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GLADIATORS (from Lat. gladius, sword)
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See also:GLADIATORS (from See also:Lat. gladius, See also:sword) , professional combatants who fought to the See also:death in See also:Roman public shows. That this See also:form of spectacle, which is almost See also:peculiar to See also:Rome and the Roman provinces, was originally borrowed from See also:Etruria is shown by various indications. On an See also:Etruscan See also:tomb discovered at See also:Tarquinii there is a See also:representation of gladiatorial See also:games; the slaves employed to carry off the dead bodies from the See also:arena wore masks representing the Etruscan See also:Charon; and we learn from Isidore of See also:Seville (Origines, x.) that the name for a trainer of gladiators (lanista) is an Etruscan word meaning See also:butcher or executioner. These gladiatorial games are evidently a survival of the practice of immolating slaves and prisoners on the tombs of illustrious chieftains, a practice recorded in See also:Greek, Roman and Scandinavian legends, and traceable even as See also:late as the 19th See also:century as the See also:Indian See also:suttee. Even at Rome they were for a See also:long See also:time confined to funerals, and hence the older name for gladiators was bustuarii; but in the later days of the See also:republic their See also:original significance was forgotten, and they formed as indispensable a See also:part of the public amusements as the See also:theatre and the See also:circus. The first gladiators are said, on the authority of See also:Valerius See also:Maximus (ii. 4. 7), to have been exhibited at Rome in the See also:Forum Boarium in 264 B.c. by See also:Marcus and Decimus See also:Brutus at the funeral of their See also:father. On this occasion only three pairs fought, but the See also:taste for these games spread rapidly, and the number of combatants See also:grew apace. In 174 See also:Titus See also:Flamininus celebrated his father's See also:obsequies by a three-days' fight, in which 74 gladiators took part. See also:Julius See also:Caesar engaged such extravagant See also:numbers for his aedileship that his See also:political opponents took fright and carried a See also:decree of the See also:senate imposing a certain limit of numbers, but notwithstanding this restriction he was able to exhibit no less than 300 pairs. During the later days of the republic the gladiators were a See also:constant See also:element of danger to the public See also:peace. The more turbulent See also:spirits among the See also:nobility had each his See also:band of gladiators to See also:act as a bodyguard, and the armed troops of See also:Clodius, See also:Milo and See also:Catiline played the same part in Roman See also:history as the armed retainers of the feudal barons or the condottieri of the See also:Italian republics. Under the See also:empire, notwithstanding sumptuary enactments, the See also:passion for the arena steadily increased. See also:Augustus, indeed, limited the shows to two a See also:year, and forbade a See also:praetor to exhibit more than 120 gladiators, yet allusions in See also:Horace (Sat. ii. 3. 85) and See also:Persius (vi. 48) show that too pairs was the fashionable number for private entertainments; and in the Marmor Ancyranum the See also:emperor states that more than to,000 men had fought during his reign. The See also:imbecile See also:Claudius was devoted to this pastime, and would sit from See also:morning till See also:night in his See also:chair of See also:state, descending now and then to the arena to coax or force the reluctant gladiators to resume their bloody See also:work. Under See also:Nero senators and even well-See also:born See also:women . appeared as combatants; and See also:Juvenal (viii. 199) has handed down to eternal See also:infamy the descendant of the Gracchi who appeared without disguise as a retiarius, and begged his See also:life from the secutor, who blushed to conquer one so See also:noble and so vile.' Titus, whom his countrymen surnamed the See also:Clement, ordered a show which lasted too days; and See also:Trajan, in celebration of his See also:triumph over Decebalus, exhibited 5000 pairs of gladiators. See also:Domitian at the Saturnalia of A.D. 90 arranged a See also:battle between dwarfs and women. Even women of high See also:birth fought in the arena, and it was not till A.D. 200 that the practice was forbidden by See also:edict. How widely the taste for these sanguinary See also:spectacles extended throughout the Roman provinces is attested by monuments, See also:inscriptions and the remains of vast amphitheatres. From See also:Britain to See also:Syria there was not a See also:town of any See also:size that could not boast its arena and See also:annual games. After See also:Italy, See also:Gaul, See also:North See also:Africa and See also:Spain were most famous for their amphitheatres; and See also:Greece was the only Roman See also:province where the institution never thoroughly took See also:root. Gladiators were commonly See also:drawn either from prisoners of See also:war, or slaves or criminals condemned to death. Thus in the first class we read of tattooed Britons in their war chariots, Thracians with their peculiar bucklers and scimitars, See also:Moors from the villages See also:round See also:Atlas and negroes from central Africa, exhibited in the Colosseum. Down to the time of the empire only greater malefactors, such as brigands and incendiaries, were condemned to the arena; but by Caligula, Claudius and Nero this See also:punishment was extended to See also:minor offences, such as See also:fraud and peculation, in See also:order to See also:supply the growing demand for victims. For the first century of the empire it was lawful for masters to sell their slaves as gladiators, but this was forbidden by See also:Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius. Besides these three See also:regular classes, the ranks were recruited by a considerable number of freedmen and Roman citizens who had squandered their estates and voluntarily took the auctoramentum gladiatorium, by which for a stated time they See also:bound themselves to the lanista. Even men of birth and See also:fortune not seldom entered the lists, either for the pure love of fighting or to gratify the whim of some dissolute emperor; and one emperor, See also:Commodus, actually appeared in See also:person in the arena. Gladiators were trained in See also:schools (ludi) owned either by the state or by private citizens, and though the See also:trade of a lanisla was considered disgraceful, to own gladiators and let them out for hire was reckoned a legitimate See also:branch of See also:commerce. Thus See also:Cicero, in his letters to See also:Atticus, congratulates his friend on the See also:good bargain he had made in purchasing a band, and urges that he might easily recoup himself by consenting to let them out twice. Men recruited mainly from slaves and criminals, whose lives hung on a See also:thread, must have been more dangerous characters than See also:modern See also:galley slaves or convicts; and, though highly fed and carefully tended, they were of See also:necessity subject to an See also:iron discipline. In the school of gladiators discovered at See also:Pompeii, of the sixty-three skeletons buried in the cells many were in irons. But hard as was the gladiators' See also:lot,—so hard that See also:special precautions had to be taken to prevent See also:suicide,—it had its consolations. A successful gladiator enjoyed far greater fame than any modern See also:prize-fighter or See also:athlete.. He waspresented with broad pieces, chains and jewelled helmets, such as may be seen in the museum at See also:Naples; poets like See also:Martial sang his prowess; his portrait was multiplied on vases, lamps and gems; and high-born ladies contended for his favours. Mixed, too, with the lowest dregs of the See also:city, there must have been many noble barbarians condemned to the vile trade by the hard See also:fate of war. There are few finer characters in Roman history than the Thracian See also:Spartacus, who, escaping with seventy of his comrades from the school of See also:Lentulus at See also:Capua, for three years defied the legions of Rome; and after Antony's defeat at See also:Actium, the only part of his See also:army that remained faithful to his cause were the gladiators whom he had enrolled at See also:Cyzicus to See also:grace his anticipated victory. There were various classes of gladiators, distinguished by their arms or modes of fighting. The See also:Samnites fought with the See also:national weapons—a large oblong See also:shield, a vizor, a plumed See also:helmet and a See also:short sword. The Thraces had a small round buckler and a See also:dagger curved like a See also:scythe; they were generally pitted against the Mirmillones, who were armed in Gallic See also:fashion with helmet, sword and shield, and were so called from the See also:fish (,uopµbXos or µopubpos) which served as the See also:crest of their helmet. In like manner the Retiarius was matched with the Secutor: the former had nothing on but a short See also:tunic or See also:apron, and sought to entangle his pursuer, who was fully armed, with the See also:cast-See also:net (jaculum) that he carried in his right See also:hand; and if successful, he despatched him with the See also:trident (tridens, fuscina) that he carried in his See also:left. We may also mention the Andabatae who are generally believed to have fought on horseback and wore helmets with closed vizors; the Dimachaeri of the later empire, who carried a short sword in each hand; the Essedarii, who fought from chariots like the See also:ancient Britons; the Hoplomachi, who wore a See also:complete suit of See also:armour; and the Laquearii, who tried to See also:lasso their antagonists. Gladiators also received special names according to the time or circumstances in which they exercised their calling. The Bustuarii have already been mentioned; the Catervarii fought, not in pairs, but in bands; the Meridiani came forward in the See also:middle of the See also:day for the entertainment of those spectators who had not left their seats; the Ordinarii fought only in pairs, in the regular way; the Fiscales were trained and supported at the expense of the imperial See also:treasury; the Paegniarii used harmless weapons, and their See also:exhibition was a sham one; the Postulaticii were those whose See also:appearance was asked as a favour from the giver of the show, in addition to those already exhibited. The shows were announced some days before they took See also:place by bills affixed to the walls of houses and public buildings, copies of which were also sold in the streets. These bills gave the names of the See also:chief pairs of competitors, the date of the show, the name of the giver and the different kinds of combats. The spectacle began with a procession of the gladiators through the arena, after which their swords were examined by the giver of the show. The proceedings opened with a sham fight (praelusio, prolusio) with wooden swords and javelins. The See also:signal for real fighting was given by the See also:sound of the See also:trumpet, those who showed fear being driven on to the arena with whips and red-hot irons. When a gladiator was wounded, the spectators shouted Habet (he is wounded); if he was at the See also:mercy of his adversary, he lifted up his forefinger to implore the clemency of the See also:people, with whom (in the later times of the republic) the giver left the decision as to his life or death. If the spectators were in favour of mercy, they waved their handkerchiefs; if they desired the death of the conquered gladiator, they turned their thumbs downwards.' The See also:reward of victory consisted of branches of See also:palm, sometimes of See also:money. Gladiators who had exercised their calling for a long time, or such as displayed special skill and bravery, were presented with a wooden sword (rudis), and discharged from further service. 1904). 2 A different See also:account is given by See also:Mayor on Juvenal iii. 36, who says: " Those who wished the death of the conquered gladiator turned their thumbs towards their breasts, as a signal to his opponents ' See A. E. See also:Housman on the passage in Classical See also:Review (See also:November to stab him ; those who wished him to be spared, turned their thumbs downwards, as a signal for dropping the sword." Both the estimation in which gladiatorial games were held by Roman moralists, and the See also:influence that they exercised upon the morals and See also:genius of the nation, deserve See also:notice. The Roman was essentially cruel, not so much from spite or vindictiveness as from callousness and defective sympathies. This element of inhumanity and brutality must have been deeply ingrained in the national See also:character to have allowed the games to become popular, but there can be no doubt that it was fed and fostered by the See also:savage form which their amusements took. That the sight of bloodshed provokes a love of bloodshed and See also:cruelty is a See also:commonplace of morals. To the horrors of the arena we may attribute in part, not only the brutal treatment of their slaves and prisoners, but the frequency of suicide among the See also:Romans. On the other hand, we should be careful not to exaggerate the effects or draw too sweeping inferences from the prevalence of this degrading amusement. Human nature is happily illogical; and we know that many of the Roman statesmen who gave these games, and themselves enjoyed these See also:sights of See also:blood, were in every other See also:department of life irreproachable—indulgent fathers, humane generals and mild rulers of provinces. In the See also:present state of society it is difficult to conceive how a See also:man of taste can have endured to gaze upon a See also:scene of human butchery. Yet we should remember that it is not so long since See also:bear-baiting was prohibited in See also:England, and we are only now attaining that See also:stage of morality in respect of cruelty to animals that was reached in the 5th century, by the help of See also:Christianity, in respect of cruelty to men. We shall not then be greatly surprised if hardly one of the Roman moralists is found to raise his See also:voice against this amusement, except on the See also:score of extravagance. Cicero in a well-known passage commends the gladiatorial games as the best discipline against the fear of death and suffering that can be presented to the See also:eye. The younger See also:Pliny, who perhaps of all Romans approaches nearest to our ideal of a cultured See also:gentleman, speaks approvingly of them. Marcus Aurelius, though he did much to mitigate their horrors, yet in his writings condemns the monotony rather than the cruelty. See also:Seneca is indeed a splendid exception, and his See also:letter to Lentulus is an eloquent protest against this inhuman See also:sport. But it is without a parallel till we come to the writings of the See also:Christian fathers, See also:Tertullian, Lactantius, See also:Cyprian and See also:Augustine. In the Confessions of the last there occurs a narrative which is See also:worth quoting as a See also:proof of the See also:strange See also:fascination which the games exercised even on a religious man and a Christian. He tells us how his friend Alipius was dragged against his will to the See also:amphitheatre, how he strove to quiet his See also:conscience by closing his eyes, how at some exciting crisis the shouts of the whole See also:assembly aroused his curiosity, how he looked and was lost, grew drunk with the sight of blood, and returned again and again, knowing his See also:guilt yet unable to abstain. The first Christian emperor was persuaded to issue an edict abolishing gladiatorial games (325), yet in 404 we read of an exhibition of gladiators to celebrate the triumph of See also:Honorius over the Goths, and it is said that they were not totally See also:extinct in the See also:West till the time of See also:Theodoric. Gladiators formed admirable See also:models for the sculptor. One of the finest pieces of ancient See also:sculpture that has come down to us is the " Wounded Gladiator" of the National Museum at Naples. The so-called " Fighting Gladiator" of the See also:Borghese collection, now in the Museum of the Louvre, and the " Dying Gladiator " of the Capitoline Museum, which inspired the famous See also:stanza of Childe Harold, have been pronounced by modern antiquaries to represent, not gladiators, but warriors. In this connexion we may mention the admirable picture of See also:Gerome which bears the See also:title, " See also:Ave, Caesar, morituri to salutant." The See also:attention of archaeologists has been recently directed to the tesserae of gladiators. These tesserae, of which about sixty exist in various museums, are small oblong tablets of See also:ivory or See also:bone, with an inscription on each of the four sides. The first See also:line contains a name in the nominative See also:case, presumably that of the gladiator; the second line a name in the genitive, that of the patronus or See also:dominus; the third line begins with the letters SP (for spectatus =approved), which shows that the gladiator had passed his preliminary trials; this is followed by a day of a Roman See also:month; and in the See also:fourth line are the names of the consuls of a particular year. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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