Gladiators

Blood Sport in the Roman Empire

Tacitus on the gladiator

“You could easily think that the city was running wild with insane rage and unharnessed pleasure.”

A quote from Tacitus’ Histories about the city in Vespacian’s time

Disgust and Delight

Upper class sponsors gladiators and paints pictures of them in murals in their homes, but claims to hate the combat in public

Roman senate declares that people who fight in gladitorial combat could lose their high status . . . Yet they had mock-fights themselves

The Rules According to Claudius

If a gladiator fell down (even if by accident), he had to be killed, so that the emperor could see his face as he died.

Animals and Combat

Animal fights grew more popular as the empire expanded and access to exotic animals from conquered provinces grew

Emperor appears more powerful if he can bring animal fights to the people

Animals are chained together to fight

Myth and Gladiators

Orpheus fights, but does not sing

Man who stole an apple = Hercules

Enemies of Jupiter represented by disabled fighters

Why did Romans admire them?

Not in Roman society, but still were famous

Courageous fighters

Got praise and were popular heroes

When the upper class plays gladiator . . .

Fight prostitutes dressed up as animals

Fight tame animals that would not really hurt them

Engage in mock arena fights in private

Fight to the death

An *intentional* fight to the death was more rare than you might think

Gladiators would often fight until surrender or injury

Often fought with dull weapons

Crowd could demand that the fight stop

Explaining death

Gladiators control their fate on their funeral monuments

Say they were victims of Nemesis (revenge)

Opponent cheated

Never appear in death to be the victim of the crowd or killed on a whim

All good things come to an end

Constantine publically declares his hatred for gladiatorial combat, but does not stop it

His son, Constantius II, prevents members of the imperial guard from fighting

By the 4th century, emperors no longer act as sponsors

The result is a decline in gladiatorial combat

Conclusions

This is a public spectacle

The Romans equated this experience with going to the theater

For the gladiator, however, this was a chance to overturn the social order of things and receive fame and fortune