Gladiators: Violence and Spectacle in Ancient Rome

409 Pages·2008·8.267 MB·English

by  Roger Dunkle

A01_DUNK7395_01_SE_FM.QXD 10/25/08 10:48 AM Page i
(cid:2)Gladiators
A01_DUNK7395_01_SE_FM.QXD 10/25/08 10:48 AM Page ii
This page intentionally left blank
A01_DUNK7395_01_SE_FM.QXD 10/25/08 10:48 AM Page iii
Gladiators
(cid:2)
Violence and Spectacle in Ancient Rome
Roger Dunkle
A01_DUNK7395_01_SE_FM.QXD 10/25/08 10:48 AM Page iv
First published 2008 by Pearson Education Limited
Published 2013 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © 2008, Taylor & Francis.
The right of Roger Dunkle to be identified as author of this work has been asserted
by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or
by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.

Notices
Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience
broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical
treatment may become necessary.

Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in
evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In
using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of
others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.

To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or editors,
assume any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products
liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products,
instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein.
ISBN: 978-1-4058-0739-5 (hbk)
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Dunkle, Roger.
Gladiators : violence and spectacle in ancient Rome / Roger Dunkle.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4058-0739-5
1. Gladiators—Rome—History. 2. Violence—Rome—History. I. Title.
GV35.D86 2008
796'.0937—dc22 2008025904
Typeset in 10/14 pt Galliardby 73
A01_DUNK7395_01_SE_FM.QXD 10/25/08 10:48 AM Page v
Contents
(cid:2)
Preface vii
Publisher’s Acknowledgements x
Chapter 1 Cultural Context and Origins of Gladiatorial Combat 1
Chapter 2 Recruitment and Training of Gladiators 30
Chapter 3 Gladiator Games in Action 66
Chapter 4 A Brief History of Gladiator Games 153
Chapter 5 A Brief History of the Arena Hunt 207
Chapter 6 The Roman Amphitheatre and the Colosseum 245
Chapter 7 Gladiators in Film 288
Notes 305
Bibliography 376
Index 386
· v ·
A01_DUNK7395_01_SE_FM.QXD 10/25/08 10:48 AM Page vi
This page intentionally left blank
A01_DUNK7395_01_SE_FM.QXD 10/25/08 10:48 AM Page vii
Preface
(cid:2)
Take up gladiators as a topic of serious study? Not a chance. That was the
way I felt about ten years ago. I had put together a lecture on gladiators that
I thought might interest a wider sampling of students in our department
and its electives.1As far as I was concerned, however, gladiators might serve
as a popular and sensationalistic come-on, but I was not prepared to go any
further with the topic. My judgement was sincere, but premature. At the
same time as I was putting together the lecture, I was teaching a course on
ancient sport that focused on the Greek side with only brief forays into the
Roman. My experience with the course taught me that Greek athletics were
an important key to the understanding of Greek culture, as essential as other
traditional subjects such as politics and philosophy. Athletics were not on
the margins of Greek culture, but in fact nearer to the centre. Could this
also be true of gladiatorial combat and Roman culture? As I began to dig
below the flashy surface of things gladiatorial, I found that I could answer
yes. It became clear to me that gladiatorial combat was not an exotic
sideshow for the Romans, but an entertainment that was integral to their
culture, demonstrating important Roman values, a virtual symbol of what it
meant to be Roman. In the back of my mind, the idea began to form of a
book that could be especially useful to students and the casual reader, and
on occasion even to the scholar.
When Pearson asked me to submit a book proposal, I decided that my
main concern in such a book would be to get the reader to see the phenom-
enon of gladiatorial combat as the Romans saw it: its organization, profes-
sionalism, competitive qualities, political character, holiday atmosphere,
and, of course, its bloody violence. It is difficult for us to judge the Romans
fairly in this area since their naïve delight in arena violence with little hint of
· vii ·
A01_DUNK7395_01_SE_FM.QXD 10/25/08 10:48 AM Page viii
PREFACE
guilt goes against the grain of modern ethical values. The modern tendency
is to decry violence of any kind, but this attitude, which was not shared as
dogmatically by the ancients, verges on the hypocritical, given our society’s
obsession with violence in entertainment. This approach, of course, is not to
imply my advocacy of gladiator duels as entertainment, but my desire to set
the record straight. On the other hand, as unattractive as arena entertain-
ments are to modern taste, the Romans cannot be dismissed as pure sadists.
There are fascinating paradoxes to be found in the sources. The undeniable
callousness of the cold-hearted gladiator ‘industry’ can be countered with
the humane side of life and death evident in the gladiator schools. Equally
interesting is the coexistence of the Roman contempt for the low social
status of gladiators with admiration for the courage these fighters display in
the arena. A similar paradox can be found in the staged animal hunts closely
associated with gladiator duels, in which the crowd can switch from enjoy-
ing the slaughter of wild animals to admiring the intelligence and skills of
trained animals without missing a beat. On the other hand, we must be pre-
pared to accept some unpleasant truths about the Romans (and even our-
selves). As Professor Heinrich Von Staden once pointed out, scholars
cannot ignore aspects of ancient cultures that offend modern sensibilities.
They must be fairly evaluated and communicated to interested readers
along with the glories of these civilizations.
Another purpose of this book is to de-emphasize (but not ignore) theor-
etical approaches to the topic, so beloved of scholars. I will discuss and eval-
uate various existing theories regarding gladiatorial combat in this book,
but will add nothing theoretical to the debate. My approach will be to place
gladiatorial combat in its cultural context, while giving an historical per-
spective to the development and decline of gladiatorial combat. The last
two chapters of the book will deal with topics that are not usually included,
or are merely mentioned in passing, in books that concentrate on gladiators.
Chapter 6 deals with the venues of gladiator shows and what it was like to
be a spectator at these sites. Chapter 7 is on gladiators in film and is import-
ant to this book, because films are probably the most significant source of
the modern public’s knowledge of gladiators. I will direct the reader’s
attention to both the virtues and the flaws of the film industry’s depiction
ofgladiators in films over the past eight decades.
Inpursuitofmypolicyofaccessibilityforthenon-professional,Iwillex-
plainaspectsofRomanculturefamiliartothescholar,butprobablyunfamiliar
· viii ·
A01_DUNK7395_01_SE_FM.QXD 10/25/08 10:48 AM Page ix
PREFACE
to the average reader, as they come up in the text. I will also translate
foreign words and titles of important scholarly works in other languages.
Abbreviations of journals and the names of ancient authors and their works
are taken from the Oxford Classical Dictionary, Liddell and Scott’s A
Greek–English Lexicon(1961 reprint) and L’Année philologique(The Year in
Philology).2 Where no generally accepted abbreviations exist, I have given
the full title of works and on a few occasions have improvised an easily
understood abbreviation, for example RG for Augustus’ Res Gestae (Acc-
omplishments). Two frequently used abbreviations referring to inscriptions
are CIL ((cid:2) Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, ‘Collection of Latin Inscrip-
tions’)andILS((cid:2)InscriptionesLatinaeSelectae,‘SelectedLatinInscriptions’).
AEstandsforL’Annéeepigraphique(TheYearinEpigraphy).Translationsof
ancientandsecondarysourcesaremyown,exceptwhentheirsourceisindi-
cated in the endnotes. When the three official names (tria nomina) of a
Roman citizen are mentioned, the first (praenomen), in accordance with
Roman custom, will be abbreviated as in the following examples: Ap. (cid:2)Ap-
pius; Aul. (cid:2)Aulus;C.(cid:2)Gaius;D.(cid:2)Decimus;Cn.(cid:2)Gnaeus;L.(cid:2)Lucius;
M’.(cid:2)Manius; N.(cid:2)Marcus;P. (cid:2)Numerius; M.(cid:2)Publius; Q. (cid:2)Quintus;
Ser. (cid:2)Servius; Sex. (cid:2)Sextus; Ti. (cid:2)Tiberius.
I would like to express my appreciation to Pearson for inviting me to
submit a book proposal, with special thanks for the invaluable help I re-
ceived from the editorial staff and freelance editors (in alphabetical order):
Mary-ClareConnellan,NatashaDupont,RuthFreestoneKing,CaseyMein,
Helen Parry, Mari Shullaw and Debra Weatherley. I must also mention the
Interlibrary Loan department at the Brooklyn College Library, without
whose help this book would not have been possible. Finally, I would feel
remiss if I did not acknowledge my gratitude to scholars who have preceded
me and have written so brilliantly on this topic. My debt to them is obvious
throughout the book.
I dedicate this book to my wife, Dr Ruth Passweg. She graciously toler-
ated a husband who, although present in the house, was in effect absent,
holing himself up in his office almost every day for three years. Moreover,
going beyond any normal call of duty, she tirelessly proofread various
versions of the manuscript, created the index and provided the invaluable
service of discovering numerous repetitions and inconsistencies in the text.
· ix ·