the 2nd century CE, they were an essential feature of Roman culture and could achieve the status of popular heroes.
Origins
Classical literary sources seldom agree on the origins of gladiators and the gladiator games. In the late 1st century BCE Nicolaus of Damascus believed their source was Etruscan but cited Posidonius's support for a Celtic origin and Hermippus' for a Mantinean (and therefore Greek) origin. A generation later, Livy(9.40.17) wrote that the first gladiator games were held in 310 BCE by the Campanians in celebration of their victory over the Samnites. Long after the games had ceased, the 7th century CE post-classical etymologist Isidore of Seville derived Latin lanista (manager of gladiators) from the Etruscan for "executioner,", and the title of Charon (an official who accompanied the dead from the Roman gladiatorial arena) from Charun, psychopomp of the Etruscan underworld. Some gladiatorial terms and practices of the later Republic may well come from Etruria (the same can said for much in Roman culture). The Etruscan theory has predominated in standard histories up to the present day.
Reappraisal of literary and archaeological evidence leads many modern historians to support a Campanian origin - or at least a borrowing. The earliest known Roman gladiator schools were in Campania; and tomb frescoes from Paestum (4th century BCE) show paired fighters, with helmets, spears and shields, in a propitiary funeral blood-rite which appears to anticipate later accounts of early Roman gladiator games. Compared to these images, supporting evidence from Etruscan tomb-paintings is tentative and late. The Paestum frescoes may represent the continuation of a much older tradition, acquired or inherited from Greek colonists of the 8th century BCE.
Livy (Summary 16) dates the earliest Roman gladiator games to 264 BCE, in the early stages of Rome's First Punic War against Carthage, when Decimus Iunius Brutus Scaeva had three gladiator pairs fight to the death in Rome's 'cattle market' Forum (Forum Boarium) to honour his dead father, Brutus Pera. This is described as munus (plural munera): a duty owed a dead ancestor by his descendants to keep alive his memory The gladiator type used (according to a single, later source), was Thracian. but Samnian support for Hannibal in this war and subsequent punitive expeditions by Rome and her Campanian allies strongly influenced the development of gladiator types and culture. The early gladiator type most frequently mentioned in Roman histories is the Samnite.
The war in Samnium, immediately afterwards, was attended with equal danger and an equally glorious conclusion. The enemy, besides their other warlike preparation, had made their battle-line to glitter with new and splendid arms. There were two corps: the shields of the one were inlaid with gold, of the other with silver... The Romans had already heard of these splendid accoutrements, but their generals had taught them that a soldier should be rough to look on, not adorned with gold and silver but putting his trust in iron and in courage... The Dictator, as decreed by the senate, celebrated a triumph, in which by far the finest show was afforded by the captured armour. So the Romans made use of the splendid armour of their enemies to do honour to their gods; while the Campanians, in consequence of their pride and in hatred of the Samnites, equipped after this fashion the gladiators who furnished them entertainment at their feasts, and bestowed on the the name Samnites. (Livy 9.40)
Livy's account may be embellished history, but its substance underlines the theatrical ethos of the gladiator show: splendidly, exotically armed and armoured barbarians, treacherous and degenerate, are dominated by Roman iron and native courage. His plain Romans virtuously dedicate the magnificent spoils to the Gods. Their Campanian allies put on a gruesome dinner entertainment using gladiators who may not even be Samnites, but play the Samnite role. Other groups and tribes would join the cast list as Roman territories expanded. Most gladiators were armed and armoured in the manner of the enemies of Rome. The Roman gladiator games were in this respect a form of historic enactment, the only honourable option for the gladiator being to fight well, or else die well.
Development
In 216 BCE Marcus Ameilius Lepidus, who had been consul and augur, was honoured by his three sons with three days of gladiatorial munera in the Forum Romanum, featuring twenty two pairs of gladiators (Livy 23.30.15): the Aemilii Lepidii were one of the most important families in Rome at the time, and probably owned a gladiator school (ludus).. Ten years later, Scipio Africanus gave a commemorative munus in Iberia, using free-born non-Roman volunteers as gladiators. The context of the Punic Wars and Rome's near-disastrous defeat at Cannae (216BCE) link these games to munificence, the celebration of military victory and the expiation of military disaster. The early munera, therefore seem to have served an underlying social and political morale-raising agenda in an era of military threat and expansion. The munera became increasingly extravagant. In 183 BCE, there were 3 days of funeral games, with 120 gladiators and public distribution of meat (visceratio data), at the funeral of Publius Licinius (Livy 39.46.2), a practice reflected on a smaller scale in those gladiatorial fights at Campanian banquets described by Livy and deplored by Silius Italicus.
The enthusiastic adoption of gladiator munera by Rome's Iberian allies shows how easily, and how early, the culture of the gladiator munus permeated places far from Rome itself. In Rome, by 174BCE 'small' gladiatorial shows (private or public), provided by an editor of relatively low importance, may have been so commonplace and unremarkable they were not considered worth recording, as Livy's account suggests:
Many gladiatorial games were given in that year, some unimportant, one noteworthy beyond the rest - that of Titus Flaminius which he gave to commemorate the death of his father, which lasted four days, and was accompanied by a public distribution of meats, a banquet, and scenic performances. The climax of the show which was big for the time was that in three days seventy four gladiators fought..
Gladiators were becoming big business for trainers, owners, politicians on the make and politicians who had already reached the top. In 105 BCE, the ruling consuls offered Rome its first taste of state-sponsored "barbarian combat" demonstrated by "Samnite", "Thracian," and "Gaulish" gladiators from Capua, as part of a training program for the military. It proved immensely popular. The ludi (state games), organised by the ruling elite and dedicated to the numen of a deity such as Jupiter, a divine or heroic ancestor (and later, during the Imperium, the Emperor), could now compete with privately funded munera for popular support.
Peak
By the closing years of the politically and socially unstable Late Republic, gladiator games offered extravagantly expensive but effective opportunities for their sponsors, and cheap, exciting entertainment for their clients, in towns and cities throughout the empire. Those in power, and those seeking it, needed the support of the largely plebian populace, or rather, their tribunes. Personal reputation demanded that each munus was more lavish and costly than the last. Votes might be had with an exceptionally spectacular show, or even the promise of one. Sulla, during his term as praetor, showed his usual acumen in giving the most lavish munus yet seen in Rome, on occasion of his wife's funeral.
Ownership of gladiators or a gladiator school gave muscle, flair and sometimes terror to Roman political arts. In 65 BCE, newly elected curule aedile Julius Caesar laid on a public display in Rome of three hundred and twenty gladiator pairs - in silvered armour - on the twentieth anniversary of his father's death. Despite his enormous personal debt, he had wanted more, but the nervous Senate, mindful of the recent Spartacus revolt and fearful of Caesar's burgeoning private armies, imposed a limit of 320 pairs as the maximum number of gladiators a citizen could keep in Rome.This display was unprecedented not only in scale and expense, but Caesar had put aside a Republican tradition of personally funded gladiatorial munera as a funeral offering. The practical differences between ludi and munera were beginning to blur.
Gladiatorial games, usually linked with beast shows, spread throughout the Empireand beyond. Following Caesar's assassination and the civil war, Augustus assumed Imperial authority over the ludi, whose provision was formalised as a political, civil and religious duty. Augustus' sumptuary laws regulated the cost of gladiators and expenditure on gladiatorial performances, claiming to save the Roman elite from the bankruptcies they would otherwise suffer. An "economical" show by a Praetor cost around 25,000 denarii (Martial 10:41) and a "generous" show (Polybius 31.28.6) no less than 180,000 denarii ($3.6 million). Gladiatorial munera within ludi were restricted to Saturnalia and the Spring celebration of Quinquatria. The privately sponsored munus was demoted; each required senatorial (therefore ultimately Imperial) approval, and was limited to 120 gladiators (Dio 54.2.3-4). Throughout the Empire, the most lavish and celebrated games would now be identified with the state-sponsored Imperial cult, which furthered public recognition, respect and approval for the Emperor, his law, and his agents. Between 108 and 109 CE, Trajan celebrated his Dacian victories using a reported 10,000 gladiators (and 11,000 animals) over 123 days (Dio Cassius 68.15). By 177CE, the cost of gladiators and munera continued to spiral out of control. Legislation by Marcus Aurelius did little to stop it.
Outline of the games
A few contemporary accounts of specific games and matches survive: almost all were written by members of Rome's elite, to illustrate a point or to celebrate the exceptional. They provide little substance for accurate reconstruction or generalisation. The outline of later games can be partially reconstructed, using written histories, contemporary accounts, statuary and memorabilia, and pictographic evidence, but almost all comes from the late republic and Empire, and much of it from Pompeii.
The earliest munera may have taken place at or near the tomb of the deceased, personally organised by their munerator (who made the offering). Later games were held by an editor, either identical with the munerator or an official employed by him. As time passed these titles and meanings may have merged. In the Imperial era, private citizens could personally fund gladiatorial munera with Imperial permission and the assistance of a contractor (lanista). In Imperial times an editor tended to be a state official; for small-town games, from Claudius onwards, quaestors, the lowest rank of Roman magistrate, were obliged to fund two thirds of the costs. Bigger games were put on by senior magistrates, who could better afford them, but the largest and most lavish were paid for by the Emperor himself.
Early Augustan legislation standardised the munus as a munus legitimium. This combined venationes (animal fights or animal hunts) in the morning: the brief Ludi meridiani at midday and gladiatores in the afternoon.
Games were advertised beforehand, by word of mouth and by conspicuously placed billboards, giving the reason for the game, its editor, venue and date, the number of paired gladiators to be used, features such as venationes, executions, music, and any luxuries to be provided for the spectators. In warm weather, these might include a decorated awning against the sun and sometimes water sprinklers; food, drink, sweets and occasionally "door prizes" could be given.
For the gladiatorial contests, a more detailed program (libellus) would be prepared in advance. It usually showed the names, types and match records of gladiator pairs (of interest to gamblers), and order of appearance. Copies would be distributed among the crowd on the day of the match, and match results added afterwards.
The night before the munus, those listed to fight would receive a banquet, which was also an opportunity to order their personal and private affairs.. These were probably both family and public events.
The day of the munus began with venationes, in which bestiari (beast fighting) gladiators might be involved.
The ludi meridiani appear to have been variable in content. There could be executions of those condemned to the arena. Gladiators may have been involved in these, though the crowd (and the gladiators themselves) preferred an even contest. A crude Pompeian graffito suggests a burlesque of musicians, dressed as animals named Ursus tibicen (flute-playing bear) and Pullus cornicen (horn-blowing chicken), perhaps as accompaniment to clowning by paegniarii during a mock contest of the ludi meridiani.
A Pompeian tomb relief provides dramatic evidence of the munus as a civic and religious rite. It began with a procession into the arena, led by the lictors, whose fasces signified the editor’s power over life and death: then a small band of tubicines, playing a fanfare. Next came men shouldering images of gods, then two more, one a scribe, the other carrying a palm branch (to honour the victors). Then came the editor, among a retinue who carried the arms and armour of the gladiators; more musicians followed, then horses. Last in were (presumably) the gladiators.
It is likely that "warm-up" matches were fought before the main events, possibly with blunted weapons. After this, the editor would check the weapons (probatio armorum) and the "real" matches would be fought.
Ticket scalpers or touts (Locarii) sometimes bought up seats and sold them on at inflated prices (compare with the practice railed at by Gaius Gracchus). Martial in his Epigrams wrote "Hermes divitiae locariorum," or “Hermes [a famous gladiator] means riches for the ticket scalpers.
The Zilten mosaic in Libya (ca 80-100 CE) shows musicians in context of a ludus (gladiators, bestiari, or venatores and prisoners attacked by beasts). The instruments shown are a long straight trumpet (tubicen), a large curved horn (Cornu), and a water organ (hydraulis).. Similar representations (musicians, gladiators and bestiari) are found on a tomb relief in Pompeii.
Popular factions of the munera (or ludi) are described in literature of the Imperial period. Under Augustan legislation, the Samnite type was renamed secutor (oblong or "large" shield), whose supporters were secutarii.. As the games evolved, any lightly armed, defensive fighter could be included in this group. The heavily armoured and armed Thracian types (Thraex) and Murmillo, who fought with smaller shields, were collectively designated (and supported by) parmularii (small shield). Nero seems to have enjoyed brawls between the factions, but called in the troops if they went too far.
Spectators also had local rivalries. During games at Pompeii, Pompeians and spectators from Nuceria traded insults, which led to stone throwing and riot. Many were killed or wounded. Nero banned gladiator munerae (though not the games) at Pompeii for ten years. The story is told in graffiti and high quality painting on the walls of Pompeii, with much boasting of Pompeii's "victory" over Nuceria.
Amphitheatres
Most spectators would have witnessed gladiator combats in the arenas or amphitheatres built throughout the Republic and later, the Empire. The earliest arenas were surrounded by a temporary or permanent fence or palisade. Early munera were probably relatively private affairs, and offered limited visibility for spectators. As these events became larger, open spaces such as the Forum Romanum were adapted (as the Forum Boarium had been) as venues in Rome and elsewhere, with temporary, elevated seating for the patron and high status spectators. These were not truly public events:
A show of gladiators was to be exhibited before the people in the market-place, and most of the magistrates erected scaffolds round about, with an intention of letting them for advantage. Caius commanded them to take down their scaffolds, that the poor people might see the sport without paying anything. But nobody obeying these orders of his, he gathered together a body of labourers, who worked for him, and overthrew all the scaffolds the very night before the contest was to take place. So that by the next morning the market-place was cleared, and the common people had an opportunity of seeing the pastime. In this, the populace thought he had acted the part of a man; but he much disobliged the tribunes his colleagues, who regarded it as a piece of violent and presumptuous interference.
Towards the end of the Republic, Cicero (Murena 72-3) still describes these shows as ticketed: their usefulness was served by inviting the rural tribunes of the plebs, not the people of Rome en masse.
Amphitheatres allowed spectators and the patron of the game to see, and - just as importantly - to be seen. The amphitheatre was the one place in which Romans of all degrees could gather so most sentences were carried out there, uniquely visible to all classes. It was also one of the few places in which crowd and editor could assess each other’s character and temperament, and express pleasure or displeasure – for most spectators, this was a unique opportunity (theatralis licentia). Petitions were sometimes submitted there, in full view of the crowd; so again, the process of justice might be witnessed. Factiones and claques could vent their spleen on each other (and occasionally on Emperors). A measure of the enormous popularity of Titus was the apparent ease with which he could manage the crowd and its factions at the amphitheatre. The amphitheatre and its function served the Roman community in miniature.
Permanent amphitheatres were built quite late in the Republic. The earliest in Rome was commissioned by T. Statilius Taurus and inaugurated in 29-30 BCE, in time for the triple triumph of Octavian (later Augustus). .
Early Imperial amphitheaters could be rickety, wooden affairs. In the reign of Tiberius, a wooden amphitheater collapsed killing twenty thousand (Suetonius Lives Tiberius 40. Tacitus estimates 50,000 "maimed or crushed to death"). At games given by Augustus to honour his grandsons, spectators panicked in fear of imminent collapse of the amphitheatre stands. Unable to calm them, Augustus left his own seat and sat in the section most likely to fail (Suetonius XLIII). The most celebrated wooden amphitheatre was the extraordinary Amphitheatre of Gaius Scribonius Curio, built in the waning years of the republic. It hosted occasional gladiator matches.
Seating in amphitheatres was originally "disorderly and indiscriminate" until Augustus prescribed the seating arrangements in his Social Reforms, expressing his distress on behalf of a Senator who could not find seating at a crowded games in Puteoli, in order to persuade the Senate.
In consequence of this the senate decreed that, whenever any public show was given anywhere, the first row of seats should be reserved for senators; and at Rome he would not allow the envoys of the free and allied nations to sit in the orchestra, since he was informed that even freedmen were sometimes appointed. He separated the soldiery from the people. He assigned special seats to the married men of the commons, to boys under age their own section and the adjoining one to their preceptors; and he decreed that no one wearing a dark cloak should sit in the middle of the house. He would not allow women to view even the gladiators except from the upper seats, though it had been the custom for men and women to sit together at such shows. Only the Vestal virgins were assigned a place to themselves, opposite the praetor's tribunal
In AD 70 Vespasian made plans for the Amphitheatrum Flavium (The Colosseum), the largest in the Empire, with seating for 50,000 spectators. It was inaugurated in 80 CE, the personal gift of the Emperor to the people of Rome, paid for by his personal share of booty after the Jewish Revolt.
The Stone Pine, a conifer native to the Iberian Peninsula, was often planted near provincial amphitheatres and the aromatic pine-cones heated in tazze to mask the smell of the arena.
Life as a gladiator
Origins
The earliest gladiators may have been Samnite prisoners of war, other captives armed as Samnites, or (more tentatively) Thracian prisoners of war. Prisoners of war naturally tended to be soldiers who had surrendered or had allowed their own capture. The granting of slave status to such was regarded by Rome as an unmerited gift of life, and the gladiatorial munus as a chance for these abject, disgraced slaves to regain their honour.; Military success produced an influx of prisoners of war. These were redistributed for use in Republican, and later Imperial mines or amphitheatres, or sold to lanistas or schools on the open market.
Other sources were those condemned to gladiator schools (ad ludum gladiatorium). By the late republic, approximately half of all gladiators could have been auctoratii (or "volunteers" - see legal and social status). This had a precedent in the munus of Scipio Africanus in Spain. His gladiators were all enthusiastic volunteers, and included the sons of prominent non-Roman allies and local chieftains.. In the Eastern Empire, Sisinnes fought as a gladiator to earn money to buy a friend's freedom. Poor citizens without a trade might teach (if literate), or enlist with the military for up to a twenty five year term. If suited, they could enroll in a gladiatorial school, with a chance of fame and fortune if they survived. Gladiators kept their prize money; Titus offered a freed auctoratus 1,000 gold aurei for a single match. In the waning days of the republic, the auctoratii effectively sold themselves into slavery for an agreed period.
Gladiator types were often patterned on the weapons and armour of Rome's conquered foes. Ethnic Gauls, Thracians, and Samnites sometimes fought as that gladiator type. Surviving gladiator memorials usually give details of ethnic origins. After Judea was conqured, there was a large increase in the number of Jewish gladiators as Titus and Vespasian sentenced Jewish rebels and criminals to gladiatorial schools.
Left-handed gladiators were a popular and rare novelty, and their fights advertised as a special event. Mentions of left-handedness on gravestones have been found.
Training
Estimates hold that there were more than 100 gladiator schools (ludi) throughout the empire. The early schools were owned and run as private concerns, but following the Spartacus Revolt, rapid legislation restricted their siting and strength. Following the chaos of civil war and the establishment of the Principate, they came under more direct Imperial control, though this seems to have proceeded gradually and piecemeal.
Two of the more famous were the school in Capua where Spartacus was trained and the school in Pompeii that was buried in the 79 CE eruption of Vesuvius. One of the largest was based in Ravenna. There were four schools in Rome; the Ludus Magnus (the most important), Ludus Dacicus, Ludus Gallicus, and the Ludus Matutinus, which trained bestiarii (gladiators dealing with animals) and came under Imperial control in Domitian's reign. The schools had barracks for the gladiators with small cells and a large training ground. The most impressive had seating for spectators to watch the men train and some even had boxes for the emperor.
Upon entering a gladiator school, prospective gladiators (novicius) swore an oath (sacramentum) giving their lives to the gods of the underworld and vowing to accept, without protest, humiliation by any means. Volunteers also signed a contract (auctoramentum) with a gladiator manager (lanista) stating how often they were to perform, which weapons they would use, and how much they would earn. Prospectives also underwent a physical examination by a doctor to determine if they were physically capable of the rigorous training and aesthetically pleasing. Once accepted, the novicius usually had his debts forgiven and was given a signing fee. For as long as he was a gladiator he was well fed and received high quality medical care. Overall, gladiators were united as members of a familia gladiatoria and were subordinated to the prestige of the school. They also joined unions (collegia) formed to ensure proper burials for fallen members and compensation for their families.
As a rule, gladiators, slaves and criminals had tattoos (stigma) applied as an identifying mark on the face, legs and hands (legionnaires were also tattooed, but only on their hands). This practice continued until the emperor Constantine banned facial stigma by decree in AD 325.
Being a Lanista was a very lucrative business. Cicero wrote that his friend Atticus might recover his entire investment in a gladiator troupe after two performances. Socially, a professional Lanista ranked with a pimp; but an amateur Lanista of good family and independent means was not stigmatised at all.
Training was conducted under the lanistii and involved the learning of a series of numbers, which were broken into various phases, much as a play is a series of acts broken into scenes. Sometimes fans complained that a gladiator fought too “mechanically” when he followed the “numbers” too closely. Gladiators would even be taught how to die correctly. Each type of gladiator had its own teacher; doctore secutorum, doctore thracicum, etc. Although gladiators in times of need helped train legionaries, they were not usually good soldiers themselves as a result of this choreographed style of training. Within a given ludus there was a competitive hierarchy of grades (paloi) through which individuals were promoted. They trained using two-meter poles (palus) buried in the ground. The levels were named for the training pole and were primus palus, secundus palus, and so on. It was also rare for a novicius to train in more than one gladiatorial style. Once a gladiator had finished training, but had not yet fought in an arena, he was called a tiro.
Research on the remains of seventy Murmillos and Retiarii gladiators at Ephesus has shown that gladiators were probably overweight and ate a high energy vegetarian diet consisting primarily of barley, beans, and dried fruit. Fabian Kanz of the Austrian Archaeological Institute believed gladiators had "cultivated layers of fat to protect their vital organs from the cutting blows of their opponents". Gladiators were sometimes known as hordearii ("eaters of barley)" Although considered an inferior grain to wheat (a punishment for Legionaries was to replace their wheat ration with barley), gladiators probably preferred it as Romans believed that barley contributed to strength and covered the arteries with a layer of fat which helped to reduce bleeding. Other findings from the research suggest that gladiators fought barefoot.
Combat
An average game had between ten and thirteen pairs (Ordinarii) of gladiators, with a single bout lasting between ten and fifteen minutes. They were usually of differing types. However, sponsor or audience could request other combinations like several gladiators fighting together (Catervarii) or specific gladiators against each other. Sometimes a lanista had to rely on substitutes (supposititii) if the requested gladiator was already dead or incapacitated. The Emperor could have his own gladiators (Fiscales).
Matches sine missione (without release) were fought to the death. Although already a rare event, Augustus outlawed “sine missiones” due to the expense of compensating their owners (Lanistas) but they were later reintroduced. If a gladiator was killed it was normal practice for the games sponsor to pay compensation to the Lanista of up to 100 times the gladiator's value. According to Polybius, compensation for Gladiators who died could double the cost of the entire games.
A gladiator could acknowledge defeat by raising a finger (ad digitum). The referee would then step in, stopping the combat, and refer for decision to the sponsor (munerarius or editor). The decision would rest with what most pleased the crowd.
The figure of a referee is frequently depicted on mosaics as standing in the background, sometimes accompanied by an assistant and carrying a staff with which to hold back a gladiator after his opponent signified submission. Contests were fought with fixed rules. From Roman mosaics, and surviving skeletons it can be determined that gladiators primarily aimed for the head and the major arteries under the arm and behind the knee.
Professional gladiators received a fee for each combat. Victors received from the editora palm branch and an award, usually in gold (in the form of small artifacts or money). They might also receive money collected from an appreciative crowd, and a laurel crown for an outstanding performance. The victor then ran (if able to) around the perimeter of the amphitheatre, waving the palm. Gladiators were allowed to keep any money or gold they received as a prize. The ultimate prize awarded to gladiators was a permanent discharge from the obligation to fight, symbolised by the gift of a wooden sword (rudis) by the editor. Martial describes a famous match between two gladiators, named Priscus and Verus, who fought so evenly and bravely for so long that when they both acknowledged defeat at the same instant, the Emperor Titus awarded victory and a rudis to each. Gladiators (including those sentenced as criminals to the arena) could earn their freedom if they fought well enough to survive three to five years of combat. A gladiator who fought particularly well might win the rudis earlier through special dispensation by the editor. An exceptional and famous Secutor nicknamed Flamma was awarded the rudis four times, but chose to remain a gladiator, and survived until his 34th fight. Flamma's gravestone in Sicily is particularly informative as it includes his record: "Flamma, secutor, lived 30 years, fought 34 times, won 21 times, fought to a draw 9 times, defeated 4 times, a Syria
"Once a band of five retiarii in tunics, matched against the same number of secutores, yielded without a struggle; but when their death was ordered, one of them caught up his trident and slew all the victors. Caligula bewailed this in a public proclamation as a most cruel murder."
Martial describes the fate of a losing gladiator, once the crowd had given the signal for him to be killed. With one knee on the ground, the loser grasped the thigh of the victor, who, while holding the helmet or head of his opponent, plunged his sword into his neck or cut his throat depending on his weapon. Gladiator remains found at Ephesus confirmed this a common method. Marks on the bones of several suggested that in each case a sword was thrust into the base of the throat in a downward direction, which would have pierced the heart. To die well, a gladiator should never ask for mercy, nor cry out. Archaeologically reconstructed bouts suggest that gladiators' fighting styles were formal and disciplined, tending not to inflict the random mutilations expected from battlefield violence. A living but mortally wounded gladiator whom the crowd had spared was taken from the arena to be executed "humanely" with a hammer on the forehead, in private.
After the death of a gladiator in combat, two attendants impersonating Charon (ferryman of Hades) and Mercury (messenger to the gods) would approach the body. Charon would strike the body with a mallet and Hermes would then prod the body with a hot poker disguised as a wand to see whether the gladiator was really dead or not. In the larger games, the corpse was then placed on a "Couch of Libitina" by bearers (libitinarii), and taken from the arena through the Libitinarian Gate. Victors left via the Porta Triumphalis, and losers via the Porta Sanavivaria. In lesser games, the libitinarii often used hooks to drag the body. Attendants then spread a fresh layer of sand to soak up the blood. Libitina was the goddess of funerals. After stripping the armour, the gladiator's body was then taken to a nearby morgue (spoliarium) where by custom, as final proof the fight was not "fixed", officials slit the man's throat to ensure that he was truly dead.
Gladiators rarely lived past age 30 unless they were particularly outstanding and accomplished victors, but at a time when around fifty percent of Roman citizens died, from all causes, before age 25, this indicates that gladiators in fact tended to live longer than the general populace which is attributed to the extra care they received. Reasonable estimates show that they fought on average two to three times yearly, but there are some exceptions such as some men fighting all nine days during one of Trajan's shows.
French historian George Villes evaluated 100 fights from the 1st century CE, involving 200 gladiators, and found that 19 gladiators had lost their lives. His evaluations of gladiator gravestones indicates that the average age at time of death was around 27 years. However, historian Marcus Junkelmann points out that only the most successful gladiators were usually given a headstone and that the majority of the gladiators who died were at the beginning of their career and thus not included in this average. According to Junkelmann the majority died between 18 and 25 years of age.
Gladiators in Roman Life
Gladiators and the Military
Rome was essentially a landowning military aristocracy. Devotio (willingness to sacrifice one’s life to the greater good) was central to the Roman military ideal, and was the core of the Roman military oath. As a soldier swore to give his life (voluntarily, at least in theory) for Rome's victory, he was not expected to survive defeat. The gladiator’s oath was identical in in these essentials, though more dreadful in its details.
The Punic wars of the late 3rd century BCE – in particular the near-catastrophic defeat of Roman arms at Cannae – had long lasting effects on the Republic, its citizen armies, and the development of the gladiatorial munera. In the aftermath of Cannae, the Senate refused to ransom Roman captives. They recruited slave soldiers, clad and armed with the trophies of Rome's enemies and sworn to Rome's service; but first, they took more drastic steps:
In obedience to the Books of Destiny, some strange and unusual sacrifices were made, human sacrifices amongst them. A Gaulish man and a Gaulish woman and a Greek man and a Greek woman were buried alive under the Forum Boarium... They were lowered into a stone vault, which had on a previous occasion also been polluted by human victims, a practice most repulsive to Roman feelings.
When the gods were believed to be duly propitiated... Armour, weapons, and other things of the kind were ordered to be in readiness, and the ancient spoils gathered from the enemy were taken down from the temples and colonnades. The dearth of freemen necessitated a new kind of enlistment; 8,000 sturdy youths from amongst the slaves were armed at the public cost, after they had each been asked whether they were willing to serve or no. These soldiers were preferred, as there would be an opportunity of ransoming them when taken prisoners at a lower price.
Slaves were despicable, but might also serve as examples to soldiers. By the devotio of a voluntary oath, a slave might achieve the quality of a Roman (Romanitas) and become the embodiment of true virtus (manliness, or manly virtue), even while remaining a slave; this was an essentially military ideal. The oath and function of the gladiator took this still further. The development of the gladiator as a specialist fighter, and the ethos and organization of the gladiator schools, contributed to the development of the Roman military as the most effective force of its time. In 107 BCE the Marian Reform established the Roman army as a professional body. Two years later, "The practice of weapons training was given to soldiers by P. Rutilius, consul with C. Mallis. For he, following the example of no previous general, with teachers summoned from the gladiatorial training school of C. Aurelus Scaurus, implanted in the legions a more sophisticated method of avoiding and dealing a blow and mixed bravery with skill and skill back again with virtue so that skill became stronger by bravery's passion and passion became more wary with the knowledge of this art." Even so, the terms of service in the military could be severe anough to provoke mutiny.
Duration of service was increased from ten to sixteen years. This term was formalised by Augustus, but was to increase to twenty, and later, twenty five years. A career as a gladiator may have seemed an attractive option to some.
In the Year of the Four Emperors, Otho's troops at Bedriacum included 2000 gladiators: opposite him on the field was Vitellius, his army swollen by levies of slaves, plebs and gladiators. In 167CE, troop depletions by plague and desertion may have prompted Marcus Aurelius to draft gladiators at his own expense.
Legal and social status
The legal and social status of gladiators was extremely complex and remains a topic of scholarly dispute. Modern legal and social institutions offer few useful parallels
Freedmen and the various sub-classes of slave found guilty of specific offences might be sentenced to the arena. Citizens were exempt from this sentence, but could be legally stripped of citizenship and formally declared a slave. Freed slaves (freemen)could be legally reverted to slavery. Sentence could then be pronounced.
It mattered to jurists, and Roman propriety, that sentences were appropriate and proportionate to the offense, and that justice was to be done. Offenders judged particularly vicious were damnati ad bestias (condemned to the beasts) in the arena, with virtually no chance of survival. Those judged less harshly might be condemned ad ludum venatorium or ad gladiatorium (combat with animals or gladiators), and armed as thought appropriate - these at least stood a chance of putting on a good show, in return for which they might receive some amount of respect. Unless sentenced sine mission, they might - and sometimes did - survive to fight another day.
Under law, all gladiators were slaves condemned to the arena, which was a death penalty. Even if chance or fighting skill allowed survival, this penalty and status (servus poenae - slave of the penalty) was upheld unless or until the gladiator received manumission.
The phenomenon of the volunteer gladiator is more problematic. All those who volunteered for the arena automatically became slaves, because the auctoratio was an act of submission to a master. Whether sworn to a lanista, an independent owner, or a magistrate (as editor), the volunteer submitted to being beaten, burned or put to the sword. The volunteer's "professional" status does not translate into modern terms; such people were still socially disgraced, the more so if they accepted payment for their services. Their legal designation, infamia, though not equivalent to servus poenae, involved loss of citizenship and a citizen’s rights, .. Successful gladiators could achieve honour, fame and money, but could not vote, or leave a will. Legally, their property belonged to their master unless they were freed. Nevertheless, there is evidence that some "unfree" gladiators owned slaves and gave them their freedom.
The legal and social issues raised by the volunteer were targeted by Augustan social reforms. These focused particularly on class demarcation. Senators and equestrians (and their descendants) were excluded from the indignity and infamia of association with gladiators, their schools, and the arena. Evidently this happened frequently enough - and was considered disgraceful enough by social traditionalists - to require legislation, which just as evidently was not entirely effective. Under Tiberius - a less than enthusiastic patron of the games - the Larinum decree (19 CE) reiterated virtually identical laws, which Caligula then flouted, Claudius strengthened, and Commodus ignored. Valentinian’s laws, some hundreds of years later, repeated those of Tiberius.
The few scandalous appearances made by those of higher status suggest that existing laws were held in abeyance, or simply ignored, by the magistrates (and sometimes, the Emperors) responsible for staging these shows. In theory, for those of higher status, loss of face could be complete and irrecoverable, and sometimes was. Presumably the gains were worth it, or else the loss of dignitas became less consequential as time went on. The only named example of a retiarius was an aristocratic descendant of the Gracchi, infamous for his marriage (as a bride) to a male horn player. It is recorded by Dio that he voluntarily fought, not only as a Retiarius Tunicatus, but wore a conical hat adorned with gold lace and ribbons during the combat. The most admired gladiators were those who had been freed, then re-enlisted. Legally, they seem to have had little choice; under Roman law, a former gladiator could not "offer such services [as those of a gladiator] after manumission, because they cannot be performed without endangering life”
Ethics, Morals and Sentiment
Gaius Marius found it quite acceptable for gladiators train the legionaries in single combat but for some, the popularity of the gladiator show threatened the moral fabric of Rome. For Silius Italicus, the Campanians had set the very worst of precedents: "It was their custom to enliven their banquets with bloodshed and to combine with their feasting the horrid sight of armed men fighting; often the combatants fell dead above the very cups of the revelers, and the tables were stained with streams of blood. Thus demoralised was Capua."
Cicero was torn between aristocratic contempt for the unrestrained blood-lust of the mob and admiration for the courage of the gladiators: "Even when they have been felled,let alone when they are standing and fighting, they never disgrace themselves. And suppose a gladiator has been brought to the ground, when do you ever see one twist his neck away after he has been ordered to extend it for the death blow?"
The lavishness of the games was offensive to some. In 46 BCE Caesar memorialised his daughter Julia eight years after her death, in ceremonies that included gladiatorial contests. The celebration was described by some contemporaries as excessive, in lost human lives and in cash better spent on needy veterans. Seneca bewailed "Man...now slaughtered for jest and sport; and those whom it used to be unholy to train for the purpose of inflicting and enduring wounds are thrust forth exposed and defenceless." Pliny the Younger found the mob's blood-lust distasteful. Tertullian disapproved, partly because he felt such practices a blasphemous imitation of martyrdom, partly because they inflamed the passions.
However, at their peak, the gladiator shows enjoyed widespread (and to their chroniclers, sometimes outrageous) support among all classes. Cassius Dio (62.17.3), writes of a festival Nero held in honour of his mother: “Many ladies of distinction, however, and senators, disgraced themselves by appearing in the amphitheatre”. Tacitus (Caligula; 15.32) records that:
There was another exhibition that was at once most disgraceful and most shocking, when men and women not only of the equestrian but even of the senatorial order appeared as performers in the orchestra, in the Circus, and in the hunting-theatre, like those who are held in lowest esteem; they drove horses, killed wild beasts and fought as gladiators, some willingly and some sore against their will.
Emperor Marcus Aurelius found little to admire in the gladiatorial ludi, but respected the stoicism and skill of the fighters and took extraordinary measures to prevent bloodshed and death, such as the use of blunted weapons.
"Gladiator" could be (and was) used as an insult throughout the Roman period. Of the arenario (those who appeared in the arena), Tertullian wrote that: "On the one and the same account they glorify them and they degrade and diminish them; yes, further, they openly condemn them to disgrace and civil degradation; they keep them religiously excluded from council chamber, rostrum, senate, knighthood, and every other kind of office and a good many distinctions. The perversity of it! They love whom they lower; they despise whom they approve; the art they glorify, the artist they disgrace."
At the other extreme, some women found them sexually desirable, and acted on it despite social disapproval, much to the scandal and delight of gossips and novelists:
What was the youthful charm that so fired Eppia? What hooked her? What did she see in him to make her put up with being called "the gladiator's moll"? Her poppet, her Sergius, was no chicken, with a dud arm that prompted hope of early retirement. Besides his face looked a proper mess, helmet-scarred, a great wart on his nose, an unpleasant discharge always trickling from one eye. But he was a gladiator. That word makes the whole breed seem handsome, and made her prefer him to her children and country, her sister, her husband. Steel is what they fall in love with.
A wall graffito in Pompeii described the Thracian gladiator Celadus as suspirum et decus puellarum (the sigh and glory of the girls). Faustina the Younger, mother of the emperor Commodus, was said to have conceived Commodus with a gladiator, but Commodus likely invented this story himself.
Gladiators in Roman art and culture
In this new Play, I attempted to follow the old custom of mine, of making a fresh trial; I brought it on again. In the first Act I pleased; when in the mean time a rumor spread that gladiators were about to be exhibited; the populace flock together, make a tumult, clamor aloud, and fight for their places: meantime, I was unable to maintain my place.
Images of gladiators could be found throughout the Republic and Empire, among all classes. In the 2nd century CE Agora of Delos, walls were decorated with paintings of gladiators, but this is an exceptionally ancient discovery. Most surviving mosaics date from the 2nd through 4th centuries CE, and have been invaluable in attempting chrological reconstructions of combat, gladiator types and development. Throughout the Roman world, ceramics, lamps, gems and jewelery, mosaics, reliefs and wall paintings offer evidence - sometimes the best evidence - of the clothing, props, equipment, names, events, prevalence and rules of gladiatorial combat. Earlier periods provide only occasional - and perhaps exceptional examples. The Gladiator Mosaic in the Galleria Borghese displays several gladiator types,and the Bignor Roman Villa mosaic from Provincial Britain shows Cupids as gladiators. Souvenir bowls were also produced depicting named gladiators in combat, along with more expensive articles for the wealthy (see lanx, silver, mosaic).
Pliny the Elder gives vivid examples of the popularity of gladiator portraiture in Antium and an artistic treat laid on by an aristocrat for the solidly plebian citizens of the Roman Aventine:
When a freedman of Nero was giving a gladiatorial show at Antium, the public porticoes were covered with paintings, so we are told, containing life-like portraits of all the gladiators and assistants. This portraiture of gladiators has been the highest interest in art for many centuries now, but it was Gaius Terentius who began the practise of having pictures made of gladiatorial shows and exhibited in public; in honour of his grandfather who had adopted him he provided thirty pairs of Gladiators in the Forum for three consecutive days, and exhibited a picture of the matches in the Grove of Diana.
Emperors as gladiators
Caligula, Titus, Hadrian, Lucius Verus, Caracalla, Geta and Didius Julianus were all said to have performed in the arena. It is uncertain if these performances were one-time-only or repeated appearances and there is question regarding the risk as the emperors chose their opponents and no one was likely to injure an emperor. According to Pliny, Emperor Claudius fought a whale trapped in the harbor in front of a group of spectators.
Commodus was a notoriously passionate and public performer who appeared as a secutor, fighting as Hercules reborn, and as a bestiarius; according to Edward Gibbon, he once killed 100 lions in a single day. On another occasion, he decapitated a running ostrich with a specially designed dart, then carried the bloodied head and his sword over to Senatorial sets, and gesticulated as though they were next. On another occasion, he killed 3 elephants on the floor of the arena by himself. His depictions in art included a statue outside the Colosseum, inscribed "Champion of secutores; only left-handed fighter to conquer twelve times one thousand men." Commodus claimed 620 victories as a gladiator. He also raced chariots, hunted wild animals from the stands and was so impressive that it is said that he rarely needed a second spear to kill his prey.
Decline
Rampant inflation and border incursions during the third century CE led to increasing military demands on the Imperial purse, from which the Empire never quite recovered.. Some emperors, such as Gordianus I, Gordianus III, and Probus continued to subsidize public performances, but privately funded shows declined. Christians saw the combats as murder, and their witnessing as morally harmful. They saw the gladiator as an instrument of pagan human sacrifice, and the arena as a place in which Christian martyrdom had been sought and found. Most refused to participate. In 325 CE an edict of Constantine I from his new Capital of Constantinople in briefly ended the games.
In times in which peace and peace relating to domestic affairs prevail bloody demonstrations displease us. Therefore, we order that there may be no more gladiator combats. Those who were condemned to become gladiators for their crimes are to work from now on in the mines. Thus they pay for their crimes without having to pour their blood.
A game involving gladiators at some time in the 330s CE suggests not only that this ban was ineffective but that the Emperor was quite prepared to defy his own law
In 367 CE Valentinianus I banned the sentencing of Christians to the arena. In 393 CE Theodosius adopted Christianity as the Roman state religion, and tried to ban pagan festivals. They continued but in a much shrunken form, with a dwindling audience. Honorius, Theodosius' son, decreed the end of gladiatorial contests in 399 CE. They appear to have ended officially in 404 CE, according to Theodoret as a consequence of the martyrdom of Saint Telemachus on 1 January at a gladiator show. No other sources confirm the story.
It not known how many gladiatoria munera may have taken place throughout the Roman period; many - if not most - munera also involved wild-beast hunts or shows, and some may have been only that. Only one primary source, the Calendar of Furius Dionysius Philocalus for the year 354 CE, survives to suggest how the gladiator featured among a multitude of festivals in the Late Empire period. In that year, 176 days were reserved for spectacles of various kinds. Of these, 102 days were for theatrical shows, 64 for chariot races and just 10 in December for gladiator games and venationes. Thomas Wiedemann interprets this in the much earlier context of the Historia Augusta, in which Alexander Severus (reigned 222-235 CE) intended to spread the gladiatorial games throughout the year, and break with a tradition that places the major gladiator games at the year's end. Wiedemann also points out that December was the month for Saturnalia, linked to death and renewal.
Further reading
- James Grout:
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- Michael Grant: Gladiators, Penguin Books, London 1967, reprinted 2000, ISBN 0-14-029934-3
- Roland Auguet: Cruelty and Civilization: The Roman Games, Paris 1970; English reprint Routledge 1994
- Fik Meijer: The Gladiators: History's Most Deadly Sport, Thomas Dunne Books 2003; reprinted by St. Martin's Griffin 2007. ISBN-13 978-0-312-36402-1; ISBN-10 0-312-36402-4.
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- Archaeological Institute of America Index of articles related to Gladiators.
External links
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