THE Gladiators were the golden boys of the Roman Arena.  Many of these highly trained and specialised fighting men became seriously rick if they survived. Others became highly sought after sex symbols, strong desired by respectable Roman matrons and aristocratic women.

Now the Gala Theatre in Durham City is staging an exhibition: Gladiators, a Cemetery of Secrets, which tells the story of these superstars.

It is based on evidence gathered from an archaeological dig in York. The site turned out to be part of a large cemetery on the outskirts of Eboracom (the Roman name for York) and just over the river from the fortress and depot of the elite 6th Legion.

Further investigations of the site of the 80 burials by archaeologists suggested that these might be the remains of a group of gladiators who had followed their violet profession during the Roman Occupation of York.

More analysis is revealing more about the lives and deaths of this group of professional fighting who made their reputations in a violent and often bloody world involving sword, shield, spear, trident, armour, nets, blood and sand.

Architecturally, the El Jem amphitheatre is much more blocky in build than the Coliseum in Rome, due to being built of weaker sandstone which requires thick walls to support the weight of the four tiers of seating. The arches are narrower and columns are limited to half relief with Corinthian and composite capitals. But the same sandstone that enforces this heavy building style also gives it a glorious golden glow when the light is right.

Figure 2: outside view showing the solid construction and half-relief columns

The visitor can stand in the centre of the arena and marvel at the tiers of seating looking down at him, imagining the horror of being a gladiator fighting his fellows or wild beasts in a mock hunt (the latter being the more common spectacle, at least in North Africa with good access to dangerous animals). Then one can go down into the corridor that runs under the arena floor to see the rooms where the gladiators and beasts were kept prior to being let out into the African sun to fight for their lives in front of a baying crowd.

Figure 3: corridors under the arena where wild animals were kept prior to fights

Like other Roman amphitheatres, there are broad circular corridors within the walls at the level of each tier, punctuated by several staircases between the tiers, and entrances onto the seating areas. This redundancy allowed the excited crowds (that probably numbered up to thirty thousand) could enter and leave the amphitheatre without people being crushed. If there’s one thing Roman architects understood, it would be crowd management. Nowadays, large parts of these corridors are still accessible to the visitor.

Figure 4: broad circular gallery within the wall for easy movement of the crowds onto and off the seating tiers

One feature not seen in European amphitheatres is a network of pipes to channel rainwater from the seating terraces into cisterns so that during the rare rains the amphitheatre acted as a water collection facility. The same has been found in some of the villas that have been excavated – complex arrangements of pipes and tanks to capture and store all possible rainfall. For although the climate was less arid back then, it was still dry by European standards and there was no river to rely on as in Egypt.

The decline of Roman Thysdrus was sudden. In AD 238 it was involved in a small rebellion caused by harsh sentences imposed on rich local youths, which escalated with the murder of the Roman procurator and the declaring of the provincial governor as emperor, triggering civil war. When the rebellion was crushed, troops of the Emperor Maximinus Thrax wrecked the town and it never really recovered, other Tunisian towns taking over its role as market centre for olive oil.

The El Jem amphitheatre is certainly impressive and is one of the seven sites in Tunisia designated World Cultural Heritage Sites by UNESCO. It is well worth seeing, and should be on the agenda of any visitor to Tunisia.

This is one of my series of articles about ancient sites I visited in Tunisia. If you enjoyed this, please visit the others:

The Antonine Baths of Roman Carthage

Dougga Roman Town

The Tophet of Carthage

Thuburbo Majus Roman Town

Cover of Gladiator (Widescreen Edition)

This bountiful blubber layer was the result of their diet. Gladiators were, contrary to popular belief, highly prized and costly creatures and were fed well. Gladiator bones from a cemetery in Ephesus, Turkey, show high levels of bone repair; this may not have been due completely to calcium and vitamin D but to strontium. Though to keep their calcium levels up, they drank a brew of charred wood and bone ash. Gladiators were vegetarians. Their diet consisted of mainly lentils, legumes and grains. Gladiators were known as hordearii, the “barley men”. Onions, garlic, wild lettuce, dried fruit and bread made from fermented farro were also part of their rations. Gladiators ate large portions and ate at least three times a day. The gruel seen in Gladiator is half-right, yes, they would have eaten porridge like meals, but before going into the arena, the men had a large meal – “the last supper” so to speak.

Image via Wikipedia

The Roman legions marched on their stomachs and their stomachs were filled with savoury grains. Farro is an ancient wild wheat grown in the Mediterranean since prehistoric times. It is also known as emmer wheat and was one of the first grains to be domesticated. Farro, with its nutty flavour, was the mainstay of a Roman soldier’s rations. Soaked and then ground into a paste it was made into something like modern polenta. The men may have even been paid in farro. Analysis of army latrines in the castra, camps, shows high grain consumption. The soldiers had small grain mills to grind fresh flour for their bread, panis castrensis. Depending on which Roman writer one reads, the Roman legions are described as being vegetarian or omnivorous. There is a report of legions mutinying when forced to eat meat after their grain rations ran out. Their diet changed as the empire expanded, after all, one eats what is available. Bones excavated from British and German sites show that meat was on the menu: ox, sheep, goat, pig, deer, boar, hare, elk, wolf, fox, badger, beaver, bear, vole, ibex and otter. Variety was the spice of life for them. Most large animals, like cows and ox, would have been used for moving goods and for milk, rather than meat, and meat would have spoiled in the warmer seasons.

So it is a case of heavy on the beans on toast and light on the bacon. The effects of a mostly vegetarian diet made these men fat, fit and fabulously strong.

For further information: http://www.archaeology.org/0811/abstracts/gladiator.html

http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/romanfood/a/RomeSoldierDiet.htm

http://www.housebarra.com/EP/ep01/02romanfood.html

See also: http://trifter.com/europe/united-kingdom/the-eagle-the-history-behind-the-film-of-the-ninth-legion/

http://socyberty.com/history/gladiator-gals/

http://authspot.com/poetry/cawthorn-crows/

At the funeral of Patroclus, the cousin of Achilles, Homer writes of the sacrifice of prisoners of war. In fact, the Etruscan tomb-paintings found in Italy make a great display of it as well, and often in different cities north of the Tiber. It is unknown exactly when these grisly rituals began, or where, but it has been determined to be a part of Etruscan history and such incidents have been dated as far back as the 6th Century BC. Surely, through some macabre religious rituals in devotion to dead warriors, the ideas themselves could date back more than a thousand years prior.

In the 6th Century B.C., Rome came under Etruscan rule. Through this ruling it is said that Rome came to adopt many of Etruria’s habits, traditions, and ceremonies. This particular origin of the gladiatorial combats is described by the Greco-Syrian historian Nicolaus of Damascus. One particular allusion to such an origin is the fact that after each gladiator’s death, he/she was picked up, piece by piece if necessary, and hauled out of the amphitheatre by one dressed as the Etruscan death-demon Charun who carried a pole-hammer.

Inglorious Gladiators

Through such ceremonious duels to the death, gladiators became highly popularized. Not individually, but as spectator-sports-men. Often, many would be pitted against few. The Emperor Caligula, for instance, matched five against a group of net and trident wielders. Multiple duels or mass murders were also frequent. And another custom adopted from the Etruscan traditions was the animal hunt.

The “glory of Rome” was equally counter-balanced by its ritualistic barbarism. It has been said that only the Nazi death camps can match the cruelty by the numbers.

The Colosseum was built between AD 70 and 80 and became what we could call the show-room for the gladiatorial combats. It would be the central Roman theatre of violence for another three centuries, six if you include the beast hunts. Even Constantine the Great, after his conversion to Christianity, continued to support the fights.

The Abolition of Gladiators

It was in AD 399 that Honorius closed all the gladiator schools in Rome. Later, in AD 403-4, the poet Prudentius continued to write to the Emperor, urging him to forbid the use of the games in the death-sentencing of criminals. His urgings preceded a final crisis in another Roman town where such a sentencing was being held.

The story reached the Emperor Honorius of a monk from Asia Minor named Telemachus who rushed into an arena to stop a fight. The monk’s actions infuriated the crowd into a frenzy in which they seized the monk and literally tore him limb from limb. Honorius used this opportunity to abolish all gladiatorial operations once and for all.

For gladiators the story ends there, but the beast-hunts continued to be used as entertainment well into the 7th Century AD.

More from Adam Henry Sears:

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Twilight: Good, Bad, or Ugly?,

12 Quotes To Inspire All Writers,

The True Haiku And Its Origins,

Venusian Temple

Gladiatrices Amazon and Achillea on a relief from Halicarnassus, Turkey: Image via Wikipedia

Imagine the scene – the roar of the crowd under a hot summer sun echoes around the round stone structure, then two warriors enter and the crowd falls silent at the sight of them. The two gladiatrices Amazon and Achillea face off in the centre of the arena as the roar begins again and grows to a crescendo. Gladiatrices were female gladiators in the Roman Empire.

Gladiators were the celebrity athletes of the Roman Empire. Unlike their portrayal in film, not all gladiators were slaves, although many were war captives. There was a gladiator’s school near Naples, Italy, and freepersons were permitted to join. Freemen lost their civil rights upon joining and were declared ‘infamous’. At Puteoli duels starred Ethiopian gladiators, race was irrelevant. Slave or not, they were, in fact, too expensive to throw away. They rarely died on the field, unless they were unfortunate enough to be in Rome’s Coliseum and performing in front of the Emperor and on the losing end of a battle and then the Emperor demanded their death. Huge sums would have been paid in compensation to the gladiator’s owner. Gladiators only fought a few weeks of the year and gladiatorial events lasted a few days.

In the film Gladiators there is a chariot driving gal. For a gladiatrix mainly one on one duels were allowed although there is a literary reference to a gladiatrix driving a Celtic style chariot, an essediarius. Female gladiators competed approximately a week a year. Nero sponsored games in AD 55 and AD 63 with gladiatrices. Domitian had gladiatrices perform torch lit duels against dwarves. It is thought gladiatirces fought without helmets and bare-chested. If some did wear breastplates the armour would have weighed 30 pounds and been lined with felt. It has not been determined if a gladiatrix trained at a school or under a private tutor, but there is a death notice from one school : “To the divine shades of Valeria Iucunda, who belonged to the body of the iuvenes. She lived 17 years, 9 months.”

Being a gladiator was a high-risk low status job. It was not considered suitable for women. Senators passed laws to stop gals joining; they made the recruitment of daughters and granddaughters of aristocrats and senators illegal. Severus tried to ban single combat because there too many upper class women joining the ranks of gladiators. Freeborn women who become gladiatrices did so for their own reasons. The job attracted fans and high fees. As they had joined voluntarily, they were guaranteed a minimum price per fight.

Archaeology supports the existence of the female gladiator. Achillea was from Halicarnassus in what is now modern day Turkey. Amazon and Achillea fought each other in Halicarnassus and both were declared winners. In Southwark, a female Roman skeleton, buried outside the main cemetery was identified as a gladiatrix. The Museum of London based this on various finds from the grave, including a pottery lamp of Anubis showing a fallen gladiator and bowls containing burnt pine cones, pine cones were burnt during the games. In Credenhill, Herefordshire, nearby what was the roman town of Kenchester, the body of a muscular woman was found. She was buried in the suburb rather than the cemetery, as was the law, and in a wooden coffin, as evidenced by the remaining nails and decorative bronze strips.

Women in the Roman Empire led fairly constrained lives, especially amongst the nobility. Outside of becoming a courtesan or priestess, being a gladiatrix, was for some high-born young women and wives, one of the few ways for them to take control of their lives.

For further information:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1291446/Archaelogists-muscular-body-female-gladiator-Britain.html

See also: http://authspot.com/poetry/under-the-foot-of-orion/

            Rome flourished under two distinct government types; a republic, and an empire.  The former is a basis for much of our government today.   As a republic, Rome had a senate that was made up of representatives of the people. This senate would make all major decisions for the country.  In a republic, the people have more power to control the government than in an empire. As an empire, Rome had an emperor that had total control over Rome.  In a perfect world, an empire would be the best form of government, but since we do not live in a perfect world, it does not work.  If we had a flawless man as an emperor, it would work to perfection, but men always have flaws.  This is why I think a republic is better than an empire.  A republic will never be as effective or as good as a perfect emperor, but it will never be as bad as a terrible emperor.  A great example of this was during the Pax Romana when there were many good emperors.  However, during Nero’s reign he burnt Rome to the ground.  An empire can give both good and bad results.  Additionally, a republic gives some power to the people. In an empire, all of the power resides with the emperor.

            Rome had many feats of architecture and engineering.  The Romans built the coliseum, a great aqueduct system, and an advanced road system.  The coliseum served as a gathering point for all of Rome where they could gather and watch gladiatorial games.  The aqueduct system of Rome, a masterpiece in itself, allowed for other great engineering feats, such as public baths.  The aqueducts carried fresh water into Rome, making it a healthier, more productive city. The road system of Rome rivaled many of today’s roads. The huge system of Roman roads made it possible for troops and supplies to be distributed quickly and effectively, making such a large empire possible.

            Roman times were filled with incredible brutality and violence. I think today as a society, we still are equally violent; it is just expressed differently than in Rome. In Rome thousands of people would gather to watch people brutally slaughter each other. Today we do not watch this violence for real, but we still enjoy watching horror and action movies where people die in horrible and gruesome ways. I think these movies show that people still are as brutal and violent today as they were in Roman times. I think today we still invade countries for “tribute”.  In my opinion oil was a large part of why we went into Iraq. We still conquer nations for economic reasons as the Roman did thousands of years ago. We are still very much the same men as we were in Roman times.

            Rome was a great civilization. We can learn much about ourselves by studying where we come from. The movie Gladiator helped me understand the time period of Rome tremendously. The movie showed me what much of the architecture of the era looked like as well as how they dressed.  It also helped impress upon me how truly brutal the gladiatorial games of Rome were.   Rome had tremendous engineering and architectural accomplishments such as the coliseum and its system of roads. Rome was governed by two very different systems in its thousand year existence. The Roman republic was the basis for our government.  Rome was a brutal violent place, but I do not think it is truly any different than today’s society. In summary, Rome was a grand city, but not without its faults. It influenced us greatly, and as thus, should be looked back on and remembered, for good or for ill.

Image via Wikipedia

Armorial of the Holy Roman Empire represents the internal divisions in Roman Empire. “Quaternion Eagle” was one rendition of the coat of the empire and woodcut by Hans Burgkmair and shows different parts of the Roman Empire on the feathers of an eagle with double head. Empires on each side of the feather are divided into four parts. The shields larger in size are of seven Prince Electors and on the centre of the woodcut is Christ on the cross.

Each of the shields represents state of the Roman Empire.

First, Circus Maximus played a big role in today’s games because it is almost like NASCAR or the Indy 500.  Before the race began, a Pompa, or a colorful parade, would pass through the stadium.  The parade started with the director in a purple toga, and then followed public officials, priests, charioteers, and patricians.  This exciting parade is like a pre-game event and the chariot racing would follow.  Chariots would have to complete 7 laps, or 2.5 miles, while avoiding racers trying to crash into them.  If the rider fell off, he would have to forfeit the race.  Almost like baseball jerseys teams wear today, charioteers would wear different colored shirts to designate what team they rode for.  Circus Maximus held approximately 150,000 people and would normally be filled up.  This was a big sense of fun for Romans’, but they also enjoyed other events that involved gladiators and animals fighting until the death.

As the coliseum opened in 80AD, a new type of Roman entertainment started to become so popular, over 4,000 lions were killed.  This entertainment was a battle between either two people or one person and animals.  The gladiators were minorities, for example, criminals, prisoners, slaves, and a select few were payed volunteers.  Gladiator fights were related to the WWF and Ultimate fighting people can see on television today.  This event impacted the modern society because it brought showed how exciting fighting and wrestling can be to watch.  Hundreds of lions or animals would be caged below the arena and brought up when a battle was about to start.  Trapdoors would lead these blood thirsty lions to the stadium floor where the gladiator would be.  Using his techniques and wits, fighters would skillfully kill off every animal coming above or would have no choice but to be fed to the lion.  In addition, the coliseum was also used to reenact naval battles by using aqueducts to flood the arena.  Ships would be brought in and would show the battle as it would have looked like.  Romans knew how to enhance about every form of entertainment, including the theaters and arts.

Amphitheatrum, meaning, “Seeing all sides”, was a Roman origin.  Theater shows would be held in outdoor oval shaped structures called amphitheaters with seats encompassing three-quarters of the building.  Below the amphitheater was a basement where animals, scenery, and props were kept.  Identical to drama today, modern societies have adopted Roman entertainment greatly and enjoy it the same.  In addition, the Romans would have morals woven into their playwrights, basically like the folk tales read today.  It is true that modern societies adopt their own cultures and create new customs; however, Rome influenced modern nations affectively in the entertainment category.

In conclusion, Rome had a significant impact on modern society its entertainment is a basis to the sports and games we enjoy today.  The Romans worked out many activities that are almost the same as the ones people play today.  Without the Romans’ love for entertainment, modern nations would not be where they are today.

Queen Boudicca (d. 61 BC)

In 43 CE, the Romans invaded Britain, forcing many Celtic tribes to submit. Only two tribes were allowed to keep some of their power. Boudicca’s husband, Prasutagus was one of them. When he died, Boudicca stepped up as leader. The Romans decided they wanted complete rule of the Icenii. Boudicca was publicly flogged, her daughters raped, and many of the royal family members were sold into slavery. Boudicca, outraged at such humiliation, led an insurrection against the Romans. She burned down several cities, the main one being Londinium (modern day London) and massacred its entire inhabitants of 25,000. Boudicca’s last battle would end in defeat due to the hunger and exhaustion of her army. Her fate is unknown, and some stories have her either dying in battle or consuming poison.

The Gladiatrix Achillia and Amazon

Once upon a time, the Romans had to get their kicks and giggles by watching gladiators fight in the arenas. A little known historical fact, is women were also amongst those who fought for their lives. They were known as the Gladiatrix. Little is known about these women since the men were more popularized. However, Achillia and Amazon were indeed truly great warriors. They were immortalized in a stone relief taken from Halicarnassus. In the relief, the women stand face to face with swords drawn and shields raised in an eternal stance. It is said that they won their freedom, having fought one another to near death.

Tomoe Gozen

She was described as being beautiful as well as a strong warrior. She is heralded in Japanese history as being a true samurai. She served her husband Yoshinaka at the end of the 12th century. More legend surrounds her than fact. But what is known, was that she was brave and loyal to her husband. Fighting beside him at the battle of Awazu, Yoshinaka ordered her to flee rather than face capture. Instead she held off the enemy long enough to allow her husband to commit suicide. She then brought down the enemy’s strongest warrior, Onda, and sliced off his head. What happened to Tomoe after the battle is still somewhat of a mystery. Some say she lived the rest of her life as a Buddhist nun.

Queen Suriyothai

Suriyothai was a Thai queen during the 16th century. When her country was invaded by the King of Siam, her husband King Mana Chakapat, rode into battle atop his war elephant. Women were not allowed to partake in battle. But so concerned was Suriyothai for her husband’s safety, that she dressed as a man and rode into battle on her own war elephant. The king collapsed in battle, and Suriyothai rode over to him. During her attempt to save the king, she was slain.

Just like most sporting events in many of the ancient cultures, the Roman gladiatorial combat originated as a religious event. The Romans stress very much that their tradition of gladiatorial games was adopted from the Etruscan’s, but there is very little evidence to support this. Although there is still doubt gladiators came from the Etruscan’s, all the gladiators, no matter where they came from, started and completed their training the same way.

Gladiators were trained at special schools, which were originally owned by private citizens, but later, they were taken over by the imperial state to prevent the build up of a private army. Gladiators trained like true athletes, a lot like professional athletes do today, because they train every day, for as much time as they can, and they also don’t give in. They also received medical attention whenever they needed it, and three healthy meals every day. Most of their training included learning how to use various weapons, such as the war chain, the net, the trident, the dagger, and the lasso. But, as young gladiators, they trained with wooden swords that would not really hurt them if they got hit. This was used until they became full pledged gladiators, and started fighting for real. Now, after their training was complete, they would have to make a choice as to which type of gladiator they would want to become.

Choosing which type of gladiator you want to become would be sort of tricky, because every type of gladiator trains a different way, with different types of weapons. So you have to choose according to what you would feel comfortable fighting in. There are 5 types of gladiators. These are: Eques, Essedarii, Galli, Thraeces, and last but not least, Etiarii. No matter what type of gladiator you become, you always start out training with a wooden sword until you become better, and start using more sophisticated weapons. The Mirmillos and Samnites used the same kinds of weapons for battles. These were: short swords, long shields, large helmets, long scimitars, and bucklers, which are smaller shields than the normal sized ones. The least protected were the Retiarii. They wore absolutely no armor. They relied on their speed to go through the battles. But, if they were cornered, or separated from their weapons, they would fall to defeat from the bigger, stronger gladiators. Many gladiator fights occurred during the Ancient Roman time period, but these are probably the 2 most important ones.

The first gladiator battle that was ever recorded was in 358 B.C. This was when a king said he wanted some kind of battles performed at his funeral. So, 307 people were captured, and forced to fight each other at the king’s funeral. All 307 captives eventually died, as a result of a free-for-all held during the battles. Another famous battle was in 264 B.C. King Marcus Brutus solemnly celebrated his funeral with many gladiatorial battles. Many events were held at this funeral to honor King Brutus, and many deaths throughout the events occurred too. Thus, the basic result of having any type of gladiatorial battles at any funeral results in basically everyone getting killed one way or another. This is sad, because all the gladiators died just because they were forced to battle at a funeral, and they would never see the real future in front of them. So at the end, this was part of the cause of the fall and end of the gladiatorial games, and all gladiator fights throughout the Roman Empire.

The Gladiatorial games held in Rome ended not because of the actual death of all the participants, but in their symbolic death as defeated athletes, because according to them, they were not succeeding Roman Gladiators during their combat. Because of this thought, many gladiators decided to quit from their job, and live a normal life. Thus, eventually all the gladiatorial events ended throughout the Ancient Roman period, and marked the end of Gladiators.