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    Gladiators

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      CHapter 5: Hardware and venues | 109

      confirm this. It is, however, true that much of the terminology

      of gladiatorial combat was simply transliterated into Greek, the

      common language of the region. Only gladiator (which became

      monomachos or ‘lone fighter’) and munera ( philotimia – ‘the love

      of honour’) were actually translated.

      These all serve to confirm the universality of gladiatorial games

      (in the broadest sense) throughout the Roman Empire.

      110 | GLadIatOrs

      CHApTeR 6

      LIFE AS A GLADIATOR

      I have seen men weighed down by bodily exercise, and carrying

      about the burden of their fl esh. Rewards and wreath crowns are

      set before them, while those who judge them cheer them on – not

      to deeds of virtue, but to rivalry in violence and discord.

      Th e one who excels in giving blows is crowned.

      Tatian, Address to the Greeks 23

      Recruitment

      NEARLY ALL GLADIATORS WERE SLAVES OWNED by a lanista who

      was, eff ectively, their manager. In the case of Imperial gladiators,

      they were of course owned by the emperor, who had his own

      lanista in the Ludus Magnus and the other ludi to manage them.

      Th e lanistae then made money by hiring out their fi ghters for

      games and this was duly taxed by the government (and the cost

      of that tax passed on to customers). It has been estimated that

      the tax brought in between 60 and 120 million sesterces per

      annum to the Imperial treasury. Moreover, if a top gladiator was

      killed in the arena, the editor of the games would be required

      to compensate the lanista (who had obviously made a sizeable

      investment in his fi ghter, not only in their purchase cost, but in

      CHApTeR 6: LIfe AS A GLADIATOR | 111

      their training and upkeep) for as much as 50 times the fee for

      which the gladiator had been hired. Gladiators represented big

      money, whether it be for those holding the games, the lanistae or

      the government raking in the tax.

      Those gladiators who were indeed slaves were selected

      according to their looks, physique and general good health. They

      had often been captured during warfare, sold to a lanista by a

      former master or condemned in court to a gladiatorial training

      school ( condemnatio ad ludum gladiatorium). Either way, they

      joined a ludus or training school, usually named after the lanista,

      such as the ludus Aemilius mentioned by Horace or the ludus

      Neronianus at Capua. Lanistae were not highly thought of,

      Seneca comparing them to pimps, although Cicero saw nothing

      wrong with his friend Atticus buying a ludus, complete with

      gladiators, noting that he could earn back his investment after

      just two shows. Gladiators within such a training school would

      then be described as belonging to a familia, such as the familia

      gladiatoria or familia venatoria.

      There is some evidence that at least some gladiators adopted

      stage names, the obvious examples being the two female

      gladiators, Achillia (a female version of Achilles, the great Greek

      warrior) and Amazon (the Amazons fought on the side of the

      Trojans against the Greeks in the Trojan War). Their Trojan-

      War-themed soubriquets are too obvious to have been their

      real names and the coincidence of them being paired together

      frankly implausible. This may have been quite a popular theme.

      Astyanax, depicted on the Madrid mosaic, was named after the

      son of Hector (the Trojan hero). Other mythological names

      occur: Meleager on the Borghese mosaic recalls the hero of the

      same name, famed for hunting the Calydonian Boar. Talamonius

      on the same mosaic is a Romanisation of Telamon, who was also

      on the boar hunt, whilst Bellerefons is clearly Bellerophon, who

      captured Pegasus, the winged horse. Other names, like Hilarus

      (‘jolly’) on a Pompeian graffito, are regular Greek slave names. The

      graffiti from Pompeii record the exploits of the match between

      112 | GLADIATORS

      Marcus Attilius and Lucius Raecius Felix, whose names suggest

      they were Roman citizens (or, at the very least, freedmen). Stage

      names were not universal then, so may have been preferred by

      owners or perhaps even the gladiators themselves.

      There were some men who, having achieved their freedom

      for some reason, opted to stay on as freedmen gladiators (there

      is obviously the suspicion here that they may have become

      institutionalised during their time in a familia gladiatoria).

      Occasionally, there were also Roman citizens who decided to

      fight in the arena for whatever reason (known as auctorati). There

      was in fact a legal process (known as auctoratio) whereby a free

      man who fancied a career in the arena would get permission from

      a tribune of the people and then contract himself to a lanista or

      even directly to the editor of the games (as a form of freelance

      gladiator). One man even treated his lanista like a pawnbroker,

      selling himself more than once, only to have his sister bale him

      out each time; she put a stop to this by cutting off his thumb

      (rendering him useless for the arena) and he duly sued her!

      Cicero scoffed at Marc Antony’s brother for choosing to fight as

      a gladiator occasionally. Vitellius, one of the unlucky three in the

      so-called Year of the Four Emperors (AD 69) explicitly forbade

      members of the equestrian order (the second rank of nobility)

      from doing this (suggesting that some had been doing it):

      Strict measures were taken to prevent Roman equestrians from

      degrading themselves in gladiatorial schools and the arena. Former

      emperors had driven equestrians to such actions by money or more

      often by force; and most municipal towns and colonies were in the

      habit of rivalling the emperors in bribing the worst of their young

      men to take up these disgraceful pursuits. (Tacitus, Histories 2.62)

      It had indeed amused Caligula to force equestrians and even

      senators to fight, but there was a world of difference between

      what an autocrat compelled men to do and what they chose to do

      voluntarily, and any Roman could see that. There were certainly

      few faster ways of earning the disapproval of all strata of society

      CHApTeR 6: LIfe AS A GLADIATOR | 113

      than by volunteering to fight as a gladiator, so like the Emperor

      Commodus, they must have wanted to do it really badly. When

      Marcus Aurelius expressed doubts about a former gladiator

      wanting to hold public office, the man observed that he had seen

      many members of the senate fight in the arena in his time.

      At this point, it is important to distinguish true gladiators

      from the noxii or condemned men who were to be executed in

      the arena, sometimes by fighting each other, sometimes fighting

      wild animals, but generally providing entertainment during the

      lunchtime hiatus, between the animal hunts of the morning and

      the gladiatorial shows of the afternoon. These noxii might include

      prisoners of war amongst their numbers, as well as run-of-the-

      mill criminals, particularly after major campaigns. They were not,

      however, memb
    ers of the gladiatorial schools, did not participate

      in the regular training that marked a gladiator, nor was there any

      subtlety in the contest. It was simply pitiless slaughter.

      Although most gladiators were indeed slaves, there were free

      men who felt drawn to participate for whatever reason, as has just

      been mentioned. However, it was not just men, but women too

      who were found in the arena. A relief sculpture and inscription

      from Halicarnassus (Turkey) records the missio or discharge of the

      two female gladiators mentioned above, Amazon and Achillia.

      They are both shown in the ‘at the ready’ stance, without helmets

      but with the rectangular shields and gladii of murmillones.

      The poet Juvenal brought up the subject of female gladiators in

      his sixth Satire focused on women:

      Who has not seen one of them smiting a stake, piercing it through

      and through with a foil, lunging at it with a shield, and going

      through all the proper motions? A matron truly qualified to blow a

      trumpet at the Floralia! Unless, indeed, she is nursing some further

      ambition in her bosom, and is practising for the real arena. What

      modesty can you expect in a woman who wears a helmet, abjures

      her own sex, and delights in feats of strength? Yet she would not

      choose to be a man, knowing the superior joys of womanhood.

      What a fine thing for a husband, at an auction of his wife’s effects,

      114 | GLADIATORS

      Amazon and Achillia, female gladiators (photo by Carole Raddato)

      to see her belt and armguards and plumes put up for sale, with

      padding that covers half the left leg; or if she fi ght another sort of

      battle, how charmed you will be to see your young wife disposing

      of her greaves! Yet these are the women who fi nd the thinnest of

      thin robes too hot for them; whose delicate fl esh is chafed by the

      fi nest of silk tissue. See how she pants as she goes through her

      prescribed exercises; how she bends under the weight of her helmet;

      how big and coarse are the bandages which enclose her haunches;

      and then laugh when she lays down her arms and shows herself to

      be a woman! Tell us, you grand-daughters of Lepidus, of the blind

      Metellus, or of Fabius Gurges, what gladiator’s wife ever assumed

      accoutrements like these? When did the wife of Asylus ever gasp

      against a stake? (Juvenal, Satires 6.247–67)

      Of course, this was satire, so it is exaggerated and part of the

      amusement value inevitably comes from the fact that it evidently

      concerned a noble woman who was indulging her taste for

      CHApTeR 6: LIfe AS A GLADIATOR | 115

      gladiatorial combat by participating in it herself. We know

      that there were female gladiators but this need not be seen as

      evidence that they were all of noble birth. However, Juvenal’s

      satire derived its bite from having a core of truth to it. Under

      Nero, Tacitus records the following for the year AD 64:

      The same year witnessed a number of gladiatorial shows, equal in

      magnificence to their predecessors, though more women of rank and

      senators disgraced themselves in the arena. (Tacitus, Annals 15.32)

      This became a cause of concern for the Roman authorities, but it

      was not until the reign of Septimius Severus that a stop was put

      to women participating in gladiatorial combat. The principal

      problem lay not in women fighting in the arena, but in the low

      social standing of gladiators in society reflecting unfavourably

      upon noble Roman women.

      In September 2000, on an otherwise quiet news day, the

      Museum of London chose to publicise the fact that remains

      found during excavations at Great Dover Street in Southwark,

      south of the Thames, may have been those of a female gladiator.

      It was, if so, the first such burial ever recorded. The body had

      been cremated over a pit, into which the remains of the pyre and

      the body had collapsed (a bustum – remember, gladiators were

      first known as bustuarii). Grave goods included incense burners,

      some lamps (one showing a gladiator) and the remains of food

      (including doves and chickens, figs, dates and almonds), possibly

      a meal for the afterlife. Roman cremation was often not very

      efficient, and analysis of fragments of the pelvis of the skeleton

      suggested that it had belonged to a woman in her twenties. Of

      course, it is impossible to be certain that this woman really was a

      so-called gladiatrix, but it remains a possibility.

      Before they entered service, all gladiators took an oath of

      loyalty ( sacramentum) to their lanista. We know its approximate

      wording from writings by both two of Nero’s courtiers, Petronius

      (his so-called Arbiter of Taste) and Seneca (his adviser), who

      both paraphrase it:

      116 | GLADIATORS

      We took an oath to obey Eumolpus; to endure burning, bondage,

      flogging, death by the sword, or anything else that Eumolpus

      ordered. We pledged our bodies and souls to our master most

      solemnly, like regular gladiators. (Petronius, Satyricon 117)

      The words of this most honourable compact are the same as the

      words of that most disgraceful one, to wit: ‘Through burning,

      imprisonment, or death by the sword.’ From the men who hire

      out their strength for the arena, who eat and drink what they

      must pay for with their blood, security is taken that they will

      endure such trials even though they be unwilling; from you, that

      you will endure them willingly and with alacrity. (Seneca, Letters

      37.1–2)

      The precise wording is unknown, but these two texts indicate

      it must have been something along the lines of ‘I promise to

      endure burning, bondage, flogging and death by sword to obey

      my master’.

      Training

      The relationship between military and gladiatorial training

      has already been alluded to. The late Roman writer Vegetius

      preserves an account of the training of new legionary recruits

      which he specifically compares to the gladiatorial system:

      The ancients, as is recorded in the books, trained recruits in this

      way. They wove rounded shields of wicker like basketry, in such a

      way that the frame should be double the weight of a battle shield.

      And likewise they gave the recruits wooden foils, also double

      weight, in place of swords. And next they were trained at the stake,

      not only in the morning, but also in the afternoon. For the use

      of stakes is particularly advantageous not only for soldiers but

      also for gladiators. And neither arena nor field ever proved a man

      invincible in arms, unless he was carefully taught training at the

      stake. However, single stakes were fastened in the ground by each

      recruit, in such a way that they did not wobble and protruded for

      CHApTeR 6: LIfe AS A GLADIATOR | 117

      Training at the stake (photo by J. C. N. Coulston)

      six feet. The recruit practised against this stake with the wicker

      shield and singlestick as though with a sword and shield against an

      enemy; so, he might aim for the head or face, then he is threatened

      from the sides, then he strained to cut down at the hams and shins;

    &nb
    sp; he retreated, attacked, leaped in, as if the enemy were present; he

      assaulted the stake forcefully, fighting skilfully. In doing this, care

      was taken that the recruit rose up in this way in order to wound,

      but did not lay himself open to a blow anywhere. (Vegetius, De Re

      Militari 1.11)

      A surviving relief from Milan shows a gladiator with just such

      a stake ( palus), in this case cheekily topped by his gladiatorial

      helmet so that his face could be seen. The use of double-weight

      dummy weapons was considered extremely important by the

      Romans, the intended effect being that once used to the heavy

      practice weapons, the real thing would seem extremely light

      118 | GLADIATORS

      when they came to use it. The fact that both the army and the

      gladiatorial schools used this method of training for hand-to-

      hand combat clearly indicates that they felt it worked.

      Gladiators were taught by an instructor ( doctor – our word

      doctor comes from the Latin doctor medicinae, instructor in

      medicine) in much the same way as the campidoctor instructed

      soldiers – the campus was the practice ground where Roman

      soldiers trained, the very first being the Campus Martius in

      Rome. Usually experienced gladiators, these doctores seem to have

      specialised in one of the armaturae. There is a doctor retiariorum

      known from Cordoba (Spain), a doctor murmillonum from

      Concordia and Rome (both in Italy), a doctor hoplomachorum

      and a doctor thraecum from Rome, as well as a more general

      doctor gladiatorium from Cologne in Germany.

      One of the principles drummed into soldiers was the need

      for constant training and this would have been essential for

      gladiators too. There will have been variations adapted to the

      different armaturae (so it might be supposed that the retiarius,

      for instance, under the direction of a doctor retiariorum, practised

      stabbing at the stake with his trident, as well as throwing his net

      at it). The next stage on from the stakes for the more experienced

      was mock combat with live opponents and Onasander described

      how this was done for soldiers:

      Next after dividing the army into two parts he should lead them

      against each other in a sham battle, armed with staves or the shafts

      of javelins. (Onasander, Strategicon 10.1.4)

      Although we lack any surviving tactical manuals for gladiatorial

     


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