Gladiators
Dateline: 04/15/00
- Any fan of American football knows that one of the sport's primary attractions is its similarity to warfare. Its brutal violence is reflected in the martial language used to describe this game: aerial and ground attacks, blitzes, bombs, etc. Thanks to film, those of us so inclined are able to satisfy this all-too-human appetite by watching pretend violence in movies, which today abound with bloody murders, explosions and car crashes.
Cultural Meaning of Gladiatorial Combat
Commodus won't merely send to an uncertain death the general he perceives as a threat to his throne, but he himself will enter the arena to ensure Meridius' permanent end. If the plot seems a bit far-fetched, it's not -- at least in the most obvious way, for Commodus and probably another half dozen emperors did indeed set foot in the arena. Why would an emperor or any other free Roman have entered such deadly combat? There are many reasons, but adulation of the crowds has to be among the most compelling.
At first gladiators were slaves, criminals condemned to death, and war prisoners. In time, free men volunteered to become gladiators. Brooklyn College's Roger Dunkle says it has been estimated that by the end of the Republic half the gladiators were volunteers. There were even women. That Emperor Septimius Severus banned female gladiators suggests that by the beginning of the third century A.D., there was a sizable number of such "Amazons." Two of the mad emperors, Caligula and Commodus (the subject of the new movie), appeared in the arena.
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Unusual Gladiators The following sources reveal senators, equites, and women who voluntarily joined the ranks.
Dion Cass. li.22; lvi.25
Suet. Jul. 39; Aug. 43; Ner. 12
Tacit. Ann. xv.32
Suet. Dom. 4
Juv. vi.250
Stat. Silv. I.vi.53
Dion Cass. lxxv.16
Citations from William Smith on Gladiatores
Anyone who became a gladiator was by definition infamis (whence: infamy), not respectable, and beneath the law. Barbara F. McManus of the College of New Rochelle says about gladiators who had to swear an oath oath (sacramentum gladiatorium): "I will endure to be burned, to be bound, to be beaten, and to be killed by the sword" (uri, vinciri, verberari, ferroque necari, Petronius Satyricon 117) which consigned the gladiator to possible death, but also conferred honor much like that of a soldier.
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Thumbs Up
Find out whether emperors really did turn their thumbs up and down.
Not only was there honor, but there were adoring crowds, and, sometimes, wealth (victors were [http://www.ualberta.ca/~csmackay/CLASS_378/Gladiators.html] paid with a laurel, monetary payment and donations from the crowd) and a life of leisure. Some gladiators may have fought no more than two or three times a year and may have won their freedom within a very few years. Because of the financial incentive, free men and even aristocrats who, having squandered their inheritance had no other comfortable means of support, would voluntarily become gladiators.
At the end of his service, a freed gladiator, having received his wooden sword (rudis), could teach other gladiators or a become freelance bodyguard. The plot is familiar. In today's movies, the ex-boxer, having survived dozens of bloody KO's with only a few disfigurements, becomes a manager or trainer at a boxing school.
EDITOR -
An editor is a person who gives something forth into the public, like a public game. In the Republic, the Editores were politicians who, wishing to curry public favor, would put on gladiatorial and animal shows.
From [http://www.ualberta.ca/~csmackay/CLASS_378/Gladiators.html]
Blood Sport
ARENA - Onto the floor of the amphitheater sand was poured to absorb the blood. The word for sand in Latin is HARENA, from which our word "arena" comes.
Commodus and Marcus Aurelius: Emperors after the Julio-Claudians
Slavery Resources
Gladiator: The DreamWorks Movie
More on Gladiator, the movie.
Seneca Epistle 7 on the Gladiatorial Games
