Gladiators Blood Sport in the Roman Empire Tacitus

Gladiators Blood Sport in the Roman Empire

Tacitus on the gladiator ¬“You could easily think that the city was running wild with insane rage and unharnessed pleasure. ” ¬A quote from Tacitus’ Histories about the city in Vespacian’s time

Disgust and Delight ¬Upper class sponsors gladiators and paints pictures of them in murals in their homes, but claims to hate the combat in public ¬Roman senate declares that people who fight in gladitorial combat could lose their high status. . . Yet they had mock-fights themselves

The Rules According to Claudius ¬If a gladiator fell down (even if by accident), he had to be killed, so that the emperor could see his face as he died.

Animals and Combat ¬Animal fights grew more popular as the empire expanded and access to exotic animals from conquered provinces grew ¬Emperor appears more powerful if he can bring animal fights to the people ¬Animals are chained together to fight

Myth and Gladiators ¬Orpheus fights, but does not sing ¬Man who stole an apple = Hercules ¬Enemies of Jupiter represented by disabled fighters

Why did Romans admire them? ¬Not in Roman society, but still were famous ¬Courageous fighters ¬Got praise and were popular heroes

When the upper class plays gladiator. . . ¬Fight prostitutes dressed up as animals ¬Fight tame animals that would not really hurt them ¬Engage in mock arena fights in private

Fight to the death ¬ An *intentional* fight to the death was more rare than you might think ¬ Gladiators would often fight until surrender or injury ¬ Often fought with dull weapons ¬ Crowd could demand that the fight stop

Explaining death ¬ Gladiators control their fate on their funeral monuments ¬ Say they were victims of Nemesis (revenge) ¬ Opponent cheated ¬ Never appear in death to be the victim of the crowd or killed on a whim

All good things come to an end ¬Constantine publically declares his hatred for gladiatorial combat, but does not stop it ¬His son, Constantius II, prevents members of the imperial guard from fighting ¬By the 4 th century, emperors no longer act as sponsors ¬The result is a decline in gladiatorial combat

Conclusions ¬This is a public spectacle ¬The Romans equated this experience with going to theater ¬For the gladiator, however, this was a chance to overturn the social order of things and receive fame and fortune