Aedile (pl. aediles) – Roman official whose chief duties included supervision of public games, as well as the maintenance of streets and public buildings.
Censor (pl. censores) – Roman official whose chief responsibilities were to conduct a periodic census of the Roman population and to oversee the membership of the Senate.
Cochlea (pl. cochleae) – Apparatus consisting of panels fitted to a central rotating pole which was periodically used in animal spectacles, particularly during the later Empire.
Consul (pl. consules) – Chief magistrate of the Roman state during the Republic. Like other Republican magistracies, continued in existence under the Empire.
Damnatio ad Bestias – ‘Condemnation to the beasts’. Common form of capital punishment in Rome.
Damnatio ad Ludos – ‘Condemnation to the games’. Another form of punishment under Roman law. Unlike damnatio ad bestias, however, those condemned to fight as gladiators or venatores by this sentence at least had a fighting chance to earn their freedom someday.
Editor (pl. editores) –The official or private citizen who staged a given spectacle.
Familia (pl. familiae) – Group of arena performers overseen by a lanista which could be hired out for various spectacles. Prominent officials (including the emperor himself) or wealthy citizens commonly owned such groups for use in the events they staged.
Infamia – Loss of status and citizen rights suffered by gladiators and other arena performers.
Lanista (pl. lanistae) – Term commonly used for trainers of gladiators and/ or managers of arena training schools.
Ludus (pl. ludi) – Term used, first of all, for the state festivals in Rome (eg Ludi Romani / the Roman Games). Term also used to denote arena training schools such as the Ludus Magnus, the chief gladiatorial training venue in the city of Rome.
Munus (pl. munera) – Common term used for an arena spectacle.
Noxius (pl. noxii) – Term commonly used for the condemned criminals forced to participate in arena spectacles.
Naumachia (pl. naumachiae) – A marine spectacle involving a staged naval combat.
Palus (pl. pali) – Term originally denoted the wooden stakes which gladiators commonly used when practicing their weapon strokes. By extension, also came to denote the different ranks of gladiators within a familia (eg the highest rank was known as primus palus (‘first stake’)).
Praetor (pl. praetores) – Second highest magistracy in the Roman state under the Republic, primarily concerned with legal affairs.
Summa/Secunda Rudis (‘first/ second stick’) – Term used respectively for the senior and junior referees in a given gladiatorial munus. Arose from the long sticks which these officials carried in order to separate or otherwise discipline combatants.
Tiro (pl. tirones) – Term commonly used to denote a novice gladiator.
Tribune – Magistrate whose chief responsibility was to protect the interests and rights of the common people in Rome.
Venatio (pl. venationes) – Common term for animal spectacles in Rome, including both combat between men and animals and combat between animals alone.
Vivarium (pl. vivaria) – Generic term used for the enclosures in which various animals were kept.