Fists of Iron: Barbarian of Rome Chronicles Volume Two (35 page)

In 44 B.C., just
before Caesar’s assassination, the first state funded
munera
was held. This opened the flood-gates, and thereafter the Roman people were hooked on
gladiators. The first emperor. Augustus, recognised the potential for exploiting
this public obsession to the state’s advantage. He and his successors made
control and promotion of the
munera
an imperial monopoly. The state
learned that gladiatorial bouts, wild beast shows and other spectacles, when
sponsored and controlled by government, could actually be effective tools for
keeping public order.  In the early imperial years, when elections no longer
determined leadership – because the emperors controlled the government – the emperors
used the games to foster or increase their personal popularity.

So throughout
the Roman Empire great amphitheatres appeared.

The state also
sponsored large-scale distribution of bread and others food-stuffs to the
public via the
munera
. Senators, generals, as well as emperors came to
spend huge sums of money subsidizing the spectacles, and the policy of appeasing the
masses through both free food and brutal entertainment became known as
panem
et circuses,
or “bread and circuses,” (a circus was a long race–track used
for chariot races, but the term was used in in a more generic sense to mean
public games in general). Therefore, in the span of three or four centuries
minor single combats originally intended to appease the dead evolved into major spectacles steeped in blood that appeased the living masses.

There is, of
course, a proportion of every nation that would be attracted to the extreme cruelty
that was displayed at of the games.  As the Roman mob gradually lost all
interest in finding work (the work carried out by a huge slave population),
serving in the legions or taking any civic responsibility, the games became
increasingly more brutal and lewd. There were some Roman leaders who tried to
limit this deadly trend.  Marcus Aurelius passed a law that gladiators had to
fight with blunted weapons.   However, the popular opposition was such that he
not only had to rescind the law but was forced to increase the number of games
threefold, to 230 a year. His annual bill for gladiators alone was over one and
a half million pounds.

Curiously, Roman
philosophers were almost unanimous in their approval of the games. Cicero said,
“It does the people good to see even slaves fight bravely.  The games harden a
warrior people to sights of carnage and prepares them for battle.” Tacitus
couldn’t fathom why Tiberius didn’t like the fights, and quotes the emperor’s
habit of turning his eyes away from scenes of slaughter as sign of weakness in
his character. Pliny speaks of the games favourably and so do many other
serious Roman thinkers.

So, throughout
the Roman Empire great amphitheatres appeared, many hardly less impressive than
the ones in Rome itself: at Verona, Pompeii, Cagliari, Pozzuoli, Rimini and
Capua in Italy, El Djem, Oudna and Carthage in Tunisia, Alexandria in Egypt,
Seville and Tarragona in Spain, Durres in Albania, Trier and Xanten in
Germany,  Devnya in Hungary, Pula in Croatia, at Caesarea and Bet She’an in
Israel, Corinth in Greece, Antioch and Ephesus in Turkey, at Arles and Nimes in
France and on as smaller scale Chester, Colchester, Silchester, St Albans and
Caerleon in Britain, and many more.

Many of these
amphitheatres remain, and I’ve been fortunate to have sat in the stands of a
selection of them with a sandwich and cold beer, speculating about which gate
the animals were released from, where the inner barrier ran, and how they got
the great cats into the arena?  It’s an interesting way to spend an hour or two
for the
Romanites
among us.

With the
emergence and consequent growth of Christianity, Church fathers were to express
serious concerns about the damage that might be sustained to the Christian soul
by watching gladiatorial combats.  Of these, Augustine (later to be canonised)
was particularly vocal. Born in A.D. 354 in Numidia (now Algeria),he was
regarded as the greatest of the Latin Fathers and one of the most highly
respected Western Doctors of the Church. A prolific writer, his best known work
is the
Confessionals (C.400)
autobiography dealing with his early life
and conversion to Christianity.  It is in his work that he describes the
perversion of morality he witnessed in Alypius, one of his fellow students of
law at Carthage in the 360s, after Augustine had been cajoled into attending a
gladiator show with him:

‘When he saw the
blood, it was as though he had drunk a deep draught of savage passion. Instead
of turning away, he fixed his eyes upon the scene and drank in all its frenzy,
unaware of what he was doing.

‘He revelled in
the wickedness of the fighting and was drunk with the fascination of
bloodshed.’

According to
Augustine, things did eventually turn out right for Alypius, because he
ultimately put his trust in God.  But the story of Augustine’s pupil illustrates
the lure of the gladiator shows, even to people we least expect to be receptive
to it.

In pagan Roman
eyes, the gladiator (in spite of the adulation he received from the Roman
public) was
infamis,
occupying the very lowest level of society; and
yet, by the nature of his profession was offered the chance of regaining his manly
worth by displaying skill and bravery in the arena. The salvation thus offered
by gladiatorial combat was unacceptable to Christianity, since it was not offered
by God, but by the Roman people.

Some surviving
writings reveal that as late as the middle of the sixth century A.D.,  fifty
years after the last Roman emperor had been driven from his throne, the Colosseum
still drew large crowds to watch the beast hunts.  These games were well
attended because Rome was still a large and vital city, and for a while much
of Italy remained prosperous under the capable Germanic leader, Theodoric the
Ostrogoth.

However, shortly
after Theodoric’s death in 526 A.D., the city of Rome rapidly declined. Lacking
the administration and services that the Roman government, and to a lesser
degree, Theodoric had provided, it fell increasingly into disrepair, and its
population dwindled to a fraction of what it had been in its heyday.  The large
and complex governmental apparatus needed to pay for and stage the games, the games, as well as maintaining the massive facilities that housed them had gone.

By the end of
the sixth century, grass had begun to grow in the stands of the Colosseum and
other amphitheatres, where for centuries audiences had cheered the arena
warriors, and with a chant, a waved handkerchief and gesture of their thumbs
had decreed life or death.

Glossary of Terms

Aureus (
pl.
Aureii)
 Rome’s largest gold coin, worth twenty five denarii.

Bustuarius (
pl.
Bustuarii)
 A term for ancient gladiators, sometimes used derisively, meaning funeral fighters. From the time when gladiators fought at
bustum –
funeral ceremonies.

Denarius (
pl.
Denarii)
 After seeing Greek coins in central Italy, the Romans opened their first mint around 290 BC. The Roman denarius was a widely used silver coin and would have been marked with the Emperor’s head. During the reign of Emperor Tiberius a legionary would have earned about 230 denarii a year.

Cavea
 The tiered semi-circular seating space in the Roman theatre and amphitheatre, traditionally organized in three horizontal sections corresponding to the social standing of the spectators.

Cupid
 The Roman god of erotic love and desire.

Doctore
 The title given to a gladiator trainer.

Domina
 Roman name for mistress of house.

Falerian
 A relatively more expensive wine of high alcohol content – as high as 30% – grown in the Campania region of Roman Italy. It differed in colour on maturity from amber to dark brown.

Ferryman
 Named Etruria, the ferryman was the Roman god who delivered souls to the underworld. The equivalent of the Greek
Charon
.

First Hour
 The Roman day was divided into twelve hours. The
hora prima
– the first hour, began at sunrise. The last – the
horaduo decima
– ended at sunset.

Fortuna
 The Roman goddess of fortune and luck.

Gladius
 The short sword used by the Roman Legionary and particular styles of gladiator. Adopted from the conquered tribes of Spain, it ranged from eighteen to twenty inches in length. Primarily a thrusting weapon, it could also be used for cutting and slashing. It was the sword that gave gladiators their name.

Insula (
pl.
insulae)
 The area in Roman cities covered by six to eight apartment blocks grouped around a central courtyard. The poorer classes lived in three storey tenements blocks, while the wealthier citizens lived in a one-storey
domus
.

Ludus
 A training school for gladiators.

Mars Ultor
 Roman god of war, and the Roman Legions’ most prominent military god.

Mercuries
 Arena attendants dressed in the symbolic garb of Mercury (the Roman messenger god who accompanied the dead to the afterlife). A Mercury would utilize a heated iron to ensure that a fallen gladiator was in fact dead. If not, a fellow attendant dressed as Charon – the Roman god of the dead – would finish the gladiator off with a swift blow to the head, using a wooden mallet supplied for this purpose. Dead gladiators were dragged from the arena utilizing a sharp hook driven through the heel.

Mithras
 Mithras was a young virile god who was worshipped in the Roman Empire from the 1st to the 4th centuries A.D. The cult of Mithras spread from the east and was very popular with Roman soldiers.

Parentalia
 The popular Roman festival of this name paid respect to dead parents.

Procurator
 An Imperial Procurator was an important administrator responsible for overseeing the gladiator barracks within a province.

Pugile
 Roman boxer. Boxing (pugilatus) was very popular with the Roman public, and was deliberately made more brutal during the imperial period. The gloves’ (caestus) leather knuckleduster was to be replaced by metal spikes or a metal jagged edge that protruded towards the opponent. Fights would often end in death because of the severe injuries inflicted.

Pugio
 A broad-bladed dagger that was the sidearm of the Roman legionary.  It was the weapon of choice used by the assassins of Julius Caesar.

Quadran (
pl
.
quadrans)
 A Roman bronze coin of low value.

Quaestor (
pl.
quaestores)
 A Roman magistrate/government official.

Retiarius (
pl.
retiarii)
 Type of gladiator who was armed with a trident, a weighted net and small dagger. His left arm was protected by a leather sleeve and shoulder guard. He was regularly matched against the
secutor
.

Rudis
 A wooden sword that was the symbol of freedom given to successful gladiators on  retirement from the arena. Not to be mistaken for the
lusoriaarna
– the wooden training sword used by gladiators.

Salus
 The Roman god
of health and fitness.

Secutor (
pl.
Secutores)
 Type of gladiator whose equipment consisted of a smooth, conical helmet with
small eye-holes, a large rectangular shield, a greave on his left leg, a
protective sleeve on his right arm and the
gladius
sword.  The
secutor
was created especially for combat against the
retiarius
.

Sesterce (
pl.
Sesterces)
 An ancient Roman
coin made of silver and worth a quarter of a denarius.

Spatha
 The
spatha, or long sword, was the weapon of the Roman cavalry units. Longer than
the
gladius
, it gave the reach and cutting power needed from horseback. In the third and fourth centuries A.D. it gradually replaced the
gladius
as the Roman infantry sword.

Stola
 A traditional dress worn by Roman women that was usually sleeveless.

Tiro
 Novice gladiator.

Venatore (
pl.
Venatores)
 A gladiator trained to fight wild animals.

Warm Room
 The warm room (tepidarium) was one of the three bathrooms in both the Roman public and private baths. The others being the hot room (caldarium) and the cold room (frigidarium).

Bibliography

I am unable to claim, as Pliny
did, to have delved into 2000 volumes during the course of this work, but the
following is a selection of the many sources that enlightened me during the
course of my research:

Ancient Rome: The Rise And Fall Of An
Empire
. Simon Baker.

Ancient Rome: The Republic
.
H.L. Lavell.