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Pollice Verso, an 1872 painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme, is a well known history painter's researched conception of a gladiatorial combat.
Gladiators ( Latin gladiatores) were professional fighters in ancient Rome who fought against each other and against wild animals, sometimes to the death, for the entertainment of spectators. These fights took place in arenas in many cities during the Roman republic and the Roman Empire.
The word comes from gladius, the Latin word for a short sword used by legionnaires and some gladiators.
The origins of gladiator fights lie probably in the Etruscan custom of ritual human sacrifices to honor the dead. The first Roman fights took place in 264 BC in the Forum Boarium, by Marcus and Decimus Brutus, at the funeral of their father.
Public spectacles (called munera, singular munus) took place in amphitheatres (like the ColosseumThe Colosseum originally known as the Flavian Amphitheater is an amphitheater in Rome, capable of seating 50,000 spectators, which was once used for gladiatorial combat. Its construction began under the Emperor Vespasian in 72 A. and was completed by his) and took the latter half of the day after the fights against animals (venationes) and public executions (noxii). Initially rich private individuals organized these, often to gain political favor with the public. The person who organized the show was called the editor, munerator, or dominus and he was honored with the official signs of a magistrate. Later the emperors would exert a near complete monopoly on staging public entertainment which included chariot racing in the circus(ludi circenses), hunts of wild animals, public executions, theatrical performances (ludi scaenici) and gladiator fights. There was usually musical accompaniment.
Gladiators were typically picked from prisoners of war, slaves, and sentenced criminals. There were also occasional volunteers. They were trained in special gladiator schools (ludi). One of the largest schools was in RavennaFor other places named Ravenna, see Ravenna (disambiguation). Ravenna is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, population 134,631 (2001). The city is inland, but is connected to the Adriatic Sea by a canal. Ravenna once served as the seat of the R. There were four schools in Rome itself, the largest of which was called the Ludus Magnus. The Ludus Magnus was connected to the Colosseum by an underground tunnel. Gladiators often belonged to a troupe (familia) that traveled from town to town. A trainer of gladiators or the manager of a team of gladiators was known as a lanistaA trainer of gladiators or the manager of a team of gladiators in the Roman world was known as a lanista. The lanistae were frequently accused of rigging fights, faking deaths, taking bribes, and otherwise undercutting the entertainment value of death in. The troupe's owner rented gladiators to whoever wanted to stage games. A gladiator would typically fight no more than three times per year.
Gladiators could be also a property of a rich individual who would hire lanistae to train them. Several senators and emperors had their own favorites.
Criminals were either expected to die within a year (ad gladium) or might earn their release after three years (ad ludum) - if they survived.
Different gladiators specialized in different weapons, and it was popular to pair off combatants with widely different equipment. Gladiator types and their weaponry included:
Gladiators usually fought in pairs (Ordinarii), that is, one gladiator against another. However, sponsor or audience could request other combinations like several gladiators fighting together (Catervarii) or specific gladiators against each other even from outside the established troupe (Postulaticii). Sometimes lanista had to rely on substitutes (supposititii) if requested gladiator was already dead or incapacitated. Emperor could have his own gladiators (Fiscales).
At the end of a fight, when one gladiator acknowledged defeat by raising a finger, the audience could decide whether the loser should live or die. It is known that the audience (or sponsor or emperor) pointed their thumbs a certain way if they wanted the loser to be killed, but it is not clear which way they pointed. It is possible that they pointed their thumbs upwards if they wanted the loser to live, and downwards if they wanted him to die; or, they may have done the opposite, pointing downwards if they wanted the gladiator to live. Another possibility is that they raised their fist but kept their thumb inside it if they wanted the loser to live, and pointed down to signify death. A gladiator did not have to die after every match - if the audience felt both men fought admirably, they would likely want both to live and fight for their amusement in the future. A gladiator who won several fights was allowed to retire, often to train other fighters. Gladiators who managed to win their freedom - often by request of the audience or sponsor - were given a wooden sword as a memento.
The attitude of Romans towards the gladiators was ambivalent: on the one hand they were considered as lower than slaves, but on the other hand some successful gladiators rose to celebrity status. There was even a belief that nine eaten gladiator livers were a cure for epilepsy. Gladiators often developed large followings of women, who apparently saw them as sexual objects. This may be one reason that many types of gladiators fought bare-chested. It was socially unacceptable for citizen women to have sexual contact with a gladiator, but Faustina, the mother of the emperor Commodus, was said to have conceived Commodus with a gladiator (Commodus likely invented this story himself).
Despite the extreme dangers and hardships of the profession, some gladiators were volunteers (called auctorati) who fought for money; effectively this career was a sort of last chance for people who had gotten into financial troubles.
Their oath (which Seneca describes as particularly shameful) implied their acceptance of slave status and of the worst public consideration (infamia). More famous is their phrase to the emperor or sponsor before the fight: Morituri te salutant ("Those about to die salute you").
Some emperors, among them Hadrian, Caligula, Titus Flavius and Commodus also entered the arena for (presumably) fictitious or rigged combats. Emperor Trajan organized as many as 5000 gladiator fighting pairs. Gladiator contests could take months to complete.
Female gladiators also existed; The Emperor Domitian liked to stage torchlit fights between dwarfs and women, according to Suetonius in "The Twelve Caesars".
One of the most famous gladiators was Spartacus who became the leader of a group of escaped gladiators and slaves. His revolt, which began in 73 BC, was crushed by Marcus Licinius Crassus two years later. After this, gladiators were deported from Rome and other cities during times of social disturbances, for fear that they might organize and rebel again.
The Greek physician Galen worked for a while as a gladiator's physician in Pergamon.
Gladiator fights were first outlawed by Constantin I in 325 but continued sporadically until about 450. The last known gladiator competition in the city of Rome occurred on January 1, 404.
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