Gladiator

There is a distinction between those sentenced to the sword and those sentenced to the games, for the former die straight away, or at most within a year.

You are a filthy gladiator, who after murdering your host, escaped by pure luck from the criminals’ cage at the amphitheatre!

In AD 180 the Roman empire and its army are near their peak, so losing to the Romans is not difficult. After his accession in 161, Marcus Aurelius campaigned successfully in Parthia and Germany and his subordinates are still fighting minor actions in Africa, Britain and around the Black Sea. All of these campaigns bring back hordes of prisoners of war, many of them already trained in the use of arms and therefore natural arena fodder. In fact, several types of gladiator are already named after warriors who fought in their native style after being captured by the Romans in past wars.

When the enemy surrendered, Aquillius ordered that they be spared immediate execution and took them to Rome to fight there…

For this captured barbarian warrior the war may be over, but the fighting has just begun. A legionary leads a captive off to his new life, in a bas-relief from the Arch of Diocletian in Rome. (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Rome)

3 Be a surly and recalcitrant slave

Many who fall into this category started in category #2 and simply discovered that subservience was not in their nature. The penalty for actually striking one’s owner is unlikely to leave an unruly slave fit for the arena, but a general disposition to violence might be enough to send him there. Note that a court of law must consent to the sale of slaves for lethal amphitheatre appearances, and this includes selling someone off to become a gladiator.

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[The emperor Hadrian] prohibited the selling of a male or female slave to a brothel or a lanista without the seller having first made a case for his conduct.

HISTORIA AUGUSTA: LIFE OF HADRIAN 18

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4 Owe more money than you can repay

Some people sell themselves. Rome has little sympathy for debtors. Indeed, the Twelve Tables, the foundation stone of Roman law, suggest that if a period of imprisonment fails to produce the goods a creditor can literally carve his pound of flesh off the debtor. In these more civilized times, it is likelier that the assets of the debtor will be sold to repay the debt, and the person of the debtor is one of his assets. Nor is it unknown for a creditor, once he has received his former debtor as a slave, to torture him (as he is now perfectly entitled to do) to check that nothing further of value has been squirrelled away from his grasp.

And this is merely what the law permits. Some debt collectors are less sensitive to an individual’s civic rights. Indeed, many who voluntarily sign up for the arena originally* got the idea from the gladiators hired to forcibly collect their debt.

* Once they recovered from the beating.

In short, it is better to sell oneself than wait for someone else to do it for you – with physical violence thrown in as a non-optional extra.

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There was competition among country towns in Italy to offer the highest enticements to get truly degraded young gentlemen to fight [in the arena].

TACITUS HISTORIES 2.62

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5 Decide to commit social suicide

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Everything he did that was coarse, foul, cruel or typical of a gladiator.

HISTORIA AUGUSTA: LIFE OF COMMODUS 13.3

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Those who voluntarily sign on as gladiators are called auctorati, in that they are the authors of their own misfortunes. The perverse glamour of gladiatorial combat sometimes inspires otherwise respectable young males – and even the occasional respectable female – to yearn to participate in the fights in the arena. It is shocking and unacceptable for a lady to appear on public display for any reason whatsoever, so the young woman’s yearning must remain unrequited. However, for males a distinction is made between men who appear in the arena quaestus causa – i.e. fighting for the money – and those who do so virtus causa – to show off their martial ability. Who knows, even the emperor Commodus might appear virtus causa. He is certainly (gladiator-) mad enough to try.

A fighter who performs virtus causa is socially frowned upon, but almost acceptable, especially if he modestly selects a helmet that guarantees a degree of anonymity. However, anyone who fights purely for money, especially if he signs on with a gladiator school beforehand, is infamis, or officially scum. An infamis cannot vote, hold public office or even procure a decent burial plot. No decent person will have social relations with an infamis for fear of being considered one himself, so becoming a gladiator is an irrevocable step. There is no going back, ever, which is exactly why some rebellious sons (often to their enduring regret) do so to defy their parents or a former lover.

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He was neither a criminal nor forced to the arena by the adversity of fortune. Gentlemen, he became a gladiator as a display of virtus.

QUINTILIAN DECLAMATIONS 16

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While for the Greeks there is no shame to go onstage and present oneself to the public gaze, for us [Romans] this thing is considered infamous and humiliating – the opposite of honourable.

CORNELIUS NEPOS LIVES 5 (PREFACE)

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6 Step up from the gutter

Not everyone who becomes a gladiator has any social standing to lose. Country boys with excellent physiques who have come to Rome with the idea of making their fortunes rapidly lower their sights to merely making a living. They then discover this can only be done in a brothel or the arena, and some opt for the latter.

Then there are ex-soldiers who have managed to blow their pensions on the wrong woman or on ill-advised betting on the Blues in the chariot races. If signing on for another 25 years in the legions has no appeal, the shorter contracts offered by gladiator schools may be an attractive alternative to men with no other skills. This is especially true for soldiers who have received a missio ignominiosa, or dishonourable discharge from the army, as they start as infames in the first place.

7 Be a woman or a dwarf with fighting skills

Editores – as those who organize the games are called – are always on the lookout for something new to present in their spectaculars. Amphitheatre crowds are blasé about the sight of death, eager for novelty and appreciative when they get it. Therefore a nanus (i.e. a psychopathic killer of reduced growth) is very welcome in these politically incorrect times. Meanwhile, those rare women with a decent ability for swordplay will find the ludus (see below) an eager equal-opportunity employer, especially of those who do not inquire too deeply into the nature of the opportunity.

Finding a gladiator school (ludus)

There is such a thing as a freelance gladiator, but these are established names who have to be lured out of retirement for one-off performances. The luring usually involves amounts of gold that leave younger gladiators breathless with disbelief and envy, and quite often involves pressure from some highly connected individuals as well. For example, when the emperor Tiberius wanted some famous gladiators to appear in spectacular games in his grandfather’s memory, the price of bringing them out of retirement was 100,000 sestertii a fighter, which is enough to keep a poor family going for several centuries.

Tiberius liked to give gladiatorial shows, but he punished the people of Pollentia when they demanded one, and he passed legislation limiting the number of gladiatorial pairs that could fight in a single show. (Uffizi, Florence)

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He’s young, tempestuous and capable of serving in the army. But the gossips say that without the tribune’s sanction or prohibition he’ll sign himself away to some tyrannical lanista and take the gladiator’s oath.

JUVENAL SATIRES 11.6-8

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No such option is available to those starting on a gladiatorial career. For an auctoratus a basic salary might be negotiated when he joins the school, but those who arrive involuntarily from the courts get no such privileges. And even the auctoratus will find that once his food, bedding, training and incidental medical expenses have been paid, he is little better off than his colleagues in the unfree labour force which makes up more than half of the complement of most gladiator schools.

Nevertheless, it is important to select a ludus with great care. (Note that even quite large towns might not have gladiator schools, so finding one that fits his needs may require some travelling on the part of the aspiring gladiator.) Of course all such schools are supervised by the imperial government’s office of procuratores familiae ludi, for the very obvious reason that any sensible government will want to oversee the activities of large bodies of men training in the use of deadly weapons. In the Satyricon of Petronius there is a reference to a wealthy landholder who had enough gladiators ‘to plunder Carthage’, and indeed some of the bigger schools have hundreds, if not thousands, of fighters on their rolls.

Imperial supervision aside, quality of life and frequency of death varies greatly depending on the type and quality of the ludus in question. Here are some of the options:

The imperial schools

Back in the dying days of the Republic, Julius Caesar was the first to realize that he could save a fortune (literally) by having his own gladiator schools instead of hiring gladiators for each occasion. Others followed his example, for owning gladiators was almost as prestigious as being their manager (lanista) was disgraceful. Thus Cicero once complimented his friend Atticus on acquiring a school so prestigious that it would repay the purchase price as soon as it had been hired out once or twice. Caesar’s heir, Augustus, inherited several thousand gladiators as part of his patrimony, and these schools, now moved from Campania to Rome, are today part of the imperial estate.

Ever the showman, Caesar combined practicality with crowd-pleasing by keeping his own schools of gladiators. The Roman Senate was so worried by the number of armed men under Caesar’s control that they passed legislation limiting the number of gladiators that could be used in a public display. (Musei Vaticani, Rome)

Pros:

Cons:

1 The imperial schools are the best ludi in the business

2 They have the best doctors to patch up salvageable losers

3 Their trainers are highly skilled

4 You get to live in Rome

5 You may appear before the emperor himself at the Colosseum

6 The rewards are potentially huge

1 You generally fight others from your ludus, and they too have had excellent training

2 Emperors can afford a high wastage rate in their gladiatorial complement

3 Colosseum crowds are harder to please and eager for blood

The gladiator’s workplace. The oval of the amphitheatre − this is the one at Colonia Nemausus (Nimes) − brings the spectators intimately close to the action. A gladiator only appears here three or four times a year – the rest of the time is spent doing intensive training. There’s nowhere to hide in the amphitheatre, and a high price for failure. (From Victor Duruy, History of Rome and the Roman People, vols I–V, London, 1884)

A provincial school

Though not every amphitheatre comes with its own ludus, there’s an amphitheatre in every major city in the empire. No one has counted them all, but there are about 200 of sufficiently respectable size that no first-rate gladiator would be embarrassed to appear there. However, local fame counts for a lot in this business, so few top gladiators are interested in fighting on other than their home ground. The ownership and prestige of provincial schools may vary, but often the chief contractors who pay for the games are priests of the imperial cult who lay on the spectacles in the emperor’s name. Some local grandees with political ambitions may also try to buy votes in this highly traditional way, but games featuring a significant number of gladiators require permission from imperial officials.

Some cities may have their own municipal ludus, while other ludi are owned by a private party. Generally this is a local aristocrat who works in tandem with a retired gladiator, but who keeps his partner at arm’s length, because a retired gladiator is still a gladiator and an infamis.

Pros:

Cons:

1 A smaller school and a better chance to know your opponent’s weaknesses

2 Easier to build up a fan base

3 Lower probability of fatal combats

1 A smaller school and a better chance that your opponent will know your weaknesses

2 Less chance of becoming disgustingly rich and famous

3 Inferior doctors

A travelling show

These obscure bands, often featuring a few discharged soldiers and a reformed bandit or two, can be found traipsing from market to market, generally performing ‘exhibition’ shows, since at this level actually losing someone in a combat is a financial and personal disaster for the often tightly knit troupe. Therefore fights tend to be highly staged affairs more reminiscent of the theatre than the arena. Expect withering scorn or at least pitying patronage from any ‘real’ gladiators.

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[The slave] Asiaticus behaved so insolently and so thievishly that Vitellius sold him to the lanista of a travelling gladiator show.

SUETONIUS LIFE OF VITELLIUS 12

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Pros:

Cons:

1 It’s marginally better than banditry or acting for those with no talent for either

2 You get to see the world outside the ludus

3 Hopefully any vegetables thrown at you will be fresh

4 You probably won’t die on the sand of the arena – not least because your arenas can’t afford sand

1 The feeling you are at the bottom of the ladder

2 The incidental risks of travel

3 Claustrophobia of working with the same small group

4 Poverty

Someone in a position to make a choice as to which of the above is preferable is almost certainly – for the moment – a free person. Before signing away one’s liberty, it is highly advisable to do some more research. First, and perhaps surprisingly, not everyone is welcome at a gladiator school. Every ludus has a reputation to maintain, and producing inferior gladiators in the arena is the surest way to destroy that reputation and with it the livelihoods of everyone in the school. A condemnation such as the one below might be the death-knell for a school if it was generally believed:

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And when you get down to it what has he ever done for us? He gave a show of two-bit gladiators! They were such a rickety lot that if you’d blown on them, they’d have fallen flat on their faces…He killed his mounted men by torchlight, and you might have taken them for dunghill cocks. One was mule-footed, another bandy-legged, while the third, put up to replace a dead man, was a dead weight himself, because he was hamstrung before the fight started. The only one who made any effort was a Thracian, and he only fought when we forced him to. In the end they all got a sound thrashing; in fact the crowd booed every one of them, and they were blatantly runaway [slaves].

PETRONIUS SATYRICON 45

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A trainee auditions as a gladiator, using items of cast-off kit. His lower body stance is good, though his upper body posture is too defensive. Training can eliminate technical flaws, but timidity is a fatal weakness. (From Victor Duruy, History of Rome and the Roman People, vols I–V, London, 1884)

A gladiator is a valuable item of property who needs weeks, if not months, of careful training before a good lanista will consider putting him up for an arena performance. This costs a considerable sum of money, and there is not a lot of point in making the effort for someone who will bring more disrepute than honour on the munerarius who presents the games. Therefore, select a school that seems likely to accept you, and then:

• Get clearance from your local magistrate. The state needs to be assured that any free person signing as a gladiator does so voluntarily, and has a physique that at least offers him a hope of survival.

• Check the reputation of the prospective school carefully. A school that will take new gladiators with no questions asked is a school one needs to ask a lot of questions about. It might be a school with a very high turnover of personnel, which from a tiro’s perspective is not good news.

• Observe the behaviour of gladiators while they are outside the ludus. Do they seem brutalized and cowed? (If the gladiators are kept imprisoned within the ludus, they are either condemned criminals or being treated as such. Avoid.)

• Get inside information. It’s a rare gladiator who will refuse a drink, so try talking to one on the neutral ground of a tavern before going for a more formal interview at the school itself.

• Above all, try to watch the gladiators of a potential school in action in the arena, taking careful note of the treatment of the defeated and the size of the prize for the victor. (Gladiator shows happen only rarely, so someone with urgent debts to repay might not have this luxury.)

Gladiators at work, shown in a frieze from Pompeii. Anyone signing up to a gladiator school should be prepared for ungentle treatment. Gladiators work hard and play rough. Expect bullying and brutal initiation rites as soon as you step through the door. (H.G. Wells, The Outline of History, London) (1930))

Signing up and swearing in

Only when certain that school and candidate are right for each other should a potential gladiator present himself to the lanista in charge. After an assessment, which may or may not involve a brief trial bout in the training ring, the potential gladiator receives either a rejection or an offer of a place.

For an auctoratus, this offer may include a cash payment for his body, for make no mistake – joining a gladiator school means selling oneself, body and soul, to that school.

The key terms to seek during negotiation are 4,000 sestertii and four or five years. The former is a legal minimum value that is put on your body should you die in the arena, and usually 2,000 sestertii are paid directly to the auctoratus when he signs up. Without this valuation a new recruit might end up as a gregarius, one of those gladiators who fight in packs until one or the other group is wiped out, or be thrown away in a crowd-pleasing but lethal spectacle. It is unlikely that the candidate will be able to negotiate how many times a year he appears in the arena. Without provision or exception, even if he enters as a free man, once he has been sworn in a gladiator is the property of the lanista to be disposed of as he thinks fit. The number of years is important, because anyone surviving four or five years is generally released from their contract.

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Like free-born gladiators selling our liberty, we religiously devoted both soul and body to our new master.

PETRONIUS SATYRICON 117

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Think long and hard before accepting a place in a ludus. Acceptance involves swearing the sacramentum gladiatorum – the infamous gladiator’s oath. Even those gladiators condemned to die in the arena take this oath. In swearing, they replace the sentence of the court with a voluntary doom that they have ‘freely’ accepted for themselves. For the condemned, the gladiator’s oath offers a form of redemption, allowing them to substitute an honourable death by the sword for a dishonourable death as a condemned criminal. All the same, a free man who swears the oath remains only technically free (and an infamis), for he has handed himself into servitude, voluntarily becoming little better than the condemned wretches alongside whom he will train and fight.

To take the oath, both auctorati and condemned criminals proclaim before witnesses that they give over their bodies to their new master to be ‘burned, flogged, beaten or slain by cold steel, as their owner should order’.

Once the oath has been sworn, you are formally a member of the ludus, one of the tirones or beginners. Although at the very bottom of the ladder, you are nevertheless officially a gladiator.

Congratulations are definitely not in order.

Codex Gladiorum

Feeding the arena is not hard. In his Jewish campaign of AD 69–70 Titus took 97,000 prisoners, many of whom finished up in the arena, either for straightforward execution or to fight as gladiators.

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Crucifixions seldom happen in the amphitheatre, as the process takes too long to be entertaining.

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Gaius Caligula, who occasionally agonized about gladiators being more popular with the masses than he was. (Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen)

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When Caligula was ill, a man made an oath to fight in the arena if the emperor recovered. Caligula held the man to his word, and watched the swordplay intently until the man won his fight and begged abjectly to be released from his vow.

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A member of Rome’s noble Gracchus clan forever disgraced himself by fighting as a net-man in the arena, where everyone could see his face. Even worse, he put on a pathetically cowardly display.

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There is some dispute as to whether gladiators or actors are at the bottom of Roman society, but according to the orator Calpurnius Flaccus, ‘no one of the people is lower than a gladiator’.

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A munerarius contemplating the cost of a particularly magnificent show can apply to the courts for a supply of condemned prisoners to take part in various events.

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Those breaking a gladiatorial oath become sacer, or liable to summary execution to appease the god whom the oath-breaker has offended.

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The word ‘arena’ comes from the latin harena, or ‘sand’, as this covers the floor of the fighting area.