Ludi and munera were accompanied by music, played as interludes, or building to a “frenzied crescendo” during combats, perhaps to heighten the suspense during a gladiator’s appeal; blows may have been accompanied by trumpet-blasts. Referees were usually retired gladiators whose decisions, judgement and discretion were, for the most part, respected; they could stop bouts entirely, or pause them to allow the combatants rest, refreshment and a rub-down. Among the cognoscenti, bravado and skill in combat were esteemed over mere hacking and bloodshed; some gladiators made their careers and reputation from bloodless victories. Combats between experienced, well trained gladiators demonstrated a considerable degree of stagecraft.
Anti-corruption laws of 65 and 63 BC attempted but failed to curb the political usefulness of the games to their sponsors. Despite an already enormous personal debt, he used 320 gladiator pairs in silvered armour. Sulla, during his term as praetor, showed his usual acumen in breaking his own sumptuary laws to give the most lavish munus yet seen in Rome, for the funeral of his wife, Metella. Gladiatorial games offered their sponsors extravagantly expensive but effective opportunities for self-promotion, and gave their clients and potential voters exciting entertainment at little or no cost to themselves. The next recorded munus, held for the funeral of Publius Licinius in 183 BC, was more extravagant. Ten years later, Scipio Africanus gave a commemorative munus in Iberia for his father and uncle, casualties in the Punic Wars.
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- 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.
- There is evidence of it in funeral rites during the Punic Wars of the 3rd century BC, and thereafter it rapidly became an essential feature of politics and social life in the Roman world.
- The magistrate editor entered among a retinue who carried the arms and armour to be used; the gladiators presumably came in last.
- Whether the corpse of such a gladiator could be redeemed from further ignominy by friends or familia is not known.
- 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 republican era, private citizens could own and train gladiators, or lease them from a lanista (owner of a gladiator training school). When a freedman of Nero was giving a gladiatorial show at Antium, the public porticoes were covered with paintings, so we are told, containing life-like portraits of all the gladiators and assistants. The Punic Wars of the late 3rd century BC—in particular the near-catastrophic defeat of Roman arms at Cannae—had long-lasting effects on the Republic, its citizen armies, and the development of the gladiatorial munera.
Those condemned ad ludum were probably branded or marked with a tattoo (stigma, plural stigmata) on the face, legs and/or hands. By Domitian’s time, many had been more or less absorbed by the State, including those at Pergamum, Alexandria, Praeneste and Capua. 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. Hopkins and Beard tentatively estimate a total of 400 arenas lanista throughout the Roman Empire at its greatest extent, with a combined total of 8,000 deaths per annum from executions, combats and accidents. Marcus Junkelmann disputes Ville’s calculation for average age at death; the majority would have received no headstone, and would have died early in their careers, at 18–25 years of age. A natural death following retirement is also likely for three individuals who died at 38, 45, and 48 years respectively.
What did she see in him to make her put up with being called “the gladiator’s moll”? These accounts seek a higher moral meaning from the munus, but Ovid’s very detailed (though satirical) instructions for seduction in the amphitheatre suggest that the spectacles could generate a potent and dangerously sexual atmosphere. Caesar’s 46 BC ludi were mere entertainment for political gain, a waste of lives and of money that would have been better doled out to his legionary veterans. 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.
Combat
Roman writing as a whole demonstrates a deep ambivalence towards the gladiatoria munera. In 167 AD, troop depletions by plague and desertion may have prompted Marcus Aurelius to draft gladiators at his own expense. Opposite him on the field, Vitellius’s army was swollen by levies of slaves, plebs and gladiators. In AD 69, the Year of the Four Emperors, Otho’s troops at Bedriacum included 2000 gladiators. As the Republic wore on, the term of military service increased from ten to the sixteen years formalised by Augustus in the Principate.
- For he, following the example of no previous general, with teachers summoned from the gladiatorial training school of C.
- The bodies of noxii, and possibly some damnati, were thrown into rivers or dumped unburied; Denial of funeral rites and memorial condemned the shade (manes) of the deceased to restless wandering upon the earth as a dreadful larva or lemur.
- Some mosaics show defeated gladiators kneeling in preparation for the moment of death.
- An outstanding fighter might receive a laurel crown and money from an appreciative crowd but for anyone originally condemned ad ludum the greatest reward was manumission (emancipation), symbolised by the gift of a wooden training sword or staff (rudis) from the editor.
- The gladiators may have held informal warm-up matches, using blunted or dummy weapons—some munera, however, may have used blunted weapons throughout.
- So the gladiator, no matter how faint-hearted he has been throughout the fight, offers his throat to his opponent and directs the wavering blade to the vital spot.
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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.
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At Pompeii’s amphitheatre, during Nero’s reign, the trading of insults between Pompeians and Nucerian spectators during public ludi led to stone throwing and riots. He would not allow women to view even the gladiators except from the upper seats, though it had been the custom for men and women to sit together at such shows. A show of gladiators was to be exhibited before the people in the market-place, and most of the magistrates erected scaffolds round about, with an intention of letting them for advantage. Some “unfree” gladiators bequeathed money and personal property to wives and children, possibly via a sympathetic owner or familia; some had their own slaves and gave them their freedom.
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In Rome’s military ethos, enemy soldiers who had surrendered or allowed their own capture and enslavement had been granted an unmerited gift of life. 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”). According to Theodoret, the ban was in consequence of Saint Telemachus’ martyrdom by spectators at a gladiator munus. Honorius (r. 395–423) legally ended gladiator games in 399, and again in 404, at least in the Western Roman Empire.
In the late Republican era, a fear of similar uprisings, the usefulness of gladiator schools in creating private armies, and the exploitation of munera for political gain led to increased restrictions on gladiator school ownership, siting and organisation. No such stigma was attached to a gladiator owner (munerarius or editor) of good family, high status and independent means; Cicero congratulated his friend Atticus on buying a splendid troop—if he rented them out, he might recover their entire cost after two performances. Between the early and later Imperial periods the risk of death for defeated gladiators rose from 1/5 to 1/4, perhaps because missio was granted less often.
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.
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 had more available in Capua but the senate, mindful of the recent Spartacus revolt and fearful of Caesar’s burgeoning private armies and rising popularity, imposed a limit of 320 pairs as the maximum number of gladiators any citizen could keep in Rome. In 65 BC, newly elected curule aedile Julius Caesar held games that he justified as munus to his father, who had been dead for 20 years. Where traditional ludi had been dedicated to a deity, such as Jupiter, the munera could be dedicated to an aristocratic sponsor’s divine or heroic ancestor.
Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their lives and their legal and social standing by appearing in the arena. You can contact us via Live Chat or by writing an email to Whether you love fast-paced video slots, classic table games, massive jackpots, or the thrill of live casino tables, Lanista Casino has something for every kind of player. Lanista Casino supports multiple payment methods including Visa, Mastercard, Bitcoin, Skrill, Neteller, and bank transfers. The casino features titles from industry-leading providers such as Pragmatic Play, NetEnt, Microgaming, and Evolution Gaming.