Adopted from the earlier Etruscans, gladiatorial combats originated in the rites of sacrifice (munera) due the spirits of the dead and the need to propitiate them with offerings of blood. They were introduced to Rome in 264 BC and traditionally were held at the public funeral of male relatives. This changed in 46 BC, when Julius Caesar sponsored elaborate games at the tomb of his daughter Julia to commemorate her death in childbirth several years earlier and to celebrate a triumph over his political rivals. (There had been an even more lavish display in 65 BC, when 320 pairs of gladiators had fought.)
In 73 BC, Spartacus, a Thracian gladiator, led a slave revolt that required ten Roman legions two years to put down. Six thousand prisoners were crucified all along the Appian Way, from Rome to Capua, where the oldest gladiatorial schools were located and the outbreak had occurred. The state assumed more control, and large numbers of gladiators continued to be trained in imperial schools. Under the tutelage of a lanista, they could be sold or hired out, and many were retained privately by politicians and wealthy citizens, especially in times of civil unrest.
Gladiators were selected from prisoners of war, slaves bought for the purpose, or condemned criminals (who, without training in weapons, usually had little chance of surviving the arena). Free men also volunteered; often, they were social outcasts, discharged soldiers, or former gladiators who had been liberated on retirement but chose to return for a period of service, signing on for a fee and swearing an oath (sacramentum gladiatorum) of absolute submission. Roman citizens sometimes assumed the career of a gladiator, and women occasionally fought in the arena, to such enthusiasm that, in 200 AD, Severus forbade female combatants (Amazones).
Even nobles and emperors competed, but such behavior was scandalous and a cause for censure. Commodus (180-192 AD) enthusiastically participated as a gladiator. Boasting of victory in a thousand matches, sparring with hapless opponents and slaughtering exotic animals brought from as far away as India and Africa, he had rooms at one of the schools and intended to march from there, dressed as a gladiator, to assume the consulship. This prospect was considered so outrageous by those closest to him that, fearing for their lives, they had him assassinated the day before he was to take office.
It was from conscripted prisoners of war that the gladiators acquired their "barbarian" appearance (a distinction was made between the weapons imagined to be used by defeated tribes and those of their Roman conquerors). Originally, captured soldiers had been made to fight with their own weapons and in their particular style of combat, and it was the equipment of one such vanquished foe, the "Samnites," that first was used and later adopted for the arena. They became the prototype for Rome's professional gladiators, and wore a wide leather belt and carried a large oblong shield (scutum), a greave (ocrea) on the left leg (the one that was placed forward in combat), a visored helmet (galea), a sword (gladius), and a protective sleeve on the right arm.
By the time of Augustus, they were better known as "Secutores" (chasers), the class in which Commodus competed, and usually were matched against the more nimble "Retiarii." Armed with a trident and a net with a cord to draw it back if the opponent was not ensnared, and protected only by a leather or metal shoulder piece (galerus) on the left side, the Retiarii were the most lightly armed, and the most inferior, of the gladiators. Occasionally, they were matched against the heavily armed "Myrmillones," named after the fish crest on their helmet. The "Thraices" carried a scimitar (sica), a small round or square shield (parma), and wore greaves on both legs. Often, protective leather bands (manicae) were wrapped around the arms and legs as well.
It was important that the different types of gladiators be appropriately paired. They were to be evenly matched, but never identically so. The Retiarii were lightly armed but mobile, the Secutores and Myrmillones protected but weighted down by their armor. It was this asymmetry that was considered so intriguing. Each type had its own particular weapons and skills, and only by comparison could they be demonstrated. Gladiators who were similarly armed, therefore, rarely competed against one another.
There were even more exotic types: the "Hoplomachi," who were heavily armed; the "Essedarii," who fought from war chariots in the fashion of the British Celts and probably were introduced by Julius Caesar after his invasion of that island; the "Eques," who fought on horseback; the "Velites," whose spear was attached to a thong by which it could be retrieved; the "Laquearii," who used a lasso; the "Sagittarii," who fought with bow and arrow; the "Dimachaeri," who used two swords; and the ominously named "Scissores" (carvers) and "Provocatores" (challengers) about whom little is known. One of the most bizarre were the "Andabatae," whose helmets effectively acted as blindfolds as they groped to find their opponent.
The "Bestiarii" were not gladiators, as such, but specialists of wild animal hunts (venationes). The popularity of these cruel spectacles was such that, by the time they were abolished, entire species were no longer to be found in their native habitat, all having been captured or driven away. Gladiators also participated in simulated naval battles (naumachiae) on large artificial lakes; even the arena of the Colosseum could be flooded for such shows.
In Rome, the gladiatorial games first took place in the markets and then in the Forum, where temporary stands were erected. Amphitheaters of wood or stone also were constructed, which occasionally collapsed, tragically killing hundreds, even thousands, of those who had come to witness the death of others. The largest and most magnificent of the amphitheaters was the Amphitheatrum Flavium, or Colosseum, which was inaugurated by Titus in 80 AD and seated as many as 50,000 spectators. Domitian (81-96 AD) completed the elaborate network of service corridors and chambers below the arena and established, as well, four gladiatorial training schools (ludi) nearby, the largest of which was connected to the amphitheater by an underground passage. Each had its own oval arena and seating so one could watch the gladiators train.
Given the expense, only the emperor could afford games this extravagant. Such sponsorship was prestigious and an expected part of "panem et circenses." After Domitian, it was jealously retained by the emperor, who alone could present the games. If individuals or local magistrates wanted to offer them outside Rome, official sanction was required. Fighters usually confronted one another in single combat, but often there were massed duels, sometimes between hundreds of pairs. Five thousand pairs fought in games given by Augustus, and in 107 AD the same number of men (as well as 10,000 animals, both wild and tame) fought for Trajan in a single four-month period.
Games were advertised and proclaimed by heralds, and programs made available. There was betting, and partisanship was strong, Caligula and Titus, for instance, favoring the Thracians, and Domitian the Myrmillones. The day before the event, a public feast was given for the gladiators, some of whom gorged themselves at what might be their last meal, others eating in hopeful anticipation of the next day, and some with no appetite at all, terrified at the prospect of what was to come. The day of the games, the gladiators were ceremoniously led in and paraded around the arena before presenting themselves at the emperor's podium, exclaiming "Ave, imperator, morituri te salutant!" Preliminary events included bloodless, sometimes farcical, combat between paegniarii or between lusorii fighting with wooden weapons. The weapons to be used by the gladiators then were demonstrated to be sharp and lethal, lots were drawn, the war trumpet (tuba) sounded, and the games began. Together with the sound of flutes and horns, there were shouts of encouragement from the lanistae, often enforced by whips or rods.
When a man went down, cries of "Habet!" (He's had it!), and shouts of "Mitte!" (Let him go!) or "Iugula!" (Kill him!) could be heard. If able, the wounded man would lay down his shield and raise his left hand to plea for mercy, which the crowd signified either by extending their thumbs up or down (turning the thumb upwards or toward the heart also was a sign of disapproval, and approval indicated by pressing the thumb and forefinger together). As patron of the games and the most conspicuous member there, it was the emperor who made the final decision, although it often was politic to heed the wishes of the crowd. If he was not in attendance, the producer (editor) of the games decided the fate of the victim. There was little sympathy for the gladiator who valued his life too highly or cringed at the point of the sword. Perversely, such behavior was considered to be inconsistent with his oath. Losers (missi), although their lives might be spared, could still be forced to fight again the same day. Victors were awarded a palm branch and the prize money stipulated in their contracts. If a gladiator repeatedly survived the arena and lived long enough to retire, a symbolic wooden sword (rudis) was awarded as a token of discharge from service.
But, even in victory, gladiators were "infamis." They remained outcasts of society and were regarded no differently than criminals or members of any other shameful profession. Although their lives were brutal and short, they often were admired for their bravery, endurance, and willingness to die. Honoring their pledge and forfeiting their lives in the arena was thought to honor the audience, as well; and glory was what could be offered in return. Gladiators were depicted in mosaics, on lamps and funerary monuments, and were the subject of amatory graffiti by both women and men.
The gladiator held a morbid fascination for the ancient Romans. And the blood lust of the spectators, populus and emperors alike, the sadism and cruelty of the combat, and the callous deaths of men and animals still disturb modern sensibilities. At the time, only Seneca protested the carnage; most other Roman authors were silent or approving. Ostensibly, the gladiatorial games were abolished by Constantine in 326, and the remaining schools closed by Honorius in 399. But gladiatorial combats continued, in one form or another, until 404, when Honorius finally prohibited them altogether.
For over 600 years, the gladiator had died as a spectacle for the roaring crowd, "Butchered," as Byron later would write, "to make a Roman holiday."
This material has been taken from Gladiators (1967) by Michael Grant (out of print), The Oxford Classical Dictionary (1970), Cruelty and Civilization: The Roman Games (1972) by Roland Auguet, The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature (1989), Emperors and Gladiators (1992) by Thomas Wiedemann, and The Sorrows of the Ancient Romans (1993) by Carlin Barton. Visually, no one can do better than to see the first hour of Stanley Kubrick's film, Spartacus (1960).
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