GLADIATOR FIGHTS

Munera

From gladius=sword

Gladiator

• Habet duos gladios.

Gladii et Scutum

Helmet

Can you see?

Pompeii’s famous amphitheater

Idea for “Gladiator”

Amphitheater at Pompeii

WHO?

• At first- soldiers

• Later-

• slaves

• POWs

• criminals

TREATMENT

• Cruel

• Chained in barracks

• Schools for training them

examples

• A. 1st gladiators-264 BCE – 3 pair at funeral games (munera=funeral games)

• B. at Pompeii-30 pair; lasted 5 days

• C. Julius Caesar (65 BCE) 320 pair to honor his father

• D. Emperor Trajan 4941 pair –lasted 4 months

• E. graffiti in Pompeii describes a

examples

• Gladiator “suspirium et decus puellarum”=

• “a heart-throb and the glory of the girls”

EQUIPMENT

• All had helmet, breast plate, leg pieces.

• Many kinds of gladiators; we’ll focus on 4 main kinds;

• Remember the Romans liked an uneven match.

THRACIAN (Thrax)

• Lightly armored

• Small round shield

• Curved dagger

Thracian

Gaul- Myrmillo

• Sword

• Shield

• helmet with a fish

SAMNITE

• Most heavily armored

• Covered head to toe

• Large rectangular shield

• An axe

RETARIUS

• Net fighter

• Trident

• Shoulder guard

Retarius

WORDS to start

• First they parade around the arena. • Then they say to the Emperor as they stop in

front of his box with their right hand extended: “Ave, Imperator, morituri te salutamus.”

• Hail, Caesar, we who are about to die salute you!

• (Ave=Salve)

The appeal

• Given to admit defeat or give up

• Lift a finger on left hand and ask for mercy

• It’s up to audience to decide

• Thumbs up-you live

• POLLICE VERSO=with the thumb turned

• Thumbs down-you die

Pollice verso

• Consulting the crowd…

7. Wooden sword

• Given when a fighter had fought well and long and could now retire

Panem et circenses

• Bread and circuses

• Juvenal said it: “The people who once used to have power, high office, legions, everything, now restrains itself and , anxious, desires only two things: bread and circuses.”

Free bread

• Beginning in the 2nd c. BC the government began to distribute free grain to the poor.

• It is really handouts or welfare.

• The games were given by government officials who wanted to impress the people who paid nothing to attend.

Colosseum

Colosseum

Colosseum

Colosseum

Colosseum

Colosseum

My wish

• Someday I’ll get to Rome!

Quid est?

Quid est?

Quid est?

Quid est?

• Throw a coin in and you’ll return.

SPARTACUS

• A Roman slave who led a slave revolt

• They defeated several Roman armies between 73-71 BCE before they were crushed by the Romans.

• He was a Thracian fighter.

Spartacus

• He gained military experience in the auxiliary forces of the Roman army.

• 70 gladiators broke out of a gladiator school in Capua (down the Via Appia in southern Italy).

• 1000s of runaway slaves joined them.

73 BCE

• 73 BCE-

• They defeated some quickly gathered defense corps.

72 BCE

• They defeated 3 Roman armies (both

• consuls lost to Spart and so did the army

• of governor of Gaul).

Let’s leave!

• They plundered estates. They hid on Mt. Vesuvius.

• They traversed Italy.

• Could’ve left in north through the Alps but his men wanted to stay in Italy beating up the Romans.

• Crassus is called!

O mala fortuna!

Oh,no-Not Crassus!

Oh,no-Not Crassus!

Crassus

• Crassus and his 40,000 men round up Spart and kill them.

• Most are killed. Many returned to their masters. If no master could be found then

• 6000 were crucified along the Appian Way between Capua & Rome.

EFFECTS

• 1. this convinced slave owners to treat the slaves more leniently (kinder).

• 2. helped to bring on a political crisis in Rome

Effects of slave revolt

• 3. landowners saw the danger of large number of slave workers in the countryside and that the whip & chain were not productive so they replaced some slave workers with free tenant farmers (paid rent to use the land).

slavery

• Scholars think slaves outnumbered free citizens three to one.

• Slaves worked in mines, fields, and homes, and were the doctors and teachers in ancient Rome.

slaves

• “Clothes: a tunic 1 ¼ meters long, and a cloak, every 2 years. Whenever you issue a new tunic or cloak, take back the old one for patching. You should see that each slave gets a good pair of clogs every 2nd year.”

• Cato 140 BCE On Farming

slaves

• “I am always very upset when my slaves fall ill & die, especially the younger ones- but I am able to set them free before they die. I also allow slaves to make a will.”

• Pliny the Younger Letters 97-109 CE

slaves

• “Claudius put the freedman Felix in charge of the army and chose him to be governor of Judea. When Harpocras was free he put on gladiator shows. But the emperor’s greatest favorites were his personal assistant, Narcissus, & his court treasurer, Pallas. These men made huge fortunes in money.” Suetonius 130 CE

• The Lives of the Twelve Caesars.