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Rather bizarrely, the actual combat might be accompanied
by musicians on wind instruments (the straight tuba and
the curved cornua are shown on reliefs and mosaics) and an
organist on a water organ ( hydraulis). Parts of the hydraulis
dated to the 3rd century AD were found at Aquincum
(Budapest in Hungary) as well as piece of two examples from
Pompeii. These, together with surviving descriptions, help us
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Musicians playing organ and horn (photo by Carole Raddato)
to understand how the instrument worked. It evidently made
an impressive sound, as the poet Claudian attests, describing
the playing of the organist:
Him too whose light touch can elicit loud music from those
pipes of bronze that sound a thousand diverse notes beneath his
wandering fingers and who by means of a lever stirs to song the
labouring water. (Claudian, Panegyric on the Consulship of Manlius
Theodorus 339–42)
In the Imperial period, once a contest was finished, and if there
was a corpse to dispose of, then a man dressed as Charun, the
Etruscan demon of death (not to be confused with Charon, the
ferryman, who carried the dead across the River Styx), entered
the arena. He tested to see if the deceased really was dead,
finished them off with his mallet if not, and then dragged off the
offending remains. Tertullian referred to him obliquely as ‘the
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brother of Jupiter’, which amongst the Roman pantheon would
mean either Neptune, god of the sea, or Pluto, the god of the
underworld (the latter obviously equivalent to Charun). Some
of the skulls from the gladiator cemetery at Ephesus showed
possible signs of impact by such a hammer.
Finally, the arena could then be smoothed out and bloodied
sand replaced by the harenarii or arena attendants (usually slaves).
the arenas
The word arena comes directly from the Latin word for sand,
harena (the Romans were as prone to dropping aitches and
adding them unnecessarily as readily as anybody else). This
was because, wherever gladiators fought, they did so on sand.
Since most, but not all, gladiators chose to fight barefoot, this
not only made for a less painful surface than stone or wood,
but it also had the advantage of soaking away any spilled blood.
The specialised gladiatorial venues with which we are now so
familiar – oval amphitheatres – were actually a comparatively late
development. As mentioned earlier, the first public performances
were mounted in the Forum Boarium and Forum Romanum in
Rome, and later chariot racing circuses and theatres were used
to stage fights between gladiators. As late as 43 BC, Cicero
proposed reserving space around a statue of the late Servius
Sulpicius Rufus on the Rostra for his descendants so that they
could watch ‘games and gladiators’. By the early Imperial period,
another repurposed open space, the Saepta Iulia (located next to
the Pantheon in Rome), was being used for gladiatorial shows.
Designed as the voting area for Roman citizens, it was exploited
by both Augustus and Gaius.
At Ephesus (Turkey), the theatre, only some 900m south-west
of the gladiatorial cemetery, contains graffiti demonstrating the
presence there of gladiators, and the same secondary use is found
for theatres at Athens, Aphrodisias, Assos and Hierapolis. Similarly,
the stadium at Ephesus was also used for gladiatorial contests, a
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small arena being inserted in its eastern end when it was no longer
used for athletic contests. In Rome, the oldest chariot racing
stadium, the Circus Maximus, was also exploited for gladiatorial
shows but was particularly popular for wild beast shows, since it
provided much more room than amphitheatres or theatres.
Moreover, even when amphitheatres did begin to appear, they
were at first temporary structures of wood and catastrophic
collapses like that described above under Tiberius were not
unknown. The word amphitheatrum, which literally means
banks of seating that completely surrounded the arena. Whilst a
theatre was a true semicircle, the oval shape of an amphitheatre
was very carefully laid out using geometrical principles and was
not simply two semicircles joined together. The earliest stone
amphitheatre was not in Rome but at Capua, although that was
replaced by the surviving structure in the Imperial period. This
means that the earliest surviving stone amphitheatre is in the
small provincial town of Pompeii and that only dates back as
far as c. 70 BC, with the foundation inscription referring to it as
a spectacula and not an amphitheatrum. It measured 135 m by
104 m overall, with the arena 67 m by 35 m dug into the ground
by about 2 m (spoil being used for the earthen banks under the
seating). The arena was surrounded by a wall more than 2 m high
which was decorated with frescoes, including hunt scenes. Pliny
the Elder believed that the first amphitheatre ever was that built
in 52 BC by Scribonius Curio to celebrate gladiatorial games for
his dead son. Clearly he was slightly wide of the mark in some
respects, but it may well be that this was the first time such an
oval structure was referred to as an amphitheatrum. The structure
he described was actually two timber theatres hinged together
which could be rotated to form an amphitheatre.
As the Roman empire spread, so did amphitheatres. The Roman
army helped, since all legionary fortresses and even some auxiliary
forts were equipped with an amphitheatre. The example at
Caerleon in Wales, just outside the south-west gate of the fortress
of the Second Legion Augusta, can still be visited. With its oval
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Pompeii amphitheatre inscription (photo by M. C. Bishop)
Caerleon amphitheatre (Crown Copyright)
arena partially excavated below ground level, the spoil was then
piled up to form the base for the seating embankments, reinforced
with stone revetment walls. It was probably enhanced with a
timber superstructure to provide suffi cient seating for the whole
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legion. Although it was once thought that military amphitheatres
were largely used for parades, scholars now believe they also served
as venues for gladiatorial contests and animal hunts much like
those in any provincial town. The presence of a shrine to Nemesis,
the goddess of fate favoured by gladiators, in the amphitheatres at
Caerleon and Chester only helps to confirm this.
At either end of the short axis of the arena, there was the Porta
Sanavivaria (Gate of Life) on one side and the Porta Libitinensis
(Gate of Death) on the other. Triumphant gladiators would
leave through the former, whilst the figure dressed as Charun
would emerge from the latter in order to remove the remains of
the de
feated. Beyond the Porta Libitinensis lay the spoliarium,
the chamber where the dead were stripped and prepared for
cremation or burial.
The Colosseum
Undoubtedly, the best known of all the amphitheatres in the
Roman world was the Flavian Amphitheatre, often called the
Colosseum (a nickname it acquired from its proximity to a large
statue of the sun god Helios that used to stand next to it). Built
over the remains of the lake outside Nero’s reviled Golden House,
it was a masterpiece of Roman engineering and architecture.
Covering an area of just 2.4 ha but capable of seating somewhere
between 50,000 and 80,000 spectators (at a time when the
population of Rome is thought to have been something under
half a million), it was the largest custom-designed gladiatorial
venue in the Roman Empire. By way of comparison, the nearby
Circus Maximus, primarily designed for chariot races but (as just
mentioned) also used for gladiatorial contests, was more than
7 ha in extent and could probably seat 150,000.
The substructures of the Colosseum housed ramps, machinery
for moving scenery and lifts to hoist animal cages up into the
arena, as well as cells for accommodating combatants and
animals whilst they awaited their turn. There was also a large
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drain surrounding it, reflecting the fact that a large lake had been
drained in order to construct the structure.
Ancillary structures in the vicinity of the Colosseum included
four Imperial gladiatorial schools, one of which – the Ludus
Magnus – is still partly visible. It included a small arena for practice
(63 m by 42 m), surrounded by seating (so that enthusiasts could
watch their heroes practise and perhaps size them up for betting
purposes. There were cells around the periphery and it was
linked to the main amphitheatre by means of a tunnel. The other
schools, the Ludus Mutatinus, Ludus Dacicus and Ludus Gallicus,
were also near the Colosseum. The complex also included a
health centre ( sanitarium) and morgue ( spoliarium), a scenery
store ( choragium) and an armoury ( armamentarium). Elsewhere,
near the Baths of Trajan, there was a camp for members of the
Classis Misenensis (the fleet based at Misenum on the Bay of
Naples) who had responsibility for handling the awnings ( vela –
literally, ‘sails’ – that formed the velarium or awning) that served
to shade the audience in the amphitheatre from the sun during
performances. The remains of the apparatus for deploying the
awning still survive on the exterior of the Colosseum. Lucretius
described the colourful effect of such awnings at the theatre:
The awnings, saffron, red and dusky blue,
Stretched overhead in mighty theatres,
Upon their poles and cross-beams fluttering,
Have such an action quite; for there they dye
And make to undulate with their every hue
The circled throng below, and all the stage,
And rich attire in the patrician seats.
(Lucretius, On the Nature of Things 4.75–81)
In the Colosseum, as in all amphitheatres, social stratification
was openly practised. The organiser of the games, whether the
editor or an emperor, sat in a box on one of the long sides of
the arena. The nobility sat next to the edge of the arena, just
about far enough removed from any unpleasantness to be safe,
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Ludus Magnus remains (photo by M. C. Bishop)
whilst behind them sat the bulk of the male population. Women
and slaves were confined to the rearmost, upper tiers of seating
(often added in timber, even in stone amphitheatres). The only
exception made was for the Vestal Virgins, the celibate women
priests who tended the sacred flame of the goddess Vesta in their
circular temple next to the forum. It is they who are depicted
in the front row of Gérôme’s painting vigorously making the
thumbs-down gesture. The rest of the women (and the slaves)
thus had the advantage of being close to the awnings and the
shade they provided, but the disadvantage of being far away
from the action down in the arena.
Although construction of the Colosseum began in AD 72 under
the Emperor Vespasian, funded by the spoils from his Jewish
War, it was not finally dedicated until AD 80 under his son, the
Emperor Titus, with a massive programme of games that allegedly
lasted 100 days and saw the deaths of 5,000 animals. The poet
Martial wrote a series of poems ( On Spectacles) to commemorate
the event and, although doubt has been cast upon their accuracy,
the rich mix of mythology, ingenuity in dealing death and the
sheer exotic variety of animals slaughtered was clearly designed to
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Colosseum cross-section (drawing by M. C. Bishop)
impress an audience who had probably become inured to routine
gladiatorial combats and wild beast hunts. However, the poet only
actually describes one gladiatorial combat between an equally
matched pair and does not even mention their armaturae:
While Priscus drew out, and Verus drew out the contest, and the
prowess of both stood long in balance, oft was discharge for the
men claimed with mighty shouts; but Caesar himself obeyed his
own law: that law was, when the prize was set up, to fight until the
finger was raised; what was lawful he did, oft giving dishes and gifts
therein. Yet was an end found of that balanced strife: they fought
well matched, matched well they together yielded. To each Caesar
sent the wooden sword, and rewards to each: this prize dexterous
valour won. Under no prince but thee, Caesar, has this chanced:
while two fought, each was victor. (Martial, On Spectacles 29)
There was another imperial amphitheatre in Rome. The
Amphitheatrum Castrense, so called because of its proximity to
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the camp of the Imperial horse guards, the equites singulares, was
not in fact a military amphitheatre, but actually part of a palace
complex constructed by Elagabalus (AD 218–22) in the early
3rd century AD. It was adopted by Constantine for his own
private entertainment, sharing the spectacles staged there with
only a few select guests.
Provincial amphitheatres
Outside of Rome, Italian cities such as Verona and Capua
routinely had an amphitheatre, but Puteoli on the Bay of Naples,
because of its pre-eminent role as a trading port, built a second
during the latter part of the 1st century AD.
Beyond Italy, and throughout the empire, amphitheatres
could be found around most legionary fortresses, some auxiliary
forts and most towns and cities. Provincial amphitheatres like
those at Nimes, Arles (both France), Pula (Slovenia) or El Jem
(Tunisia) were as magnificent as anything in Italy outside of
Rome, although some of the more far-flung – in Britain, for
example – were markedly less impressive, often small and
constructed with earthen banks and timber, such as those
outside the British towns of Cirencester or Silchester. The
example at Dorchester was even a converted Neolithic henge
monument. The similarity of the amphitheatre at El Jem (with
its arena 65 m by 39 m) to the slightly larger Colosseum (77 m
by 46 m) was one of the reasons it was chosen to stand in for its
larger Italian cousin in the film Gladiator (with the aid of some
digital enhancement).
In the Roman town of Carnuntum, which stretched between
the modern villages of Bad Deutsch-Altenburg and Petronell in
Austria, and which surrounded a Roman legionary fortress, an
interesting discovery was recently made. It has long been known
that Carnuntum had two stone amphitheatres, one for the
fortress and one for the town, but geophysical survey has recently
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The army and gladiators
The Roman army not only enjoyed watching
gladiators, but actually had a much closer connection
with gladiatorial combat. In 105 BC, we fi nd P. Rutilius
Rufus importing specialist trainers for his army from the
gladiatorial school of C. Aurelius Scaurus with the
specifi c aim of improving his soldiers’ sword skills.
Soldiers were now to practice fencing against stakes
and then against each other using blunted weapons.
Soon after, the Roman general Marius used troops
trained by those same gladiatorial trainers to defeat
the Cimbri, so the system passed its fi rst test.
This type of training became integral to the Roman
army, not only when instructing new recruits, but also
in maintaining the skills of even the most hardened
veterans. Commanders regularly reviewed them and
any shortcomings in drill would be noticed.
revealed the plan of a gladiatorial school closely resembling the
Ludus Magnus . It had a circular, rather than oval, training arena,
but its proximity to one of the amphitheatres leaves little doubt
over its identifi cation.
Amphitheatres were not confi ned to the western half of
the empire and more than 20 are now known from the East.
Th ey were not as common as in the West and this was used in
the past to suggest that the East was more ‘civilised’ and less
enthusiastic about gladiators, but it is clear that this was not
the case and the cemetery and theatre at Ephesus only serve to