If the deceased had a wife and children, they would also see that the family received monetary compensation for their loss. Hosting gladiator games was an easy way for Roman emperors to win the love of the people, but a few took it a step further and actually participated in combat. Several rulers performed in the arena including Caligula, Titus and Hadrian—though most likely under highly controlled conditions or with dull blades.
A deadeye with a spear, the deranged Emperor Commodus often tried to wow the crowds by killing bears and panthers from the safety of a raised platform. He also competed in a few gladiator fights, though usually against inexperienced fighters or even terrified and poorly armed members of the audience.
When he inevitably won the contests, Commodus made sure to reward himself with the massive sum of one million Roman sesterces.
Though often dismissed as uncivilized brutes by Roman historians, the gladiators won massive fame among the lower classes. Their portraits graced the walls of many public places; children played with gladiator action figures made of clay; and the most successful fighters even endorsed products just like the top athletes of today.
They were also renowned for their ability to make Roman women swoon. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. Gladiatorial bouts were originally part of funeral ceremonies. They were organized into different classes and types. In a similar way to how boxing and UFC are run today, fighters would be matched based on their size, previous record, skill level, style of fighting and their years of experience.
Made up of slaves, criminals, ex-soldiers, prisoners of war alongside some volunteers, the gladiators took pride in what they did. The fighters would be kept underneath the arena in a series of tunnels, while people filtered in from the start of the Colosseum opening hours ready and waiting for the games to begin.
This was so they could make a surprise entrance! Whereas nowadays we spend our weekends wrapped up in baseball, soccer or football - the ancient Romans spent their time watching and placing bets on gladiator battles. The Colosseum could seat over 50, spectators and was often full. Seats were split into sections depending on what class you were part of - the richer you were, the better seats you were placed in, of course.
Hours would be spent watching the action, and often free food was put on at the events! The stakes were extremely high in a gladiator battle - literally life or death - the gladiators had to be highly well trained. Upon recruitment they would be assessed and given a medical check, then they would begin training. Training would begin with wooden swords to make things safer; it would focus on different fighting styles, different weapons and different techniques.
Training would be customized depending on the type of gladiator - whether they were heavily or lightly armed would change things completely. The gladiators would have to know their way around many different weapons. These included swords as well as tridents, lances, nets and bow-and-arrows. The fighters had to be extremely physically fit, of course, and they had to combine this fitness with weaponry skills. As is to be expected, there were a lot of deaths at the Colosseum.
It was used for entertainment mostly fights, of course for just shy of years and in this time, it is estimated that , people died within the walls of this particular amphitheater. That equates to around 1, deaths per year at the Colosseum alone - mostly marginalized people or those looked down on by the upper classes were victims of these brutal games. They also had to learn the correct way in which to die. Legally, gladiators were the lowest of the low in Roman society, but a trained gladiator was a valuable commodity to a lanista, representing a considerable investment of time and money, and it would be in his interest to keep his stable well and to minimise the death rate.
The relationship between the emperor and the arena was complex. Emperors could get a bad reputation for showing too much enthusiasm for spectacles of death. Claudius, for example, was reputed to have keenly watched the faces of gladiators as they died, favouring the killing of the helmetless retiarii.
For a member of the elite to fight in the arena was shameful — which was why Caligula, Nero and Commodus forced well-born Romans to do so. Special contempt was reserved for those emperors who chose to fight as gladiators in the arena. Caligula liked to appear as a thraex. Commodus, however, was the most notorious for his arena appearances. He fought as a secutor, and was a scaeva — a left hander.
According to Cassius Dio he substituted the head of the Colossus by the Colosseum with his own, gave it a club and bronze lion to make it look like Hercules with whom he identified himself. Interestingly, Aurelius Victor relates a story of Commodus refusing to fight a gladiator in the arena.
Perhaps Commodus was afraid to lose his usual natural advantage in fighting a fellow southpaw. In AD , intending to assume the consulship of Rome in gladiatorial guise, he was strangled by an athlete. A graffito now in Naples Museum gives the results of a show put on by Mesonius. Of 18 gladiators who fought, we know of eight victors, five defeated and reprieved, and three killed. This kind of ratio may be typical given the records in graffiti and on tombstones.
There were veterans; an unnamed retiarius on a tombstone in Rome boasted 14 victories, but few survived more than a dozen fights. The painstaking forensic work on the Ephesus gladiator skeletons has provided startling and intimate insights into the way these men lived and died.
Of the 68 bodies found, 66 were of adult males in their 20s. A rigorous training programme was attested by the enlarged muscle attachments of arms and legs. These were strong, athletic men, whose diet was dominated by grains and pulses, exactly as reported in classical texts. Yet as well as muscle and stamina, gladiators needed a good layer of fat to protect them from cuts.
The Ephesus skeletons also provided evidence for good medical treatment. Many well-healed wounds were found on the bodies, including 11 head wounds, a well-set broken arm and a professional leg amputation.
On the other hand, 39 individuals exhibited single wounds sustained at or around the time of death. This suggests that these men did not die from multiple injuries but a lone wound. At the end of a bout a defeated gladiator was required to wait for the life or death decision of the editor of the games. If the vote was for death, he was expected to accept it unflinchingly and calmly. It would be delivered as swiftly and effectively as possible.
And which of them, even when he does succumb, ever contracts his neck when ordered to receive the blow? As we have seen, gladiators were at the bottom of the heap in Roman society. This remained the case no matter how much they were feted by the people. In the manner of his fighting, and above all in his quiet and courageous acceptance of death, even a gladiator, a despised slave, could display this.
Tony Wilmott is a senior archaeologist and Roman specialist with English Heritage. He was joint director of the Chester Amphitheatre excavations, and is the author of The Roman Amphitheatre in Britain. Sign in. Back to Main menu Virtual events Masterclasses. Home Period Roman Gladiators in ancient Rome: how did they live and die?
0コメント