by Fulvius Nobilior in 186 BC (which we shall come to shortly),
a general limit on the cost of games was introduced in the year
179. Nevertheless, the gladiatorial escalation continued apace. It
seems 174 BC was a bad year if you were a gladiator:
Many gladiatorial games were given that year, some of them
unimportant; one was noteworthy beyond the rest, that of Titus
Flamininus, which he gave to commemorate the death of his father,
lasted four days, and was accompanied by a public distribution of
meats, a banquet and scenic performances. The climax of a show
which was big for that time was that in three days seventy-four
gladiators fought. (Livy 41.28.9–11)
Gladiatorial combat was not an exclusively Roman taste. After
Aemilianus’ Greek games, the Syrian King Antiochus IV decided
to indulge in some one-upmanship and he staged gladiatorial
games at Daphne, near Antioch (Syria). These games began
with a magnificent parade of armed men, including 250 pairs of
gladiators, and lasted 30 days in total. In his defence, Antiochus
had spent time in Rome as a hostage, so may have developed
a taste for gladiatorial games then. Alternatively, he may have
had a well-honed sense of how to needle Scipio in exactly the
right way.
The expense of games inevitably spiralled upwards along with
their duration and the number of performers, but cost was not
the only thing increasing. Since gladiatorial combat was usually
fought in the form of single matched pairs, large numbers of
gladiators took a proportionally longer time to process: 250 pairs,
CHapter 2: Origins | 21
assuming they took an average of 10 minutes each to fi ght to a
result, would represent more than 40 hours of combat.
In 160 BC, when the great general Lucius Aemilius Paullus
Macedonicus died, it was to be the occasion for something truly
spectacular. Th ere was, however, a problem: two of Macedonicus’
four sons had been given up for adoption (a common ploy
amongst the not-so-well-to-do aristocracy) and Fabius, the
remaining natural son, could not aff ord the games. One of the
adopted brothers (Scipio Aemilianus, who became the adoptive
son of Scipio Africanus) came to the rescue:
Scipio, knowing that his brother was by no means well off , gave
up the whole inheritance, which was estimated at more than
sixty talents, to him in order that Fabius might thus possess a
fortune equal to his own. Th is became widely known, and he
now gave an even more conspicuous proof of his generosity. His
brother wished to give a gladiatorial show on the occasion of his
father’s funeral, but was unable to meet the expense, which was
very considerable, and Scipio contributed the half of it out of his
own fortune. Th e total expense of such a show amounts to not
less than thirty talents if it is done on a generous scale. (Polybius
31.28.3–6)
Th irty talents was around 750,000 sesterces and nearly ten times
what Nobilior paid for his venatio .
Gallus (‘Gaul’)
• Armour: helmet, mail
• Special feature: unknown
• Period: Republican
• Common opponent: unknown
22 | gLaDiatOrs
The above list of events involving gladiators during the period
of the middle Republic is unlikely to be comprehensive, not least
because portions of Livy’s text are missing and survive only as
summaries, but also because historians do not seem to have been
very interested in gladiatorial combat in its early days, although
they may not have been in tune with the zeitgeist. The playwright
Terence, writing in the middle of the 2nd century BC, observed
wistfully that gladiatorial shows were now more popular than
dramatic performances. He may have been slightly bitter that an
audience ran out of one of his plays when they heard there were
gladiators nearby.
Animal entertainments
Animal entertainments, whether as staged hunts or as combat
against exotic animals, seem to have had a completely different
origin to gladiatorial combat. There is a connection with the various
Hellenistic kingdoms around the Mediterranean which Rome
encountered from the 3rd century BC onwards as it expanded its
influence – not least because these were familiar with elephants
and even used them in warfare. Indeed, it can be argued that the
Roman fascination with exotic animals began with elephants. In
275 BC, Manius Curius Dentatus celebrated a triumph after his
victory over the invader Pyrrhus, the king of Epirus (a real, rather
than Pyrrhic, victory), which was that part of Greece nearest to
the heel of Italy. Dentatus was the first to exhibit elephants in this
triumph – four of them, according to Eutropius, who admittedly
was writing about five centuries later. Such was their popularity
that it will come as no surprise that Lucius Caecilius Metellus felt
obliged to display 140 elephants a few years later, after defeating
the Carthaginian commander Hasdrubal at the Battle of Panormus
in 251 BC. However, there clearly came a point when just seeing
exotic animals was not enough and the desire to see them killed
took over. According to Pliny the Elder:
CHapter 2: Origins | 23
Verrius informs us that they fought in the Circus, and that they were
slain with javelins, for want of some better method of disposing
of them; as the people neither liked to keep them nor yet to give
them to the kings. Lucius Piso tells us only that they were brought
into the Circus; and for the purpose of increasing the feeling of
contempt towards them, they were driven all round the area of
that place by workmen, who had nothing but spears blunted at the
point. The authors who are of opinion that they were not killed,
do not, however, inform us how they were afterwards disposed of.
(Pliny, Natural History 8.6.4)
In 167 BC, in a fit of inventive genius, Aemilius Paullus used
elephants to crush deserters in a novel form of public execution.
This was repeated by his son, Scipio Aemilianus, in 146 BC
during his triumphal games after the successful defeat and
destruction of Carthage (now part of Tunis in Tunisia) in the
Third Punic War.
The fact that some of the Hellenistic kingdoms also maintained
animal parks for hunting purposes may well have influenced the
Romans. These had obviously become a way of demonstrating
the wide range of their trading links (and thereby status), as well
as providing some exotic hunting for idle kings. In 275/4 BC,
the king of Egypt, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, staged a day-long
procession of exotic animals in honour of the god Dionysus
through the streets of Alexandria. This was led by 24 chariots
drawn by elephants, followed by lions, leopards, panthers,
camels, antelopes, wild asses and ostriches – apparently in pairs
– plus a bear, a giraffe and a rhinoceros for good measure. The
fact that this occurred on the streets of the city demonstrates that
it was fairly and squarely aimed at pleasing the public as much
as the god. It united showing off the breadth of one’s domain by
illustrating its wildlife diversity with the function of pleasing the
masses; the added Roman value was almost inevitably going to
be massacring all these animals brought to the capital at great
expense. It was conspicuous consumption on a phenomenal and
very bloody scale.
24 | gLaDiatOrs
After the elephantine delights provided by Dentatus and
his imitators, exotic animal displays in Rome became more
ambitious. Th e comic playwright Plautus, writing at the end
of the 3rd century BC, mentions ‘ocean sparrows’ in the circus,
meaning ostriches (the Romans were already normalising these
exotic African imports with nicknames). In 186 BC, Marcus
Fulvius Nobilior staged the fi rst recorded venatio or wild
animal hunt with lions and panthers, to mark his military
accomplishments in Greece, although his expenditure (spending
money he had raised in Spain) was capped at 80,000 sesterces
by the Senate. Th e animals probably came from Africa, since
the Senate moved rapidly to restrict animal imports from there,
probably as a result of this. Th is begs the question of where
Nobilior got the idea for his event. Some have suggested that
it developed from a Greek tradition (thanks to a comment by
Th eodoric in the 6th century AD), whilst others have pointed
towards evidence for hunting in Etruscan tomb paintings. Th ere
may even have been some connection with the Ludi Florales , a
religious festival where hares and deer were hunted in the Circus
Maximus.
In 169 BC, there was an animal spectacle held in the Circus
Maximus, organised by the aediles Scipio Nasica and Lentulus
where they exhibited 63 Africani (the word could mean leopards
or panthers) and 40 bears and elephants. (Aediles were city
Samnis (‘Samnite’)
• Armour: helmet, armguard, greave, curved
rectangular shield
• Special feature: short sword
• Period: Republican
CHapter 2: Origins | 25
magistrates who held office for one year and were responsible
for the upkeep of public buildings and the provision of public
festivals, which came to include putting on the games.) The
limit on spending that the Senate imposed in 179 BC following
Nobilior’s venatio was finally overturned in 114 BC by Gaius
Aufidius – a tribune who was looking after the interests of the
people (who wanted more spectacle, not a spending cap).
By the end of the 2nd century BC, it was becoming
increasingly clear that the forum was not the optimum space for
holding games. The shape and proportions were wrong (it was
rectangular and for some spectators it was too long to see what
was happening at the other end) and there were obstructions
such as statues and other monuments blocking the view. One
solution was to erect temporary seating to provide some elevation
and, naturally, charge for it. This did not go down well with the
poor and Gaius Gracchus, a particularly proactive (or, to others,
meddlesome) tribune of the people decided to act:
The people were going to enjoy an exhibition of gladiators in the
forum, and most of the magistrates had constructed seats for the
show round about, and were offering them for hire. Caius ordered
them to take down these seats, in order that the poor might be
able to enjoy the spectacle from those places without paying hire.
But since no one paid any attention to his command, he waited till
the night before the spectacle, and then, taking all the workmen
whom he had under his orders in public contracts, he pulled down
the seats, and when day came he had the place all clear for the
people. (Plutarch, Gaius Gracchus 12.3-4)
Formalisation
By the time of the Second Punic War, at the end of the 3rd
century BC, it is probable that there were already gladiatorial
schools and a formalised system for training gladiators, although
these were obviously privately run. The general Cornelius Scipio,
26 | gLaDiatOrs
later to be known as Africanus for his eventual victory over
Hannibal in North Africa, focused on Roman army training
with some form of arms drill, but it was not yet the gladiatorial
system. It would take another century before it was realised that
the gladiatorial system could bring something to Roman army
training that had, until then, been lacking. The results would
speak for themselves. In fact, once it was introduced, the close
relationship between gladiatorial and military training was to
remain in place for at least four centuries, until such time as
the army’s weaponry began to evolve away from the traditional
gladiatorial armaturae.
At the same time, the state insinuated its way into the business
of organising games, which was threatening to become the
preserve of rich and powerful men. The aediles, magistrates (first
two, and later four of them) responsible for public buildings and
the organising of festivals and, ultimately munera or games, were
apparently directly involved in procuring animals for the games,
as evidenced by Scipio Nasica and Lentulus in 169. Institutional
control of the games was increasing, but there was still room for
private enterprise.
CHapter 2: Origins | 27
CHApTeR 3
RISE OF THE GLADIATORS
pictures, and other such opiates, these were for ancient
peoples the bait toward slavery, the price of their liberty,
the instruments of tyranny.
Étienne de La Boétie, Discourse on Voluntary Servitude
popularity and politics
REPUBLICAN ROME ENTERED AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS phase in
the last century BC, as already powerful men became ever more
powerful and politics became about the competition between
great men. For such men, any means of bolstering their power
and infl uencing the mob became invaluable and gladiatorial
games became just one weapon in this armoury. Th e Roman
aristocracy were by now well aware of the effi cacy of these shows
and they lost no opportunity to exploit them.
A major change came in 105 BC when a gladiatorial
performance was fi rst held in a theatre in Rome under the
consuls Rutilius and Manlius (Rutilius will reappear later in
another context, but still with a gladiatorial connection). Th is
was the beginning of more permanent, less ad hoc venues, for
28 | GLADIATORS
gladiatorial shows, and a palpable sign of the change of emphasis
between funerary ritual and entertainment. Th ey put on the
display in their offi cial capacity as magistrates, ostensibly to
encourage the Roman populace to maintain a warlike spirit
during a time of peace.
Marius, the great reformer of the Roman army at the end of
the 2nd and beginning of the 1st century BC found a rather
unusual aid in predicti
ng the outcome of gladiatorial contests:
Th en she got audience of the women and gave them proofs of her
skill, and particularly the wife of Marius, at whose feet she sat when
some gladiators were fi ghting and successfully foretold which one
was going to be victorious. In consequence of this she was sent to
Marius by his wife, and was admired by him. (Plutarch, Life of
Marius 17.2)
What does not seem to have been considered is that this Syrian
woman may just have had a very good eye for ‘form’ amongst
gladiators, rather than the power of prophecy, and that luck may
also have played its part.
Th e import of exotic animals to be killed for the crowds
also continued. When Quintus Scaevola was curule aedile in
104 BC, he brought in the fi rst lions to Rome, according to
Pliny the Elder; then Lucius Cornelius Sulla, whilst praetor in
Andabata
• Armour: mail, helmet
• Special feature: blindfolded
• Period: Republican
• Common opponent: andabata
CHApTeR 3: RISe Of THe GLADIATORS | 29
93, produced 100 maned lions, only to be outdone by Gnaeus
Pompeius – better known nowadays as Pompey – with 600 lions,
315 of them with manes, and so on. Lion escalation became the
munera in a roaring microcosm.
The fascination with gladiators had its darker aspects too.
Republican Roman society was heavily dependent upon slave
labour, especially on the latifundia, the great agricultural
estates that had been created by wealthy landowners buying
up the original yeoman farmers’ lands. The whole business of
gladiatorial combat was founded in the misery of slavery and the
slender hope that being really good at it ultimately offered a way
out. Equally, the threat posed by communities of skilled killers
at the heart of civil society did not escape the ordinary citizen
and their fears were to be realised in the 1st century BC with one
of their worst nightmares: a slave revolt led by gladiators who
thought they had found another way out.
Spartacus
Subject of a play, several historical novels, a ballet, a blockbuster
film starring Kirk Douglas, a successful television series and
several rock albums; who has not heard of Spartacus? A freedom
fighter, socialist hero and enemy of Rome, he has become many