Throughout the Roman world, ceramics, lamps, gems and jewellery, mosaics, reliefs, wall paintings and statuary offer evidence, sometimes the best evidence, of the clothing, props, equipment, names, events, prevalence and rules of gladiatorial combat. Mosaics dating from the 2nd through 4th centuries AD have been invaluable in the reconstruction of combat and its rules, gladiator types and the development of the munus. In the later Imperial era, Servius Maurus Honoratus uses the same disparaging term as Cicero—bustuarius—for gladiators.
Gladiator
A match was won by the gladiator who overcame his opponent, or killed him outright. Suetonius describes an exceptional munus by Nero, in which no-one was killed, “not even noxii (enemies of the state).” At the opposite level of the profession, a gladiator reluctant to confront his opponent might be whipped, or goaded with hot irons, until he engaged through sheer desperation.
Life expectancy
As a soldier committed his life (voluntarily, at least in theory) to the greater cause of Rome’s victory, he was not expected to survive defeat. As Wiedemann points out, December was also the month for the Saturnalia, Saturn’s festival, in which death was linked to renewal, and the lowest were honoured as the highest. They included a provincial magnate’s five-day munus of thirty pairs, plus beast hunts. Many, if not most, involved venationes, and in the later empire some may have been only that.
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- A condemned bankrupt or debtor accepted as novice (novicius) could negotiate with his lanista or editor for the partial or complete payment of his debt.
- From the principate onwards, private citizens could hold munera and own gladiators only with imperial permission, and the role of editor was increasingly tied to state officialdom.
- For example, in the aftermath of the Jewish Revolt, the gladiator schools received an influx of Jews—those rejected for training were sent straight to the arenas as noxii (lit. “hurtful ones”).
- During the Imperial era, matches advertised as sine missione (usually understood to mean “without reprieve” for the defeated) suggest that missio (the sparing of a defeated gladiator’s life) had become common practice.
- Petitions could be submitted to the editor (as magistrate) in full view of the community.
- Yet, in the last year of his life, Constantine wrote a letter to the citizens of Hispellum, granting its people the right to celebrate his rule with gladiatorial games.
The event may also have been used to drum up more publicity for the imminent game. These were probably both family and public events which included even the noxii, sentenced to die in the arena the following day; and the damnati, who would have at least a slender chance of survival. As reward for these services, he drew a gigantic stipend from the public purse.
- The Spartacus revolt had originated in a gladiator school privately owned by Lentulus Batiatus, and had been suppressed only after a protracted series of costly, sometimes disastrous campaigns by regular Roman troops.
- Suetonius describes an exceptional munus by Nero, in which no-one was killed, “not even noxii (enemies of the state).”
- The munus itself could be interpreted as pious necessity, but its increasing luxury corroded Roman virtue, and created an un-Roman appetite for profligacy and self-indulgence.
- The munus thus represented an essentially military, self-sacrificial ideal, taken to extreme fulfillment in the gladiator’s oath.
- High status non-Romans, and possibly Romans too, volunteered as his gladiators.
- For the poor, and for non-citizens, enrollment in a gladiator school offered a trade, regular food, housing of sorts and a fighting chance of fame and fortune.
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A century before this, the emperor Alexander Severus (r. 222–235) may have intended a more even redistribution of munera throughout the year; but this would have broken with what had become the traditional positioning of the major gladiator games, at the year’s ending. Despite the harsh discipline, gladiators represented a substantial investment for their lanista and were otherwise well fed and cared for. A condemned bankrupt or debtor accepted as novice (novicius) could negotiate with his lanista or editor for the partial or complete payment of his debt. In the earliest munera, death was considered a righteous penalty for defeat; later, those who fought well might be granted remission at the whim of the crowd or the editor. Gladiator games were advertised well beforehand, on billboards that gave the reason for the game, its editor, venue, date and the number of paired gladiators (ordinarii) to be used.
The magistrate editor entered among a retinue who carried the arms and armour to be used; the gladiators presumably came in last. A procession (pompa) entered the arena, led by lictors who bore the fasces that signified the magistrate-editor’s power over life and death. The night before the munus, the gladiators were given a banquet and opportunity to order their personal and private affairs; Futrell notes its similarity to a ritualistic or sacramental “last meal”. Female gladiators probably submitted to the same regulations and training as their male counterparts. Other novelties introduced around this time included gladiators who fought from chariots or carts, or from horseback. In the mid-republican munus, each type seems to have fought against a similar or identical type.
The munus thus represented an essentially military, self-sacrificial ideal, taken to extreme fulfillment in the gladiator’s oath. Nero banned gladiator munera (though not the games) at Pompeii for ten years as punishment. Those judged less harshly might be condemned ad ludum venatorium or ad gladiatorium—combat with animals or gladiators—and armed as thought appropriate. In Roman law, anyone condemned to the arena or the gladiator schools (damnati ad ludum) was a servus poenae (slave of the penalty), and was considered to be under sentence of death unless manumitted. Part of Galen’s medical training was at a gladiator school in Pergamum where he saw (and would later criticise) the training, diet, and long-term health prospects of the gladiators. All prospective gladiators, whether volunteer or condemned, were bound to service by a sacred oath (sacramentum).
He was lanista of the gladiators employed by the state circa 105 BC to instruct the legions and simultaneously entertain the public. The contract between editor and his lanista could include compensation for unexpected deaths; this could be “some fifty times higher than the lease price” of the gladiator. From the principate onwards, private citizens could hold munera and own gladiators only with imperial permission, and the role of editor was increasingly tied to state officialdom. Henceforth, an imperial praetor’s official munus was allowed a maximum of 120 gladiators at a ceiling cost of 25,000 denarii; an imperial ludi might cost no less than 180,000 denarii. It involved three days of funeral games, 120 gladiators, and public distribution of meat (visceratio data)—a practice that reflected the gladiatorial fights at Campanian banquets described by Livy and later deplored by Silius Italicus.
Courage, dignity, altruism and loyalty were morally redemptive; Lucian idealised this principle in his story of Sisinnes, who voluntarily fought as a gladiator, earned 10,000 drachmas and used it to buy freedom for his friend, Toxaris. Having “neither hope nor illusions”, the gladiator could transcend his own debased nature, and disempower death itself by meeting it face to face. Yet, Cicero could also refer to his popularist opponent Clodius, publicly and scathingly, as a bustuarius—literally, a “funeral-man”, implying that Clodius has shown the moral temperament of the lowest sort of gladiator.
Role in Roman life
The use of volunteers had a precedent in the Iberian munus of Scipio lanista Africanus; but none of those had been paid. Rome’s military success produced a supply of soldier-prisoners who were redistributed for use in State mines or amphitheatres and for sale on the open market. In the later Republic and early Empire, various “fantasy” types were introduced, and were set against dissimilar but complementary types.