Roman spectacles included theater, chariot racing, and gladiatorial games. Theater days were social events that also included religious ceremonies. The wealthy had the best seats. Chariot racing occurred at the Circus Maximus, which seated over 150,000 spectators. Races lasted about 15 minutes. Gladiatorial combats were held in amphitheaters like the Colosseum and featured fights between men and beasts. Gladiators included trained fighters like the murmillo and retiarius who fought with specific weapons and armor. The games were very popular but also faced criticism for their brutality.

1. Roman Spectacles

2. Theater
• Spectators included men and
women, slaves and free
individuals
• Theater days also included
religious observances and
processions that included
images of the gods
• Acoustics were very important,
given the lack of microphones
and amplifiers
• Those with the most prestige
got the best seats
Theater at Emerita Augusta
• A local noble might sponsor a (Merida, Spain)
feast or singing competition in
conjunction with a theater day

3. Circuses and Chariot Racing
• In Latin, a Circus is a
racetrack
• Rome’s Circus Maximus held
150,000-180,000 spectators
in the Augustan period and
250,000 in the reign of
Trajan
• Races were an opportunity
for the people to interact
with one another (Ovid
recommends picking up
women there) and with the
emperor
• 4-horse chariots raced 7 laps
(5.25 miles) in about 15
minutes Circus Maximus, Rome
• Each team--Red, White, Blue, (reconstruction)
and Green (plus Purple and
Gold under Domitian)--had
its supporters and betting

4. The Popularity of the Circus
• The first-century AD satirist
Juvenal wrote, “Long ago the
people shed their anxieties, ever
since we do not sell our votes to
anyone. For the people—who
once conferred imperium
(“command”), symbols of office,
legions, everything—now hold
themselves in check and
anxiously desire only two things,
the grain dole and chariot races
in the Circus” (Satires 10.77-81).
• Juvenal's famous phrase, panem
et circenses (“bread and
circuses”) has become proverbial
to describe giving away The Circus Maximus as it
significant rights in exchange for appears today
material pleasures.

5. Chariots and Charioteers
• Most Charioteers began their careers as slaves, those who were
successful soon accumulated enough money to buy their freedom.
• Roman racing chariots were designed to be as small and
lightweight as possible. Unlike military chariots, which were larger
and often reinforced with metal, racing chariots were made of
wood and afforded little support or protection for the charioteer,
who basically had to balance himself on the axle as he drove
• Wrecks were common and as popular with the audience as
crashes are with NASCAR fans.

6. Amphitheaters and Gladiatorial Games
• Gladiatorial combats not held as
often as theater days and chariot
races
• Earliest permanent amphitheater
70 BC; most famous was the Flavian
Amphitheater (Colosseum)
• The name Colosseum comes from
the colossal statue of Nero
(modified to resemble Titus or
possibly the sun god) that stood
outside (the statue had been
recycled from Nero’s Golden House,
the grounds of which the
amphitheater occupied
Colosseum, Rome
• Popularity of Gladiatorial games
attests to Roman fondness for
blood sports

7. The Colosseum
• The floor of the Colosseum was covered
with sand (harena; origin of the term
“arena”)
• The floor was outfitted with trap-doors
designed to let animals leap dramatically
into the fray.
• Under the arena was a basement, filled with
narrow passages. In this confined space,
animals and their keepers, fighters, slaves
and stage-hands toiled in the almost total
darkness to bring pleasure to Romans.
• A series of winches and the capstans would
have allowed teams of slaves to pull in
unison and hoist heavy animals from the
basement to the main arena, and this
machinery has been reconstructed, in part,
from ancient drawings - aided by the bronze
fittings that still survive in the basement's
floor. The rope-burns of the hoists are still Colosseum, interior
visible in the stone of the lift-shafts.

8. A Multi-Purpose Space
• The center of the
Colosseum could be filled
with water so that mock
naval battles could be
staged.
• The speed with which the
water could be drained and
the arena readied for the
next performance was part
of the spectacle. Mock naval battle, reconstruction

9. Gladiators
• The term gladiator means “swordsman” (from the Latin gladius, “sword”)
• The tradition of gladiatorial combat may have been adopted from the
Etruscans
• Gladiatorial games originated in sacrifices to the spirits of the dead and the
need to propitiate them with offerings of blood.
• Gladiatorial combats were introduced to Rome in 264 BC, when the sons of
Junius Brutus honored their father by matching three pairs of gladiators.

10. Who Were the Gladiators?
• Most gladiators were prisoners of war, slaves bought for the purpose, or criminals
sentenced to serve in the schools (damnati ad ludos). At a time when three of every five
persons did not survive until their twentieth birthday, the odds of a professional gladiator
being killed in any particular bout, at least during the first century AD, were perhaps one in
ten. But for the criminal who was to be publicly executed (damnati ad mortem) or for
Christian martyrs who refused to renounce their faith and worship the gods, there was no
hope of survival in the arena.
• Free men also volunteered to be gladiators and, by the end of the Republic, comprised half
the number who fought. Often, they were social outcasts, freed slaves, discharged
soldiers, or former gladiators who had been liberated on retirement but chose to return
for a period of service.
• Successful gladiators could become celebrities: graffiti from Pompeii proclaim: "Caladus,
the Thracian, makes all the girls sigh," and "Crescens, the net fighter, holds the hearts of all
the girls."

11. Types of Gladiators
• Gladiators fought in various combinations: man vs. man (or even
woman vs. woman), man vs. wild beast, various beasts against
each other
• Gladiators also fought with various weapons. Originally, captured
soldiers had been made to fight with their own weapons and in
their particular style of combat. This tradition gave rise to the
designations we see in combats of the Imperial period.
Mosaic: gladiators

12. Secutor and Retiarius
• The secutor’s right arm is protected by a manica, a wrapping of heavy linen tied with leather thongs. To protect
against the trident, the secutor also has a greave (ocrea) on his left leg (the one that was placed forward in
combat), and carries a curved rectangular shield (scutum) and sword (gladius). But it is the helmet that most
readily distinguishes him.
• The terrible symmetry of gladiatorial combat can best be appreciated in this pairing. The strategy was for the
secutor to attack his opponent, using the shield for protection. The retiarius, on the other hand, tried to keep
his distance so he could swing his net and use the trident effectively, thrusting at both the head and legs of his
pursuer.
• Unless the secutor could strike quickly, there was a danger of exhaustion from the heavier armor and, more
importantly, the helmet's constriction on breathing. If the retiarius, on the other hand, could entangle the
secutor or manage to close with his adversary, there was the chance to use the dagger, which can be seen in
his left hand.
3rd c. AD mosaic: the
retiarius strikes at the
secutor. The referee
looks on

13. Murmillo
• Except for the helmet, the
equipment of the murmillo and
secutor was the same. Both wore a
loincloth and belt, the right arm
protected by a manica of tied linen
and the left leg by a short greave.
The curved rectangular shield and
straight sword that both carried
were similar to those used by the
Roman soldier. It is the helmet of
the murmillo, with its high angular
crest and broad curved brim that is
so distinctive.
Murmillo helmet

14. Thraex and Murmillo
• The Thraex or Thracian wore the usual
loincloth and belt, and protected the right
arm with a manica. Because the shield
(parma or parmula), which Pliny describes
as round and slightly concave (Natural
History, XXXIII.129), was smaller than the
scutum of the murmillo, his traditional
adversary, longer greaves were required
to protect the legs and thighs, which were
wrapped with thick quilted fabric. The
characteristic weapon of the Thracian was
the traditional sica, a short sword with a
curved or angled blade designed to maim
the exposed areas of the back. The broad-
brimmed helmet also is distinctive.
• In this detail from a larger mosaic, the
Thraex attacks with the sword in his left
hand, which usually would hold the shield.
Gladiators were trained to fight against
those who were right-handed, and it was
the right-hand side that was protected. It
must have been disconcerting, therefore,
to confront a left-handed opponent, who
would have the advantage. Indeed, in one Thraex (left) amd Murmillo (right)
graffito, a gladiator is specifically
described as being left handed, sc(aeva).

15. Female Gladiators
• A relief from
Halicarnassus
shows 2 female
gladiators
• The inscription
gives their names
as Amazon and
Achillia

16. Bestiarius
• The bestiarii were not
gladiators, as such, but
fought for their lives in the
arena against wild beasts
• The bestiarii often were
wretched creatures,
condemned criminals or
prisoners of war, who had
little chance against the
animals they fought (Seneca, Mosaic: leopard attacking a
bestiarius
De Beneficiis, II.19).

17. Venator
• the venatores were specialists of wild animal hunts.
The popularity of these cruel spectacles was such
that, by the time they were abolished in AD 523
during the consulship of Flavius Anicius Maximus,
tens of thousands of animals had died, and entire
species were no longer to be found in their native
habitat, all having been captured or driven away.
• There were no more hippopotamuses in Nubia or
elephants in northern Africa; the lions which once
had been represented in Assyrian reliefs were gone.
• Either five thousand or ten thousand animals were
reported to have died in the dedication of the
Colosseum; eleven thousand died in the celebration
of Trajan's conquest of Dacia; and Augustus boasted
that, in the twenty-six venationes presented in his
reign, thirty-five hundred animals had been killed. Mosaic: venator
• When Pompey presented elephants (and the first
rhinoceros) at the Circus Maximus, he did so in part
to demonstrate his power over even the strongest
of beasts.

18. Gladiators and Roman Society
• The gladiator held a morbid fascination for the ancient
Romans. Their blood was considered a remedy against
impotence, and the bride whose hair had been parted
by the spear of a defeated gladiator was thought to
enjoy a fertile married life.
• Although their lives were brutal and short, gladiators
often were admired for their bravery, endurance, and
willingness to die. In forfeiting their lives in the arena,
the gladiator was thought to honor the audience, and
glory was what it could offer in return.

19. A Gladiator’s Voice
• There is not a lot of direct evidence from the
gladiators themselves, but one found a way
to speak out from beyond the grave.
• The inscription that accompanies the
funerary relief shown at right reads, “After
breaking my opponent Demetrius I did not kill
him immediately. Fate and the cunning
treachery of the referee killed me.”
• Normally, the referee intervened to stop a
fight as soon as one gladiator requested
missio (release) by signaling submission.
• The decision to grant or decline missio was
then referred to the munerarius (the person
who paid for the show) who in turn was
expected to defer to the wishes of the
people. But in this case, the referee allowed
Demetrius to get up, pick up his weapon and
fight again.
• The referee must have interpreted
Demetrius' fall as accidental and allowed him Tombstone of Roman gladiator
to get up again. Diodorus, who was buried 1,800
• Demetrius took advantage of the second years ago in Turkey.
chance and gave poor Diodorus the fatal
blow.

20. Combats in Context
• The blood lust of the spectators and emperors alike, the brutality of the combat,
and the callous deaths of men and animals still disturb modern sensibilities.
Certainly, Rome was cruel. Defeated enemies and criminals forfeited any right to a
place within society.
• In publicly witnessing such violence, citizens were reassured that the proper social
order has been restored and they, themselves, deterred from such actions.
• In this display, the games reaffirmed the moral and political order of things, and
the death of criminals and wild animals, the real and symbolic re-establishment of
a society under threat.
• In the arena, civilization triumphed over the wild and untamed, over the outlaw,
the barbarian, the enemy.
Jean-Léon Gérôme. Police
Verso (“Thumbs Down”), 1872

21. Roman Objections
• By the age of Nero cultured and elevated men
were beginning to revolt at the arena butcheries
which still delighted the mob.
• The following quotation is from a letter the 1st
century AD philosopher Seneca the Younger wrote
to his friend Lucilius.
• “I turned in to the games one mid-day hoping for a
little wit and humor there. I was bitterly
disappointed. It was really mere butchery. The
morning's show was merciful compared to it. Then
men were thrown to lions and to bears: but at
midday to the audience. There was no escape for
them. The slayer was kept fighting until he could
be slain. "Kill him! flog him! burn him alive" was
the cry: "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 that 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.” (Epistle 7)
Seneca

22. Roman Civilization
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