Gladiators Read online

  things to many people, but the reality of the uprising led by

  him exposed weaknesses and fears in the Roman Republic which

  were to have long-term consequences.

  As a background, it is worth pointing out that Sulla, the first

  of the new generation of warlords and dictator between 81 and

  79 BC, had captured Thracians during his campaign against

  Mithridates, the king of Pontus, during the 80s BC. This is one

  possible origin for the thraex type of gladiator, although the

  Romans certainly knew of the Thracians before this and were

  to encounter them again. It should also be pointed out that

  Spartacus is said to come from Thrace in our sources, not that he

  fought as a Thracian gladiator ( thraex).

  30 | GLADIATORS

  Th e sources for the war with Spartacus are painfully scarce

  and most of what we know about him was written about two

  centuries after his revolt.

  A certain Lentulus Batiatus had a school of gladiators at Capua,

  most of whom were Gauls and Th racians. Th rough no misconduct

  of theirs, but owing to the injustice of their owner, they were

  kept in close confi nement and reserved for gladiatorial combats.

  Two hundred of these planned to make their escape, and when

  information was laid against them, those who got wind of it and

  succeeded in getting away, seventy-eight in number, seized cleavers

  and spits from some kitchen and sallied out. On the road they

  fell in with wagons conveying gladiators’ weapons to another city;

  these they plundered and armed themselves. Th en they took up

  a strong position and elected three leaders. Th e fi rst of these was

  Spartacus, a Th racian of Nomadic stock, possessed not only of great

  courage and strength, but also in sagacity and culture superior to

  his fortune, and more Hellenic than Th racian. (Plutarch, Crassus

  8.1–2)

  Th ere are a number of interesting details embedded in this

  account. First, the gladiators in Batiatus’ training school do

  not appear to have had access to any weapons on the site and

  were forced to improvise using kitchen implements. Th is may

  be because the armoury was in an adjacent but not accessible

  Bestiarius (‘beast-fi ghter’)

  • Armour: none

  • Special feature: shafted weapon

  • Period: Republican and Imperial

  • Common opponent: wild animals

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  Provocator (‘challenger’)

  • Armour: helmet breastplate, armguard, greave,

  curved rectangular shield

  • Special feature: short sword

  • Period: Republican and Imperial

  • Common opponent: eques; provocator;

  murmillo

  location; indeed, at Pompeii, the only weapons found along

  with all the armour were daggers. Second, gladiators weapons

  intended for use in munera were moved around in convoys,

  presumably separately from the gladiators themselves. Finally,

  there seems to be an implication that it was not normal to keep

  gladiators in ‘close confi nement’.

  Spartacus’ small force immediately began to attract support

  from the many slaves who worked the land and ran those vast

  estates of southern central Italy. Th e Romans had dealt with

  slave uprisings before, but never one with such military expertise

  at its head. Th is immediately highlighted the ambivalent nature

  of the relationship between gladiators and soldiers: because their

  styles of hand-to-hand combat were so similar.

  If their tactics were sound, inspired even, then so too was their

  strategy, at fi rst. Taking refuge on Mount Vesuvius, overlooking

  the Bay of Naples, they repeatedly defeated over-confi dent

  Roman armies sent against them until, betrayed by the Cilician

  pirates who were supposed to provide passage out of Italy, they

  were fi nally crushed by M. Licinius Crassus, the richest man in

  Rome and one of the top warlords.

  Intriguingly, a monochromatic fresco from Pompeii, thought

  to date to between 100 and 70 BC, has been suggested as

  32 | GLADIATORS

  Spartaks graffito from Pompeii (drawing by M. C. Bishop)

  depicting Spartacus himself. It shows two combatants on foot

  with large rectangular shields, two mounted armed men with

  oval or circular shields and a trumpeter, all labelled in Oscan

  (the local language before Latin supplanted it). One mounted

  figure, named SPARTAKS in reverse (Oscan was written right

  to left), is being speared in the thigh by a pursuing rider. Some

  scholars believe this shows Spartacus depicted in his final battle

  (the historian Appian mentioned that he was wounded in the

  thigh by a spear, although no mention is made of him being

  mounted). Others suggest that it may in fact show a gladiatorial

  contest pre-dating the Spartacus War, pointing to the trumpeter

  and what might be an altar. There is no easy solution to this

  conundrum, other than to note the coincidence of the name

  (Spartaks/Spartacus), location (Pompeii, within sight of

  Vesuvius) and the date (100–70 BC).

  The Romans had long memories and Spartacus provided them

  with an additional fear to set beside their traditional dislike of

  northern barbarians (which dated back to the sack of Rome by

  Gauls in 390 BC): distrust of gladiator armies. In the future,

  only the direst of military situations would see Rome’s leaders

  resorting to recruiting forces composed of gladiators.

  Spartacus is perhaps more important for his effect on the

  modern period (and in particular the present-day impression

  of gladiators) than for his impact upon Rome. The surviving

  historical records are sparse for a very good reason: he was not

  thought to have been particularly important. Although at the

  time he posed a very real threat to the Roman state, it was never

  insuperable and he was certainly no Hannibal. In the end, skill

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  in the arena did not transfer to the real world on a long-term

  basis, but it can at least be said that he is the only gladiator ever

  to have inspired a ballet and its accompanying suite of music.

  The warlords and civil war

  With Spartacus out of the way, the Republic could resume its

  old course. Th e aristocracy had realised that the popularity of

  these games also made them a valuable political tool for securing

  votes and any excuse was found to hold them. Th e association

  between funerary games and gladiatorial combat may have been

  growing ever more tenuous, but it did not completely disappear,

  as an inscription from Carinola in Campania dating to around

  60 BC (and maintaining the association with food noted above)

  attests:

  Lucius Papius Polio of the Teretine tribe, son of Lucius, member

  of the Board of Two, gave a feast of spiced honey wine and cakes

  in honour of his father Lucius Papius of the Falernian tribe, son of

  Lucius, for all the colonists of Sinuessa and Caedex, and a show

  of gladiators and a dinner for the colonists at Sinuessa and to the

 
Papii. He set up a memorial at a cost of 12,000 sesterces from the

  will and with the approval of Lucius Novercinius Pollio, son of

  Lucius, of the Pupinian tribe. ( CIL I, 1578)

  Eques (‘horseman’)

  • Armour: helmet

  • Special feature: mounted, wearing tunic

  • Period: Republican and Imperial

  • Common opponent: eques; provocator

  34 | GLADIATORS

  Th e last century of the Roman Republic saw the rise of great

  men like Crassus, Pompey the Great and most prominently

  Julius Caesar, who commanded armies loyal to them, rather

  than to the state, and gladiatorial games became just another

  means for them to assert political infl uence. Th ey have to be

  seen in the context of the triumph, an honour awarded to a

  victorious general (although preferably not having defeated

  another Roman) at the close of campaigning. Th e triumph was a

  spectacle in its own right and had its similarities with the games,

  aff ording the general (who was also a politician, of course) a

  chance to show off his accomplishments and, inevitably, wealth.

  In 81 BC, at the tender age of just 24, Pompey even tried to

  use elephants to pull his triumphal chariot as he rode along the

  traditional route through the centre of Rome, only to fi nd they

  would not fi t through one of the arches he had to pass through,

  so the more usual horses were reluctantly substituted.

  In 66 BC, Lucius Licinius Murena wished to sponsor particularly

  spectacular games, whilst he was praetor, for direct political aims

  and Cicero was quite open in describing his intentions a few

  years later when defending him from a charge of bribery:

  But if we ourselves, who, from our constant business, have but little

  time for amusement, and who are able to derive many pleasures of

  another sort from our business itself, are still pleased and interested

  Hoplomachus (‘heavily armed fi ghter’)

  • Armour: helmet, chest plate, greave(s)

  • Special feature: spear

  • Period: Republican and Imperial

  • Common opponent: thraex; murmillo

  CHApTeR 3: RISe Of THe GLADIATORS | 35

  by exhibitions of games, why should you marvel at the ignorant

  multitude being so? (Cicero, Pro Murena 39)

  In other words, if the ‘ignorant multitude’ could be swayed by

  the provision of such games, then they were fair game. By 65

  BC, Julius Caesar hoped to provide a staggering 320 pairs of

  gladiators at the games during his aedileship, ostensibly to mark

  the death of his father (an event that had taken place 20 years

  earlier). Clearly this was a blatant ploy to curry favour with

  the ordinary people from whom he drew his political support.

  Alarmed, the senate moved to limit the number or pairs he could

  show, partly because that many armed men in the city could

  be seen as a serious threat to the status quo. Once again, the

  fear of gladiators went hand-in-hand with the love of watching

  gladiatorial combat. Worse was to come.

  In 63 BC, the nobleman L. Sergius Catilina attempted to

  lead a coup (usually known as the Catilinarian Conspiracy)

  against the existing government. The ‘army’ he had assembled

  was largely composed of assorted thugs and disaffected citizens,

  but the establishment saw the danger and reacted, moving all

  gladiators within Rome to Capua.

  The gladiators which he thought would be his most numerous and

  most trusty band, although they are better disposed than part of

  the patricians, will be held in check by our power. (Cicero, Against

  Catiline 2.26)

  As a result of Catilina’s actions, the Senate subsequently passed a

  resolution that most gladiators had to be based outside of Rome

  to avoid a repetition of these events.

  Pompey the Great found that providing spectacles could have

  its downside. In 55 BC, he had arranged for some elephants to

  fight against Gaetulian warriors from North Africa in the Circus

  Maximus. Unfortunately, things did not go to plan:

  In the second consulship of Pompeius, at the dedication of

  the temple of Venus Victrix, twenty elephants, or, as some say,

  36 | GLADIATORS

  Thra(e)x (‘Thracian’)

  • Armour: helmet, greaves, armguard, small

  circular or square shield ( parma)

  • Special feature: angled sword ( sica)

  • Period: Republican to Imperial

  • Common opponent: murmillo

  seventeen, fought in the Circus against a number of Gaetulians,

  who attacked them with javelins. One of these animals fought

  in a most astonishing manner; being pierced through the feet,

  it dragged itself on its knees towards the troop, and seizing their

  bucklers, tossed them aloft into the air: and as they came to the

  ground they greatly amused the spectators, for they whirled round

  and round in the air, just as if they had been thrown up with a

  certain degree of skill, and not by the frantic fury of a wild beast.

  (Pliny, Natural History 8.7)

  Cicero (who was busy defending a friend in the courts, so not an

  eyewitness) noted the result:

  Th e last day was that of the elephants, on which there was a

  great deal of astonishment on the part of the vulgar crowd, but

  no pleasure whatever. Nay, there was even a certain feeling of

  compassion aroused by it, and a kind of belief created that that

  animal has something in common with mankind. (Cicero, Letters

  to his Friends 7.1)

  Th e audience seemed to be siding with the elephants, which was

  not part of the plan. Th en there was another rather alarming

  development, particularly for the stadium staff :

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  Th e elephants attempted, too, by their united eff orts, to break

  down the enclosure, not without great confusion among the people

  who surrounded the iron gratings. (Pliny, Natural History 8.7)

  By this point, Pompey may justifi ably have concluded that he

  was extremely unlucky when it came to using elephants in public

  displays.

  Gladiators were not only performers in the arena. Th ey began

  to appear as strong-arm men to support political rivals. When the

  admittedly rather irritating Cato (famed for his old-fashioned

  Republican values) opposed a move to allow Pompey to enter

  Rome with armed men (traditionally not allowed), attempts

  were made to intimidate Cato and his allies:

  When Cato paused in the forum and saw the temple of Castor

  and Pollux surrounded by armed men and its steps guarded by

  gladiators, and Metellus himself sitting at the top with Caesar,

  he turned to his friends and said: ‘What a bold man, and what

  a coward, to levy such an army against a single unarmed and

  defenceless person!’ (Plutarch, Life of Cato 27.4)

  Caesar’s founding of his new gladiatorial training school for

  5,000 gladiators, the Ludus Iuliani at Capua, was viewed with

  suspicion not just because it threatened a stranglehold on the

  Veles (‘lightly armed’)

  • Armour: small round shield

  • Special f
eature: spear

  • Period: Republican to Imperial

  • Common opponent: unknown

  38 | GLADIATORS

  supply of gladiators to munera , but also because it could provide

  loyal gladiatorial thugs whenever he needed them to make a

  political point.

  In 52 BC, Caius Scribonius Curio introduced a novel

  development: a double theatre that could be rotated to form

  an amphitheatre. Caesar made some improvements to the

  forum, adding subterranean tunnels and trapdoors through

  which scenery and animals could be introduced. In doing so, he

  anticipated the features of later amphitheatres, but Dio suggests

  he also imitated Curio in building an amphitheatre, albeit

  non-rotating:

  He built a kind of hunting-theatre of wood, which was called an

  amphitheatre from the fact that it had seats all around without any

  stage. In honour of this and of his daughter he exhibited combats

  of wild beasts and gladiators. (Dio 43.22.3)

  Th ese were temporary timber structures that attempted to

  maximise the available space. It was Caesar who also introduced

  a new form of entertainment: sham naval battles ( naumachia ), as

  part of the entertainments accompanying his quadruple triumph

  in 46 BC (which, as noted above, doubled as a commemoration

  of his daughter Julia, thereby maintaining a funerary link). Now

  whether these naumachia can be counted as true gladiatorial

  Venator (‘hunter’)

  • Armour: none

  • Special feature: spear

  • Period: Republican to Imperial

  • Common opponent: wild animals

  CHApTeR 3: RISe Of THe GLADIATORS | 39

  contests (did the participants have training schools? did they

  practice regularly?) is a moot point, but they eventually became

  part of the munera as one of the spectacula on offer.

  Caesar had a special waterproofed basin constructed on a

  marshy part of the Campus Martius for a battle to be fought

  between the Carthaginian and Egyptian fleets. There were

  allegedly 4,000 oarsmen and 1,000 marines (all prisoners of war)

  in two-, three- and four-banked galleys and the event attracted

  so many visitors that people were camping on the streets.