Revision Rome – Gladiatorial Games
Gladiator shows: origins as funerary honours, types of gladiator; retiarius, secutors (samnite,
myrmillo), armour, weaponry, typical training for fights (ludi gladiatorii), oaths, status.
Audience involvement.
The significance of the shows for both the Emperor and his citizens
The Origins
Gladiatorial contests originally were held to honour a dead nobleman. This was described as a
‘munus’ or duty of rememberance.
The politics of entertainment
Entertainment was funded by the ruling classes, they competed to stage bigger & better shows. The
magistrate in charge was known as the editor.
‘now two things only do they ardently desire: bread and circuses.’
Juvenal, Satires
Once the Empire had removed the right of citizens to vote the need to impress the populace
subsided – however, the arenas did provided a perfect opportunity to appear in public & take the
temperature of the public mood. Roman writers comment on the relationship between the emperor
and his people at public games. Suetonius describes how Claudius aims to please the people at all
costs
Gladiatorial Games
The emperors used them to win support and votes. In 65BCE Julius Caesar newly elected promised
the greatest games yet involving 320 gladiators (the senate worried about his growing power passed
a law limiting the max to 320!) emperors passed laws ensuring that they could hold games far
greater than any magistrate. Augustus forbade praetors from holding more than 2 a year at a cost of
25 000 denarii whereas he could hold 8 at a cost of 180 000 denarii! Emperor Trajan to celebrate his
victories in Dacia held a games lasting 123 day, involving 10 000 gladiators & 11 000 animals!
Gladiators
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Came from a variety of sources:
Prisoners of war
Runaway slaves
Criminals
Free men who volunteered – they got a job, food, shelter, the chance of fame & fortune.
Training
Gladiators trained in a gladiator school (ludus gladiatorius) run by a lanista. The trainers had the
power of life and death over the gladiators, he hired them out to an editor.
The training was hard, hours spend completing fighting drills with blunt wooded swords. Part of their
training was how to show nobility in death. Punishment cells were part of life as a gladiator,
however, they were also looked after as an investment with plenty of food, massage & the best
health care. The gladiators took oaths to be beaten and killed by the sword.
Gladiators were often treated as the lowest of the low, buried in separate cemeteries, they were
also sex symbols. Graffiti in Pompeii reads, ‘Celadus the Thracian is all the girls ‘heart-throb’.
‘Steel is what they fall in love with’
Juvenal
Types of gladiator
The name gladiator comes from the Latin gladius, meaning a sword. The crowd loved to see different
fighters up against each other, with distinct weapons and skills.
Heavily armed – hard to wound
Murmillo: heavily armed, like a Roman legionare, fish-crested helmet, short greaves, curved
rectangular shield, legionares short sword gladius
Hoplomachus – heavily armed, like a greek hoplite, heavy armour & helmet, round shield (often
fought the Murmillo re-enacting the wars between Rome & Greece
Secutor ‘chaser’– heavily armed, trained to fight the retiarus, distinct helmet with two eye holes for
protection against the trident, greave on his left leg, arm protector, legionary style shield & gladius
Lightly armed & nimble
Thracian - Lightly armed, crested helmet with visor, armoured greaves on both legs, protector on his
sword arm & shoulder, small shield, curved sword.
Retarius – ‘net fighter’ large net, trident, arm guard, shoulder guard & dagger, most mobile, no
helmet vulnerable to wounds
Bestiaries – trained to fight & handle animals, they didn’t have swords or armour, instead carried
weapons like firebrands, whips, spears, bows, sometimes they had a team of dogs
Originally the gladiators were named after the peoples the Romans had conquered, Thracian, Gaul,
Samnite & hoplomachus. Over time the names changed e.g. Augustus renamed the Samnites the
secutor & later the Gaul the murmillo as they became increasingly Romanised.
The night before a fight the gladiators were provided with a lavish banquet on view of the public, on
one occasion Seneca record how one gladiator tricked the guards and took his own life or how one
the way to the arena a gladiator put his head into the spokes breaking his neck.
Question time
What different ways did Romans use animals in their shows? (5)
Explain how the Colosseum would impress a visitor to Rome? (5)
To what extent did the shows in the Colosseum offer the emperor and people of
Rome more than just a chance to satisfy their bloodlust?(5)