Jim Lohmar jmlohmarufl edu Turlington 3302 Tuesday 2

Jim Lohmar jmlohmar@ufl. edu Turlington 3302 Tuesday 2: 00 -5: 00

Violence Today From where comes this fascination? How much is too much? Is it art or merely entertainment? A “Silver Age”?

“Silver Age” Latin Seneca (Nero) Lucan (Nero) Petronius (Nero) Statius (Domitian) Silius Italicus (Domitian) Intense fascination with bloodshed and violence Seneca’s Hippolytus Lucan’s Bellum Civile Statius’ Thebaid

Some Statistical Analysis Cuts Amputations Puncture Crushing Misc. wounds blows Lines/ Casualty Homer 8 6 81 9 -- 2. 1 Virgil 4 10 43 5 -- 2. 2 Lucan -- 10 10 2 8 8. 4 Silius 5 13 70 12 8 3. 1 Statius -- 9 37 2 3 2. 9

Just to Give You an Idea… Lucan’s Bellum Civile 8. 663675 Pompey’s head and chest resound from the steel Septimius cuts open Pompey’s toga Places neck upon bench inside of boat Begins hacking at his neck with an axe “it was not yet an art…” Nerves and Veins hacked at Septimius takes Pompey’s head and exults with it

Cultural Context “Literature does not exist in a vacuum” A few possible reasons for this intense interest: - historical the amphitheater and ludi - philosophical the shattering of bodies reflects the disintegration of the world we are living in. the body of state is shattered - rhetorical Seneca’s Controversiae For our purposes, we’ll focus on the violent atmosphere of Imperial Rome and the ludi

The Roman Penal System A variety of aims come through here Retribution: “payback”; not necessarily carried out in an official manner Seneca tells us this was the favorite form of penalty for the Emperors Galba would cut the hands off of moneylenders and nail them to a table this aim has multiple purposes

Penal System Humiliation: not for physical suffering, but rather emotional runaway slaves would be tattooed with an “F” for fugitivus Correction: preferred by the philosophers Prevention: keep someone from committing same crime (Galba) Deterrence: provide a negative exemplum crucifixion

Public Displays of Punishment This is a major point of difference between us and the Romans A few things are needed for such a culture to exist: - person or administration to mount the spectacle - venue with adequate facilities - supply of people to be displayed - an approving audience

The munerarius The person who would pay for the ludi (games) Derived from munera; Latin for “gifts” Display of one’s largess Gain the favor populi Attempts to outdo one another in grandeur of games

The Amphitheater Nero’s lacus drained The Flavians give site over for public use Opens during the reign of Domitian A symbol of the city of Rome

The Flavian Amphitheater 189 meters long 156 meters wide 50, 000 – 60, 000 people (Swamp: 91, 000) Harena 83 x 48 meters Trapdoors Tunnels Vela for shade

The Circus Maximus The Circus was also a site of games The spina or euripus as obstacle 600 m x 80 m Capacity: 250, 000

The Circus Maximus

The Supply of Performers Condemned criminals Captured prisoners of war Damnati ad bestias Great majority of these sentences are capital Venatores Gladiatores

Supply of Performers This was both a tax on and display of the Romans’ power Two different statuses of criminals honestiores: higher status; would not show up in the arena humiliores: lower status; would show up in the arena

What could you see? Morning: venationes beasts hunted as if in the wild Noontime: public executions Afternoon: Gladiatores man against man

Damnati ad Bestias Criminals that were thrown to animals in a controlled environment Nero would starve dogs and let them loose on a wounded criminal Mythological scenes also staged

Gladiatores The “main event” so to speak Variations existed naumachiae: staged sea battle gladiatorial combat en masse The morituri salutation Some could become quite prolific

The Fascinating Horror So, why watch? endorse the justice system fascinated by the gruesome nature St. Augustine chance factor: the person might not actually die desire to witness death first-hand

Violence Today (Revisited) The Romans confronted gruesome death scenes first hand Today we have the filter of television and film Again, why the fascination?