Unit 17

The Roman Games

Sport and Spectacle

 Unit 20

17.1 Background to the Roman

Games
17.2 Chariot Racing
17.3 Venationes & Gladiators
17.4 The Arena: Circle of

Concentration
 17.1
Background to the Roman Games
What are the most common images
of
“The Roman Games”?
 Circus Maximus

Flavian
Amphitheatre
(Colosseum/Coliseum)
 Public Executions
“The Spectacle of Death”
Soccer? (No)

Ball Hockey?? (No)

 Greek and Roman
Sport & Spectacle

• Kyle 2015: In many people’s view, “sport

(including athletics) is taken as natural,
good, civilized, amateur, and manly, but
spectacles are vulgar, decadent,
professional, and de-humanizing” (8)
Greek good …
Roman bad!
But Greek sports were also spectacles
and
Roman spectacles were also sports
 Roman Sport & Spectacle
“The roar of the crowd, the screams of animals and victims,
the smell of blood, sweat, and perfume, the flash of weapons
within the last frantic, fatal movements, the colors of the
charioteers glimpsed through the dust and jostling crowd as
the horses round the last turn…The Roman world devoted an
overwhelming amount of time, energy, money, and attention
to spectacle…[but] [t]he games carried a complex nexus of
interlocking meanings in imperial Rome; the organization,
production, and presentation of these performances
articulated social, political and cultural meaning and
provided substance and setting for the playing out of Roman
values” (Futrell 2006, ix)
 Roman Sport and Spectacle
“Rome offers insights into the allure of violent games and the mass
psychology of crowds in an urban society…Rome also offers insights into
into spectacles as instruments of cultural and political hierarchy and
hegemony” (Kyle 2015, 7)
Roman Sport and Spectacle

“Why did the Romans enjoy

watching staged, bloody
combats that frequently ended
in death? What kind of society
spends vast resources on
entertaining itself with lavish
spectacles? How can we in the
modern world even begin to
understand what was at stake
in the circus and the arena?”
(Toner 2014, 451)
"Pollice Verso" ("With a Turned Thumb"), an
1872 painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme.

The Spectacle of
Gladiatorial Violence

“Roman spectacles
cannot be understood
historically when judged
by modern humanitarian
sentiments. Empires
always have spectacles,
and sport history is not a
morality play”
(Kyle 2015, 244)
“Romans watched spectacles; they did not perform in them”
(Brunet 2014, 479)
 Sources and Methods: Rome
• Literary sources, but familiar issues
• Spans huge Empire over vast expanse of time
• Cicero, Ovid, Juvenal (panem et circenses, mens sana in
corpore sano), Seneca critical, satirical, but Martial
apparently celebratory, but ….
• Petronius, Apuleius, Suetonius, Cassius Dio, Historia
Augusta, Christian authors (condemn spectacles) …
• Archaeology: sites/facilities, reliefs, mosaics, inscriptions,
lamps, ceramics, bones etc
• Visual Art: mosaics, statues, paintings etc
 Material Evidence for Roman Sport &
Spectacle
• No 1st hand written
evidence of being a
gladiator or charioteer, nor
of “the millions of ordinary
Romans who constituted
the vast majority of
spectators” (Aldrete 2014
438).
• But material evidence
crucial for info on activities
attitudes, & experiences of
participants & spectators
(439).
 Material Evidence for Roman Sport &
Spectacle

• Physical evidence: equipment, programs, regalia from triumphal

processions.
• Epigraphy: tombstone epitaphs (set up by loved ones, fellow
fighters, etc), graffiti (“the lost voices “ of participants and fans);
proclamations, laws, evidence of contracts, coins (from the elite),
everyday objects inscribed/painted with athletic scenes, often
very violent (more evidence of ordinary fans), etc
• Other: bones
 Material Evidence for Roman Sport &
Spectacle

Graffiti by fans and gladiators : drawings, names, records, outcomes;

“Celadus, the Thracian, who makes girls sigh” (CIL 4.4397). (p.443)
 Material Evidence for Roman Sport &
Spectacle
• Gladiator helmets: more visceral than artistic
representations; dozens survive; also other
armor: examine practical aspects of the battles
(Aldrete 2014, 439)
• Similarly for other sports (athletics, chariot races)

• Make replicas; re-enactments; understand tactics

(440)
 Material Evidence for Roman Sport &
Spectacle
• Lead Curse tablets (defixiones): over 80
survive; invoke supernatural forces against
rivals, horses.
• Suggest fan involvement, belief in own agency
in affecting outcome; gambling (Aldrete 2014,
441).
• Papyri: eg program at local circus;

• Monuments erected by local magistrates

“Bind the horses whose names and images I have entrusted to you [23
horses names follow]. Bind their running, their power, their soul, their
onrush, their speed. Take away their victory, entangle their feet….(CIL
8.12508, in Gager 1992, 60-2; cited by Aldrete 2014, 441).
 Sources & Methods
Greece & Rome

• “The materials are diverse, disparate, and often

fragmentary. Ancient sport historians must visualize a
forest from a few scattered trees” (Kyle 2015, 9)
• Sources often present conflicting pictures; dates often
uncertain
• There are “problems of (often very distant) hindsight,
transmission, ideological biases, the influence of genre,
context, moralizing, and credibility” (Kyle 10)
 Approaches to Roman Sport & Spectacle

• Roman Hierarchy: Roman “Social Order”

and structure of Roman family;
Paterfamilias (male head of the family) and
senatorial patres
• Competition: to rise within system eg in
family, education, public life, military etc
• Male Domination: over slaves, women,
foreign powers, wild nature

• “Phallocentric” society: images of explicit sexual scenes,

erect penises everywhere
• Roman Body Culture: hardness, dominion over self,
women, slaves, sexual partner, foreigners
 Recuperative Sport

• Roger Caillois & “Ludus” (institutionalized games): Ludus

manifests itself in a special way in 'industrial civilization',
where the "injury to personality caused by bondage to work"
requires recuperative 'hobbies', or creative outlets that are
limited to extra-work time (Caillois 1961, 32).
• Cf “Rational Recreation” in 19th Cent Britain: “sports were to
play a major part alongside the provision of parks, museums,
libraries, and baths in the creation of a healthy, moral, and
orderly work-force”; meant to be under Middle Class, Church
control (Holt 1989, 136)
 Context & Influences

• Greek and Hellenistic Athletics, Sport, Festivals, &

Culture in general (Rome in contact with, then conquers
Greece)
• Etruscan Athletics, Sport, Festivals
• Italic culture
• Roman Amalgamation, Adaptation, Invention; Hellenism
and Anti-Hellenism
 Phersu
Tomb of the Augurs

“Phersu Games” origins of Roman Gladiatorial Games, and/or

damnatio ad bestias (“condemned to the beasts”) and public
executions?
 Etruria: Social Status
Giampiero Bevagna, “Etruscan Sport”, in Christesen & Kyle, 2014, 395-411.

• Closely linked to funeral

rites for elite, possibly
city magistrates. Public
rather than private
funerals: athletic
competitions in open
countryside (406); Strong
religious valence (405).
• No evidence of palaestra
and gymnasia.
Francoise Tomb
 Chariot Racing: The Circus

The Greeks had already had chariot-racing for centuries; (Etruscan) King of
Rome, Tarquin (616-579 BCE) seems to have established or formalized structure
of the Circus Maximus (including seating). Elites did not race.
Sport and Spectacle in the Roman
Republic
 Ludi, Religion, Sport
John Zaleski. “Religion and Roman Sport”, in Christesen & Kyle, 2014, pp.590-602

• Ludi (including those with chariot races, theatrical

performances: ludi scaenici) arose from war as “acts of
communal thanksgiving to the gods for military success or
delivery from crises” (Kyle 2015, 247).

• Series of new Ludi instituted by Senate during late 3rd Cent

BCE (attacks by Hannibal) to “save the Roman state” (Zaleski
590).

• Statues of gods presided over Circus Maximus: a “massive

shrine” to Sol (Sun), Consus (stored grain), other gods?
 Ludi, Religion, Sport
John Zaleski. “Religion and Roman Sport”, in Christesen & Kyle, 2014, pp.590-602

• Ludi Romani dedicated to

Jupiter Optimus Maximus, as
were military Triumphs.

• Roman world (and sport

world) was one “filled with
gods and devotions-not to
mention curses and the spirits
of the dead” (595).

• Taking auspices: for signs of

Zeus’ (good) will.
Jupiter
 Ludi Solemnes
• Ludus = (Latin for) “game”, “play”; Ludi = “festival”

• Ludi Solemnes (“sacred”) = Religious festivals scattered

throughout the year (Romans had no weekends off work)

• No work could take place

• Usually dedicated to particular deities: their numen: “an

invisible force that had power, life, and will” (Ward, Heichelheim
& Yeo 2014, 48).

• As religious ceremonies, proceedings could not be interrupted

(= instauratio)
 Ludi Solemnes
• Events included (depending on festival)

• Ludi Circenses (chariot races, blood sports, boxing, etc)

• Ludi Compitalicii ("crossroads games") : staged by community

associations in conjunction with the Compitalia (new year
festival) held on movable dates between the Saturnalia (Dec 17-
23) and January 5 in honour of the crossroads Lares (guardian
deities)

• Ludi Scaenici : festivals that featured “scenic games” (dramatic

performances): first introduced into Ludi Romani 240 BCE –
religious element important
 Ludi
(Religious “Games”)
Franko, “Festivals, Producers, Theatrical Spaces and Records” 2013

Ludi Romani: inst. 364/366 BCE

Ludi Florales: inst. 238 BCE

Ludi Plebeii: inst. 220 BCE.

Ludi Apollinares: inst. 212 BCE.

Ludi Megalenses: inst.204 BCE.

Ludi Cereales: inst. 201 BCE.

Roman Ludi Solemnes
 Greek Athletics
• Full compliment of Greek athletic events: from 186 BCE
• Not popular in Republican period: Roman disdain for Greek “self-
indulgence,” “immorality” & nudity
• “Too tame” for Rome? (Dunkle 2014, 391)
• Imperial Period (31 BCE- ): wider acceptance (Augustus’
promotion);

• Nero and his athletic

festival (“Neroneia”)
• Development of
athletic guilds
• Olympic Games
continued under
Roman rule
17.2 Chariot Racing

“Horses of St Mark’s Basilica“: 4th-5th

Cent CE?
Etruscan Chariot Racing
 Roman Chariot Racing

• Early Republican horse races in Campus Martius

• Chariot races in Circus Maximus: role of Tarquin (early 6th
Cent. BCE) in establishing/refurbishing it; influence of Greek
hippodrome? Also site for gladiator fights, beats fights,
triumphal processions (Kyle 2015, 248).
• Factions: privately owned, then later state-organized & run
professional chariot-racing guilds (cf similar, private fan groups)
at least from start of 2nd Cent. BCE; housed in Campus Martius.
• The colors: red, white, green, blue by at least 4th Cent. BCE.;
much evidence of fanatical following by fans (Dunkle 2014,
383)
 Roman Chariot Racing

• Factions = factiones
• Led by dominus factionis, with
conditor (manager): over 200 or
so employees (Dunkle 2014, 383)
• Hortator: outrider who paced
and encouraged horses
• Sparsor : cooled off horses with
water (water storage in spina)

 Participants: slaves, freedmen, poor; spectators were cross-

section including wealthy, senators etc (Dunkle 2014, 383).
 Statistics

• Quadriga: car or chariot drawn

by four horses abreast
• Triga : three-horse chariot
• Biga: two-horse chariot
• Weight: c.25-30kg (55-66
pounds); Width: c.155cm (5
feet); wheel diameter c.65cm
(2.1 feet); Pole to horses:
c.230cm (7.5 feet); tray floor: • 12 chariots each race; multiple
webbed leather; depth: 70cm entries of the 4 factions
• 24 races (each 8-9 mins) per
• Very light (for speed) day;
Children’s Toy Chariot & Horse
Chariot mosaic found recently in Cyprus
(https://www.realmofhistory.com/2016/08/13/rare-roman-mosaic-chariot-race-cyprus)
 Circus Maximus
Spina/Euripus:
http://www.aviewoncities.com/rome/circusmaximus.htm

the long
dividing barrier
down the
middle
To prevent a
head-on
collision (as in
the Greek
hippodrome)

• 12 Starting Gates (carceres): usually 7 laps, counter-clockwise

(approx. 5 km); speed: 35 – 75 km/hr (Bell 2014, 495)
Circus Maximus & Flavian Amphitheatre
 Circus Maximus: Ludi Circenses

• Seating capacity at peak: 150,000

• Dimensions: exterior 650m X 140 m; track: 580m X 79m (Kyle 2015, 293)
Circus Maximus Today
 Chariots Skills
• Chariot Warfare (not Romans): communication with/control of
horses (in frightening situations); significant steering agility;
ability to suddenly adjust speed, changing course, avoid
obstacles/other chariots; intuition, reading battle field; jumping
off & back on again; javelin throw, bow & arrow accuracy on
unstable moving chariot; regular weapon skills: enormous
mental & physical strength, stamina, balance, agility
• Chariot races: similar, but minus the weapons and killing
• Roman drivers: “steered using their body weight; with the reigns
tied around their torsos, charioteers could lean from one side to
the other to direct the horses’ movement, keeping their hands
free for the whip and such” (Futrell 2006, 191).
 Race Dangers
• Chariots: chariot naufragia – “shipwrecks” (two or more), wheel/axle
damage, losing wheel, condition of track (e.g. slippery from rain);
tray’s leather floor damage; team tactics (blocking/destroying rivals)
• Horses: sand in eyes, injury from opponents’ whips (deliberate to
eyes), slipping, leg damage from chariots, broken leg from wheel
entanglement; exhaustion
• Drivers: losing whip, falling from chariot, being thrown from chariot,
dragged along by reigns (around waist), run over etc (see Sophocles
Elektra 681-756); (c. 1 minute to clear debris away: Bell 2014, 495)
• The risks “were very real: flimsy chariots, crowded fields, rough tracks
and long races combined to make crashes common and (apparently)
crowd-pleasing …” (Golden 2004, 35-46)
 The Race
• Read: Silius Italicus, Punica, 303-456
(Futrell 2006, 193-95)

• Watch: brief modern race:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjXP-wstrUY
• Watch: Chariot Race (Short Documentary)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rrjtkv5QpPQ
 Ben Hur (1959)
“Of the several hundred films in the Ancient genre, not to mention all the rest of the
thousands of popular films released in the last half century, few have been as financially
successful, critically and publicly acclaimed, and influential in the popular culture as Ben-Hur
(1959) and Gladiator (2000)” (Solomon 2013, 17)
 17.3
Staged Animal Hunts (Venationes) and
Gladiatorial Combat
 Staged Animal Hunts
• Venationes: (1) men hunting beasts; (2) fights
between beasts; (3) staged executions of
criminals “condemned ad bestias” (to the beasts)
(Dunkle 2014, 388-90)

• Part of “a Mediterranean discourse on nature, power, empire, and

entertainment”. (Kyle 2015, 253)
• Originally in Circus Maximus, but in Empire staged in amphitheatres
(mornings) + gladiatorial combat (afternoon)
Republican Staged Animal Hunts (Venationes)
 Republican Staged Animal Hunts (Venationes)

• 186 BCE: Nobilor stages 1st venatio in Rome: hunt with Asian
beasts, lions, panthers killed.
• 169 BCE: venationes in Circus Maximus: 63 leopards, 40 bears,
elephants (Livy 44.18.8)
• 167 BCE: Aemilius Paullus uses elephants to trample non-
Roman deserters (257).
• Demonstrated Rome’s growth from humble urban settlement
to emerging world power; Flesh of animals eaten.
• Cruelty: hunted, baited, tormented beasts: burning fox tails,
dogs crucified annually (254). Hunting as spectacle in arena:
display of masculinity, status.
Republican Staged Animal Hunts (Venationes)

“These hunts
represented
imperial power,
suppression of
threats, provision of
security, and
protection from
uncivilized chaos
and social disorder
… exotic animals
were paraded like
alien prisoners of
war” (Kyle 2015,
Mosaic of venationes, before 30 BCE 257)
Gladiatorial Combat
 Romans appear to have been
fascinated by how people faced
death, “a fascination so compelling
that the Romans produced spectacles
at which they watched people die”
(Harrison 2000, 87).
The Spectacle of Gladiatorial Violence
Kyle: “Roman
spectacles cannot
be understood
historically when
judged by
modern
humanitarian
sentiments.
Empires always
have spectacles,
and sport history
is not a morality
"Pollice Verso" ("With a Turned Thumb”) play” (2015, 244)
(1872) by Jean-Léon Gérôme.
 “Gladiators”: The Arena
near Paestum, Southern Italy, first ½ C4 BCE
http://www.societasviaromana.net/Collegiu
m_Historicum/gladiator_intro.php

• “Gladius” = Spanish sword used by Roman soldiers; Etruscan origins

debated; had munera (blood sports) (Kyle 2015, 248); Existed in Magna
Graeca from C4 BCE.
• Origins in Campanian, Sabellian, Osco-Samnite peoples of Italy (Kyle
259).
 Gladiatorial Combat
“War games with weapons” (Kyle 2015, 258)

• Etruscan origin (Phersu

Games)?
• Republican munus/munera
(“Duties”): blood sports
funded privately by relatives
for deceased noble
(Euergetism);
• Earliest known at Rome:
264 BCE by Marcus &
• Empire: became state funded, Decimus Brutus, in the
organized by civic officials; Forum Boarium, for their
huge scale father’s funeral
 Republican Gladiators

Republican munus/munera: blood sports funded privately by

relatives for deceased noble (Euergetism)
Earliest known at Rome: 264 BCE by Marcus & Decimus Brutus, in
the Forum Boarium, for their father’s funeral
Became state funded, organized by civic officials.
 Ludi, Religion, Sport
John Zaleski. “Religion and Roman Sport”, in Christesen & Kyle, 2014, pp.590-602

• Gladiatorial fights (munus/munera): “obligation” or “duty” to

deceased relative; but later added political meanings/motives.
• Human sacrifice? Futrell argues that it was: foundational Roman
myth of Romulus and Remus (former killed latter); death of
gladiator, for Futrell was “a foundational sacrifice that restored
Rome and reaffirmed her military virtus in times of crisis” (Zaleski
595).
• Alternatively, munera focused spectator on good death of
gladiator, or survival; gladiator could “rise from the socially dead
and rejoin the society of the living” (595)/
• Flavian Amphitheatre and earlier: to god Nemesis (dispenser of
justice, fortune).
 Roman Republican Gladiators
• Earliest gladiators possibly slaves,
prisoners of war fighting to death at
aristocratic funeral.
• Became professional, trained, armed
combatant (still captive, slave)
performing in public spectacles against
other gladiator
• “War games with weapons” (Kyle 258):
represented and enhanced owners;
machismo (the “performance of
masculinity”): death a very real
possibility; Important to die well.
Roman Republican Gladiators

• 1st fights: 264 BCE, 3 pairs of

fighters; after Battle of
Canae against Hannibal (216
BCE), numbers increased
radically: 216 (22 pairs), 200
(25 pairs), 183 (200 pairs):
military sense of itself as
well as insecurity (Hannibal
almost defeated Rome)
played into phenomenon
(Kyle 261).
 Late Republic & Augustan Rome
Late Republic
• Larger scale gladiatorial games, executions, triumphs,
venationes, chariot races etc
• Sulla in 93 BCE: beast fight with 100 maned lions; killed by
javelins; in 86 BCE: transferred most events of the Greek
Olympics to Rome; in 82 BCE: 6000 Samnite rebels executed
in Circus Flaminius (near Senate).
• Pompey and Caesar followed suit, especially with extravagant
venationes
• Beginnings of Greek athletics in Rome, but remained suspect
(promoted by Augustus; gained favor later in C1-C2 CE).
 Late Republic & Augustan Rome
Late Republic
• Caesar (killed 44 BCE): shifted Republican practice of munera for
recent dead; honored father (died 20 years earlier).
• Huge Games in 46 BCE: 4 triumphs in 1 month
• Gladiators increasingly used by ambitious leaders: became
“carefully arranged duels between well-matched opponents,
providing the entertaining element of suspense and unpredictability
essential to a sport” (271). [cf. Caillois on “agon” games]
• Fully institutionalized by Augustus; funded by Emperors thereafter.
• Munera legitima: set order for events: beats shows morning; noon
meridiani (including executions); afternoon gladiators.
 Theatre and Death
Augustus the “Games Master”
• Augustus: “a master of imagery, he was profoundly aware of the
political capital of shows and of his own role-playing in public” (Kyle 278
citing Beacham, 1999, Spectacular Entertainments of Early Imperial Rome, 92-154).

• Only imperial family could henceforth stage “legitimized violence” in

Rome (284)
• Theatre of Marcellus (his son-in-law) completed 11 BCE.
• 2 BCE: venatio in which 3500 beasts killed; naumachia with 30
warships, 3000 men (not including rowers) recreated Battle of Salamis
[480 BCE; Greeks against Persians].
• Augustus very attentive to Ludi as spectator; personally supervised
shows with exotic beasts and human curiosities (dwarves; Parthian
captives, “all types of performers”) (281).
Zliten Mosaic
C1 CE
“a gladiatorial combat was a well-orchestrated pas de
deux controlled by two attentive referees” (Kyle 300).

“The display, control, and killing of grand and exotic beasts in

the arena provided entertaining and reassuring demonstrations
of Rome’s territorial extent and imperial might” (Kyle 309).
 Organizing Munera
• Typically tied to a special occasion (i.e. public funeral, holiday
etc.)
• The Editor (typically a wealthy politician) contracts a Lanista
(Gladiator trainer; Owner of a troop of gladiators)
• Editor decides if fights are to the death or not; Chooses the
numbers and types; Suggests themes
• Editor decides on life, death, or mission (often together with
the crowd)
• Distribution of goodies to the crowd
• After 27 BCE – A prerogative of the Emperors
 The Person of the Gladiator
• Citizens participating as gladiators frowned upon
• Typically a slave or prisoner of war or criminal condemned
ad amphitheatrum
• Suffered from an ambivalent image - both pollution (infamis)
and rock star
• The gladiators’ oath: “I shall suffer to be burned, bound,
beaten, and killed with the sword.” (Petronius, Satyricon 117)
• Not all bouts to the death (i.e. the reign of Marcus Aurelius);
missio = conceding defeat by raising finger
• Could survive to eventually win freedom
• Wide variety of weapons, armor, and fighting styles
The Murmillon and
the Hoplomachus

www.utexas.edu/.../img21murmhopactr.html
Murmillon
and
Thracian

www.utexas.edu/.../img21murmhopactr.html
 Secutor
and
Retiarius
www.utexas.edu/.../img21murmhopactr.html
 Female Gladiators
• Some evidence of women fighting as
gladiators (Brunet 2014; Manas 2011)
• Debate as to frequency: Brunet (2014)
says infrequent; Manas (2011) says
standard practice but not as often as
men
• Little evidence: figure (right) holding
either strigil (i.e. slave removing oil
from athlete) or gladiator (curved
dagger: Manas)
• Depiction (next slide) of pair of female
gladiators both given missio
Female Gladiators
 Advertisement from Pompeii

“The gladiatorial troop hired by Aulus Suettius

Certus will fight in Pompeii on May 31. There
will also be a wild animal hunt. The awnings
will be used.” (CIL 4.1190. Jo Ann Shelton, Doc.
391)
 Who Would be a Gladiator?
• Citizens participating as gladiators frowned upon
• Automatic infamia
• But some Emperors fancied themselves as worthy gladiators
o Caligula (37-41 CE): “Caligula practised many other arts, most
enthusiastically too. He made appearances as a Thracian
gladiator, as a singer, as a dancer, fought with real weapons,
and drove chariots in many regional circuses. Indeed, he was
so proud of his voice and deportment that he could not resist
the temptation of supporting the tragic actors at public
performances; and would repeat their gestures by way of
praise or criticism.” (Suet. Gaius. 54. Trans. R. Graves, 1957)
 Commodus (r. 180-192)
• “Besides these facts, it is related in records that he fought 365 gladiatorial combats in his
father's reign. 11 Afterwards, by vanquishing or slaying retiarii, he won enough
gladiatorial crowns to bring the number up to a thousand. 12 He also killed with his own
hand thousands of wild beasts of all kinds, even elephants. And he frequently did these
things before the eyes of the Roman people.” (HA. Commodus, 12.10-12. Trans. D. Magie,
1927).
• “Marcus, indeed, was so averse to bloodshed that he even used to watch the gladiators in
Rome contend, like athletes, without risking their lives; for he never gave any of them a
sharp weapon, but they all fought with blunted weapons like foils furnished with buttons.
And so far was he from countenancing any bloodshed that although he did, at the request
of the populace, order a certain lion to be brought in that had been trained to eat men,
yet he would not look at the beast nor emancipate his trainer, in spite of the persistent
demands of the spectators; instead, he commanded proclamation to be made that the
man had done nothing to deserve his freedom.” (Dio. 72.29. Trans. E. Cary, 1921).
• In public he nowhere drove chariots except sometimes on a moonless night, for, though
he was eager to play the charioteer in public, too, he was ashamed to be seen doing so;
but in private he was constantly doing it, adopting the Green uniform. 2 As for wild
beasts, however, he slew many both in private and in public. Moreover, he used to
contend as a gladiator; in doing this at home he managed to kill a man now and then, and
in making close passes with others, as if trying to clip off a bit of their hair, he sliced off
the noses of some, the ears of others, and sundry features of still others; but in public he
refrained from using steel and shedding human blood.” (Dio. 73.17.1-2. Trans. E. Cary,
1921).
 The Testimony of Dio
“That spectacle, of the general character I have described, lasted fourteen days. When the
emperor was fighting, we senators together with the knights always attended. Only Claudius
Pompeianus the elder never appeared, but sent his sons, while remaining away himself; for
he preferred even to be killed for this rather than to behold the emperor, the son of Marcus,
conducting himself in such a fashion. 2 For among other things that we did, we would shout
out whatever we were commanded, and especially these words continually: "Thou art lord
and thou art first, of all men most fortunate. Victor thou art, and victor thou shalt be; from
everlasting, Amazonian, thou art victor." But of the populace in general, many did not enter
the amphitheatre at all, and others departed after merely glancing inside, partly from shame
at what was going on, partly also from fear, inasmuch as a report spread abroad that he
would want to shoot a few of the spectators in imitation of Hercules and the Stymphalian
birds. 3 And this story was believed, too, because he had once got together all the men in
the city who had lost their feet as the result of disease or some accident, and then, after
fastening about their knees some likenesses of serpents' bodies, and giving them sponges to
throw instead of stones, had killed them with blows of a club, pretending that they were
giants. 21 This fear was shared by all, by us senators as well as by the rest. And here is
another thing that he did to us senators which gave us every reason to look for our death.
Having killed an ostrich and cut off his head, he came up to where we were sitting, holding
the head in his left hand and in his right hand raising aloft his bloody sword; 2 and though he
spoke not a word, yet he wagged his head with a grin, indicating that he would treat us in
the same way. And many would indeed have perished by the sword on the spot, for laughing
at him (for it was laughter rather than indignation that overcame us), if I had not chewed
some laurel leaves, which I got from my garland, myself, and persuaded the others who
were sitting near me to do the same, so that in the steady movement of our armies we
might conceal the fact that we were laughing.” .” (Dio. 20-21.2. Trans. E. Cary, 1921).
 Spartacus (1960)
(Blanshard & Shahabudin 2011, 81-100)

“The gladiator represents a

paradoxical figure [in Rome],
simultaneously revolting and
alluring. He exists at the point where
the discourse of Roman law meets
Roman religion and popular culture.
He is the most recognisable feature of
Roman culture, yet the Romans were
always keen to stress the foreign
origins of the institution. He’s elusive,
but he leaves traces everywhere.
Central, yet almost impossible to
grasp.” (90); Gladiator as sports star
and as trained beast (90-91) Spartacus: Studio photograph
Amphitheatre at Saintes, France (c.40 CE); typical use of hillside to minimize
expense

17.4
The Arena as Circle of
Concentration
 The Amphitheatre
• The Circle is “the essential shape of all concentration where a
community gathers to look at itself” (States 1985, 39).
• What did the Romans see when they peered into the
amphitheatre?
• Amphitheatre: “a purely Italo-Campanian monument without
Greek architectural antecedents” (Dodge 2014, 548).
• “The amphitheatre came to represent…the quintessential Roman
building” (Toner 2014, 452).
• “These structures, and the events that took place within them,
fostered a shared sense of community and pride, even amongst
people of different groups and classes” (Dodge 2014, 546).
 The Arena
Toner, J. “Trends in the Study of Roman Sport and Spectacle”, in Christesen & Kyle, 2014, 451-61

• Focus of architecture; awnings (the

shade of leisure, but also
compressed view); sand (harena) on
arena floor as reflecting surface. Arenas at Pompeii (above) and
Leptis Magna (Libya)
• Crowd seated according to status:
white senatorial togas lower down,
dark tunics of poor higher up –
confirmed social order.
 Early and Alternative Venues
(Futrell 2006, 53-62)

• Cemeteries: Funeral Games, usually outside city walls

• Forum Boarium: earliest munera in cattle market near Tiber (used
to getting rid of blood, carcasses); nearby Temple of Hercules)
• Roman Forum: 216 BCE munera held in “the heart of Roman
political, cultural, and religious life” (54); regular Republican venue
thereafter (forum design thereafter – length 3 units, width 2 units –
included being “suitable to the holding of spectacles”: Vitruvius
5.1.1-2); but limited seating capacity, distance one end to fight at
the other, interference of monuments etc; restriction on animal
wildness due to spectator safety) … led to arenas/amphitheatres as
more suitable space
 Amphitheatre
• Amphitheatre = “Elliptical in plan with an oval arena that was
completely surrounded by seating;” “all-around viewing,” “both”
semi-circles (of Greek theatre) (Dodge 2014, 545)
• But both in antiquity (sometimes) and currently (most of the
time) “amphitheatre” used for “Greek theatre”, “Roman theatre”
and proper “amphitheatre.”
• Equality of sight lines all around, larger capacity
• Focus of architecture: awnings (protection from sun, but also
compressed view); reflecting sand (harena) on arena floor
• Differentiation (experientially & socially): between lower down
(closer to action: senators & equites) and higher up (furthest
away: women, slaves) from 2nd Cent BCE (Dodge 2014, 553)
 Amphitheatre
• Early amphitheatres: temporary, wooden (like Roman theatre
spaces); senatorial resistance to permanent theatres &
amphitheatres for supposed negative effect on spectators
• Earliest permanent amphitheatres: Campania (region south of
Rome: Capua, Cumae, Nola, Puteoli: 1st Cent BCE); Pompeii (c.70-
65 BCE): 135m X 105m externally; no sub-structure
• Rome: one in Campus Martius (Rome: 29 BCE – burnt down 64
CE)
• Italy and Provinces: mostly towns associated with military
settlements, army training camps, veteran settlements (Dodge
2014, 548, 550-51)
• Generally on outskirts, either just within or outside city walls
(large use of space)
 Amphitheatre at
Pompeii (c.70 BCE)

Above: current condition

Right: Wall painting (House
of Actius Anicetus: after 59
CE); note refreshment stands
outside
https://www.paideiainstitute.org/
the_amphitheater_of_pompeii_fresco
Leptis Magna (Libya)
(reign of Nero: before 68 CE)
Leptis Magna (Libya)
(reign of Nero: before 68 CE)
 Flavian Amphitheatre/Colosseum

https://www.inexhibit.com/mymuseum/colosseum-flavian-amphitheater-rome/
Flavian Amphitheatre/Colosseum
 Flavian Amphitheatre/Colosseum
• Begun by Vespasian 75 CE, completed by Titus (80 CE)
• Site: artificial lake within Nero’s Palace (propaganda value)
• Financed by booty from Titus’ sack of Temple of Jerusalem
(70 CE)
• Largest of all Roman amphitheatres: concrete foundations
12m deep; façade rising nearly 50m (4 stories: 4th storey
probably added by Domitian; awning fixtures); exterior
dimension: 188m X 156m; arena 80m X 54m
• Removable wooden floor; elaborate substructure (passages,
chambers for animals, gladiators–raised on winches; enlarged
by Domitian)
 A floor still in place until 19th Cent
archaeologists removed it

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/colosseum-arena-rebuilt-20-million-322659
Flavian Amphitheatre (Colosseum)
 Flavian Amphitheatre/Colosseum

• Audience Capacity 45-55,000 - differentiated and segregated

• 76 public access points; Horizontal levels; Wedge-shaped sections
• Rows, seat numbers: “Tickets” (ceramic tessera) indicated which
entrance, level, wedge, row, seat (Futrell 2006, 63)
• Social segregation: strict separation of social rank, gender; senators and
equites lower levels (closer to action); other men next level; upper two
levels separated by 5m drop “keeping noncitizens, women and slaves well
away from the rest of the audience” (Dodge 2014, 553).
• Idealized depiction of Roman society : “The Games came to function as a
way of demonstrating to the Romans and to their subjects how society
should be organized and where the power lay” (Brunet 2014, 487).
http://romancolosseum.org/roman-colosseum-architecture/
 Arena The
at Nimes,
ArenaFrance
Toner, J. “Trends in the Study of Roman Sport and Spectacle”, in Christesen & Kyle, 2014,
451-61

Arena at Pompeii
 Staged Sea Battles
• Naumachiae were
expensive and
logistically highly
complex: so only for
special occasions
• Real or fictitious
historical contexts
• Participants: were
either damnati
(condemned
criminals) or • Staged by (at least) Julius Caesar,
prisoners of war
Augustus, Claudius, Nero, Titus, Domitian
• Real deaths (Dunkle (i.e. mid-1st Cent BCE-late 1st CE); also 247
2014, 390-91) CE (1000 year birthday of Rome)
 Gladiators and Meaning
Kyle 2015, 269-73

• “gladiatorial combat – what its actions and participants meant

to the Romans – cannot be separated from the military and
political contexts of the Middle (264-133) and Late Republic
(133-31 BCE), which included recurring, brutal warfare, anxiety
persisting from the disastrous defeat at Cannae [216 BCE
against Hannibal] the use of military captives as performers, and
the growing popularity of their impressive and entertaining
militaristic performances” (270).
• Early gladiators probably violent criminals and rebellious
slaves; in Late Republic, most were prisoners of war; images of
gladiators and soldiers increasingly overlap (272).
• What to do now with violent criminals and rebellious slaves?
 A Community Looking at Itself
• The Circle is “the essential shape of all concentration where a
community gathers to look at itself” (States 1985, 39).
• Social Hierarchy: spectators & fighters separated like Mind and
Body (cf Descartes’ pineal gland and “theatre in the head”).
• Social Hierarchy: hierarchy observed in the seating arrangement;
“Romanization” of the provinces through amphitheatres
• Irony: lowest (fighters) & highest (Emperor, Senators, Equites)
closest together (yet the elite were critical)
• Achievement/Display of manly self-control, aggressive masculinity
(dominion) & gracious submission under extreme circumstances
• Female gladiators: they are “man-like”; spur men to be more
manly?
 A Community Looking at Itself
• Enduring pain a great virtue: “War was a competition of pain: those
who could suffer the most would win” (Dupont 1992, 245).
• Battlefield demonstration of Virtus: demonstration of “simplified,
purified soldiering” (Kyle 2015, 269); focus on strategy, skills, courage
• Both demonstration and representation / recreation of virtus and of
far-off war (cf. watching war on TV);
• Victory over barbarism (the irony!)
• Military sense of itself as well as insecurity (Hannibal almost
defeated Rome) played into phenomenon (Kyle 2015, 261).
• Munera focused spectator on good death of gladiator, or survival;
gladiator (as un-free/slave) could “rise from the socially dead and
rejoin the society of the living” (Zaleski 2014, 595)
 Religion and Philosophy
Kyle 2015, 269-73

• Honoring a great man with games where mortality confronted

• Philosophy (Seneca): human life has no missio (deliverance);
models wise man on gladiator (as long as gladiator performs his role
properly) (Barton 1993, 18-19)
• Gladiators overcame death by dying well, overcame compulsion to
fight by “enthusiastic complicity” (Kyle 269); sacrificial victim needs
to be willing
• Gladiator oath: to be “burned by fire, bound in chains, to be
beaten, to die by the sword” (270).
• Empowerment of spectators through participation in decision
• Social violence minimized through promotion of violent games
inside set boundaries of Ludi
 The Spectacle of Death
in the Empire

Sport and “Costumed Executions” as Theatre in the Roman Empire

 Theatricalization in the Empire
• Days devoted to state funded Ludi: from 65 (Augustus) to 93
(Claudius) to 135 (Marcus Aurelius): “entertainment industry” (Kyle
2015, 290).
• Increasing brutality and number of deaths (beasts and men),
sometimes under ruthless Emperors (Caligula, Nero, Domitian,
Commodus).
• Military triumphs as glamorizing self-displays (eg Nero in 68 CE after
collecting 1808 victory wreaths in Greece 66-67 CE) (Kyle 297).
• Opening of Flavian Amphitheatre in 80 CE: 100 days of extravagant
spectaculars: 9000 animals killed, infantry battles, mock naval battles,
gladiator combats, beast hunts, horse race (Kyle 306).
• Message: “the generous provision of wonders for the people and the
demonstration of the power of the just and godly emperor in
upholding social, natural, and imperial order” (Kyle 307).
 Reality TV and Gladiatorial Combat

• “There will be gladiator games again in the not too

distant future. There will be performances where people
will be actually killed. There is already an indication of
this in television, everything is moving in that direction:
reality TV. What will that mean for the theatre? Will the
theatre become part of it, will it be integrated or will it
find another route and remain symbolic? That is the
essential question” (Heiner Müller, 1995, cited in Weber
2001, 228).
 Sources
Toner, J. “Trends in the Study of Roman Sport and Spectacle”, in Christesen & Kyle,
2014, 451-61
Aldrete, Gregory. “Material Evidence for Roman Spectacle and Sport”, in Christesen
& Kyle, 2014, pp.438-49
Dunkle, Roger. “Overview of Roman Spectacle” in Christesen & Kyle, 2014, pp.381-
94
Zaleski, John. “Religion and Roman Spectacle”, in Christesen & Kyle, 2014, pp.590-
602.
Fagan, Garrett G. “Gladiatorial Combat as Alluring Spectacle”, in Christesen & Kyle,
2014, pp.4656-77
Futrell, A. The Roman Games. Wiley-Blackwell, 2006.
Gruen, Eric S. Culture and National Identity in Republican Rome. 1992
Gibbs, Matt, Milorad Nikolic and Pauline Ripat, eds. Themes in Roman Society and
Culture. Don Mills, Ont.: Oxford University Press. 2014
 Sources
Fagan, Garrett G. “Gladiatorial Combat as Alluring Spectacle”, in Christesen & Kyle,
2014, pp.4656-77
Futrell, A 2006. The Roman Games. pp.89ff

Epplett, Chris. “Spectacular Executions in the Roman World”, in Christesen & Kyle
2014, pp.520-32;
Kyle, Donald. Sport and Spectacle in the Greek and Roman World. Wiley-Blackwell,
2014.

Coleman, K.M. “Fatal Charades” Roman Executions Staged as Mythological

Narratives”. Journal of Roman Studies 80, (Nov.1990), pp.44-73
Harrison, George W.M. 2000. Seneca in Performance. Classical Press of Wales.

Weber, Carl. 2001. Heiner Müller Reader. John Hopkins UP.

Blanshard, Alastair J.L. and Kim Shahabudin. Classics on Screen: Ancient Greece and
Rome on Film. Bloomsbury, 2011