Objective: Students will work individually or in pairs to create an original inscription having to do with gladiators that
reflects details of gladiators and gladiator competitions, and Romans’ views of gladiators and competitions. Your options
are:
Create a tombstone for a gladiator
Create an advertisement for a gladiator competition
Create a protest sign for a gladiator competition
In order to create a plausible inscription, students will need to conduct research using in-class resources and approved
websites to learn about the way Romans wrote and inscribed stone, what kinds of phrases they used, what kinds of pictures
they used, etc.
To make our tombstones look “Ancient Roman,” students will be supplied with tag board and other art materials. Students
will also be expected to use correct Roman spelling (recall differences between the Roman and English alphabet), Roman
numerals, Roman names, and culturally-appropriate references.
You will be graded on these areas:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Work Ethic
Creativity and appearance
Research
Grammar
Presentation
Gladiator Games Advertisement:
Who is paying to put on the gladiator spectacle?
What kinds of gladiators will fight at your games? How many?
What other types of entertainment will there be?
Other selling points – awnings, water spray, perfume spray, snacks?
When will your games be?
Who wrote the sign?
When are your games?
What will happen at your games?
What kind of gladiators will fight at your games?
TYPES OF
GLADIATORS
Murmillo
• Each type of gladiator had
unique fighting styles,
weapons, and armor.
• Most Romans preferred to
watch contests between
two different types of
gladiators rather than two
of the same. This way,
they were able to see
who’s weapons, armor,
etc. gave them the
advantage.
• Many Romans had a
favorite type of gladiators,
and came to the games to
cheer them on.
What will your writing look like?
D(ecimi) Lucreti
Satri Valentis flaminis Neronis Caesaris Augusti fili(i)
perpetui gladiatorum paria XX et D(ecimi) Lucretio Valentis fili(i)
glad(iatorum) paria X pug(nabunt) Pompeis VI V IV III pr(idie) Idus Apr(iles) venatio legitima
et vela erunt
Scr(ipsit)
Celer
Scr(ipsit)
Aemilius
Celer sing(ulus)
ad luna(m)
Dedicatione
operis tabularum Cn(aei) Allei Nigidi Mai Pompeis Idibus Iuni(i)s
pompa venatio athletae vela erunt
Nigra va(le)
M HOLCONIVM
PRISCVM II VIR I D
POMARI VNIVERSI
CVM HELVIO VESTALE ROG
Marcum Holconium Priscum II virum Iure dicundo pomarii universi, cum
Helvio Vestale rogant.
CIL 4, 202
Les marchands de fruits à l’unanimité, avec l’appui de Helvius Vestalis,
appellent à voter pour Marcus Holconius Pricus comme duumvir à pouvoirs
judiciaires.
What pictures will you use?
Symmachius
mosaic from
Madrid. Museo
Arqueologico
Nacional
Making a tombstone:
What will your writing look like?
What was the name of the deceased gladiator?
What kind of gladiator was he?
How old?
How many times did he fight? How many times was he victorious?
Tell a story about how he died.
Who made the tombstone for him?
Use Latin words where possible!
The inscription says that the stone
marks the spot where a man
named Diodorus is buried.
Diadorus was a Turkish-born
gladiator; the tombstone is written
in Greek:
“Here I lie victorious, Diodorus the
wretched. After breaking my
opponent Demetrius, I did not kill
him immediately. But murderous
Fate and cunning treachery of the
summa rudis killed me, and
leaving the light I have gone to
Hades. I lie in the land of the
original inhabitants. A good friend
buried me here because of his
piety."
The Greek inscription can be
translated as 'Passer-by, as
you look at a fleshless corpse,
can you say whether it was
Hylas or Thersites?'.
Hylas, one of the Argonauts,
was the epitome of male
beauty, while Thersites was
renowned in mythology for his
ugliness. The inscription
mocks the vanity of both the
dead and the living in a wry,
though gentle way.
Sacred to the memory of Marcus
Antonius Niger, veteran Thraex, who
lived 38 years, fought 18 times.
Flavia Diogenis erected this at her
own expense for a well-deserving
husband.
Sacred to the memory of Purricina Iuvenus,
provocator, erected by his
wife for a well-deserving husband. He lived
21 years, was in the gladiator ludus
4 years, fought 5 times
Beryllus, essedarius, freed after 20
fights, born a Greek, 25 years old.
Nomas his wife erected this for a
well-deserving husband.
Sacred to the memory of Marcus Ulpius
Felix, veteran murmillo, lived
45 years old, Tungerian by birth. Ulpia
Syntyche, freedwoman, for her
sweetest and well-deserving husband, and
Justus his son erected this.
Sacred to the memory of Urbicus,
secutor, left-handed, Florentine by
birth, who fought 13 times and lived 22
years. Olympias, the 5-month-old
daughter he left behind, and Fortunesis
her nurse, and Lauricia his wife
erected this for a well-deserving
husband with whom she lived 7 years.
I inform you that everyone he
conquered died. May the Manes who
love him take care of him.
Sacred to the memory of Glaucus, born in
Modena, fought 7 times
and died in the 8th, lived to be 23 years 5
days old. Aurelia and his
friends erected this for a well-deserving
husband. I advise you each to
find your own guiding star; put no trust in
Nemesis: I was deceived that
way. Hail and farewell.
These graffiti from Pompeii indicate
that the stereotype of women’s
attraction to gladiators can be found
in popular culture as well as in
literature.
The fifth one is fragmentary.
a. He makes the girls sigh! Celadus
the Thraex, 3 victories, 3 crowns.
b. The girls’ glory! Celadus the Thraex
c. Celadus the girls’ glory!
Sacred to the memory of Musclosus, driver
for the Red faction, born
a Tuscan, won 682 palms: 3 for the Whites,
5 for the Greens, 2 for the
Blues, 672 for the Reds. Apuleia
Verecunda his wife erected this in his
memory.
d. Thraex Celadus, retiarius
Crescens, masters of the dolls
e. Crescens the
retiarius and the girls at night ....
Protest signs:
What are you protesting?
What do you think is/are the worst part(s) of the gladiator games?
What should people stay away?
What pictures will you include to convince your audience?
Who wrote the sign?
"...it was plain butchery."
The Roman philosopher Seneca took a dim view of gladiatorial contests and the spectacle
that accompanied them. Interestingly, his criticism is not based on revulsion at the
butchery he witnesses, but because the display is boring and therefore unworthy of the
attention of a well-reasoned man. In a letter to a friend, he describes what he saw in the
arena during the reign of Emperor Caligula:
"There is nothing so ruinous to good character as to idle away one's time at some
spectacle. Vices have a way of creeping in because of the feeling of pleasure that it brings.
Why do you think that I say that I personally return from shows greedier, more ambitious
and more given to luxury, and I might add, with thoughts of greater cruelty and less
humanity, simply because I have been among humans?
The other day, I chanced to drop in at the midday games, expecting sport and wit and
some relaxation to rest men's eyes from the sight of human blood. Just the opposite was
the case. Any fighting before that was as nothing; all trifles were now put aside - it was
plain butchery.
The men had nothing with which to protect themselves, for their whole bodies were open
to the thrust, and every thrust told. The common people prefer this to matches on level
terms or request performances. Of course they do. The blade is not parried by helmet or
shield, and what use is skill or defense? All these merely postpone death.
In the morning men are thrown to bears or lions, at midday to those who were previously
watching them. The crowd cries for the killers to be paired with those who will kill them,
and reserves the victor for yet another death. This is the only release the gladiators have.
The whole business needs fire and steel to urge men on to fight. There was no escape for
them. The slayer was kept fighting until he could be slain.
'Kill him! Flog him! Burn him alive!' (the spectators roared) 'Why is he such a coward? Why
won't he rush on the steel? Why does he fall so meekly? Why won't he die willingly? "
Unhappy as I am, how have I deserved that I must look on such a scene as this? Do not,
my Lucilius, attend the games, I pray you. Either you will be corrupted by the multitude,
or, if you show disgust, be hated by them. So stay away."
"What else would living be if lions and bears held sway, if
serpents and all the creatures that are most destructive
were given supremacy over us? These, devoid of reason
and doomed to death by us on the plea of their ferocity..."
Seneca, On Mercy (I.26)
Cn(aei) Allei Nigidi
Mai quinq(uennalis) sine impensa publica glad(iatorum) par(ia) XX et
eorum supp(ositicii) pugn(abunt) Pompeis
Gavellius Tigillo
et Clodio sal(utem)
Telephe summa rudis
instrumentum muneris
u(bique) v(ale)
Diadumeno et Pyladioni fe(liciter)
VENATIONES – ANIMAL HUNTS