Gladiators of Ancient Rome - briefly. Who are gladiators? Who were the gladiators of Rome

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Classification of gladiators

• Andabat (from the Greek word " άναβαται "-" raised, located on a hill") They were dressed in chain mail, like the eastern cavalry (cataphracts), and helmets with visors without slits for the eyes. Andabats fought each other in much the same way as knights in medieval jousting tournaments, but without the ability to see each other.
• Bestiary: Armed with a dart or dagger, these fighters were originally not gladiators, but criminals ( noxia), sentenced to battle with predatory animals, with a high probability of death of the sentenced. Later, bestiaries became well-trained gladiators, specializing in combat with various exotic predators using darts. The fights were organized in such a way that the beasts had little chance of defeating the bestiary.
• Bustuary: These gladiators fought in honor of the deceased at ritual games during the funeral rite.
• Dimacher (from the Greek " διμάχαιρος - "carrying two daggers"). Two swords were used, one in each hand. They fought without a helmet and shield. They were dressed in a short soft tunic, their arms and legs were bandaged with tight bandages, sometimes they wore leggings.
• Equit ("horseman"): In the early descriptions, these lightly armed gladiators were dressed in scaly armor, wore a medium-sized round cavalry shield, a helmet with a brim, without a crest, but with two decorative tassels. During the Empire, they wore forearm armor ( maniku) on the right arm, a sleeveless tunic (which distinguished them from other gladiators who fought bare-chested), and a belt. Equites started the fight on horseback, but after they threw their spear (hasta), they dismounted and continued to fight with a short sword (gladius). Equits usually only fought other Equits.
• Gaul: Were equipped with a spear, a helmet, and a small Gallic shield.
• Essedarius ("chariot fighter", from the Latin name for the Celtic chariot - "esseda") . Perhaps they were first brought to Rome by Julius Caesar from Britain. Essedaria are mentioned in many descriptions from the 1st century AD. e. Since there are no images of the Essedarii, nothing is known about their weapons and fighting style.
• Hoplomachus (from the Greek " οπλομάχος "-" armed fighter"): They were dressed in a quilted, trouser-like leg garment, possibly made of canvas, a loincloth, belt, greaves, forearm armor (maniku) on the right arm, and a brimmed helmet with a stylized griffin on the crest, which could be decorated with a tassel of feathers at the top and single feathers on each side. They were armed with a gladius and a large legionary shield made from a single sheet of thick bronze (sample from Pompeii have been preserved). They were put up for fights against the Murmillons or the Thracians. It is possible that the Goplomakhs descended from the earlier Samnites after it became “politically incorrect” to use the name of a people who had become friendly to the Romans.
• Lakveary ("lasso fighter"): Lakwearii could be a species retiarii, who tried to catch their rivals with a lasso instead of a net.
• Murmillon: They wore a helmet with a stylized fish on the crest (from the Latin " murmillos"-" sea fish"), as well as armor for the forearm ( maniku), a loincloth and belt, leggings on the right leg, thick windings covering the top of the foot, and very short armor with a notch for stuffing at the top of the foot. The Murmillo were armed with a gladius (40-50 cm long) and a large rectangular shield of the Roman legionnaires. They were put up for battle against the Thracians, Retiarii, sometimes also against the hoplomachi.
• Pegniarius: They used a whip, a club and a shield, which was attached to the left arm with straps.
• Provocateur ("applicant"): Their outfit could be different, depending on the nature of the games. They were depicted wearing a loincloth, a belt, a long greave on the left leg, a maniku on the right arm, and a helmet with a visor, without brim and crest, but with feathers on each side. They were the only gladiators protected by a cuirass, which was at first rectangular, then often rounded. The provocateurs were armed with a gladius and a large rectangular shield. Exhibited for battles with the Samnites or other provocateurs.
• Retiarius ("net fighter"): Appeared at the dawn of the Empire. They were armed with a trident, a dagger and a net. In addition to a loincloth supported by a wide belt and a large armor on the left shoulder joint, the retiarius had no clothing, including a helmet. Sometimes a metal shield was used to protect the neck and lower face. There were retiarii who played female roles in the arena, which differed from ordinary retiarii in that they were dressed in a tunic. The Retiarii usually fought the Secutors, but sometimes also the Murmillos.
• Rudiarium: Gladiators who deserve liberation (rewarded with a wooden sword called rudis), but decided to remain gladiators. Not all rudiarii continued to fight in the arena, there was a special hierarchy among them: they could be trainers, assistants, judges, fighters, etc. Rudiarii fighters were very popular among the public, as they had vast experience and one could expect real show.
• Sagittarius: Mounted archers armed with a flexible bow capable of launching an arrow over a long distance.
• Samnite: Samnites, an ancient type of heavily armed fighters that disappeared in the early imperial period, indicated by their name the origin of gladiator fights. The historical Samnites were an influential group of Italic tribes living in the Campania region south of Rome, against whom the Romans fought wars from 326 to 291 BC. e. The Samnites' equipment was a large rectangular shield, a feathered helmet, a short sword, and possibly a greave on the left leg.
• Secutor: This type of fighter was specially designed for fights with retiarii. Secutors were a type of murmillon and were equipped with similar armor and weapons, including a medium oval shield and a gladius. Their helmet, however, covered the entire face, except for two holes for the eyes, in order to protect the face from the sharp trident of their rival. The helmet was practically round and smooth, so that the net of the retiarius could not catch on it.
• Skissor ("one who cuts", "cutting")- a gladiator who was armed with a short sword (gladius) and instead of a shield had a cutting weapon that resembled scissors (essentially two small swords that had one handle) or, in a different scenario, put on an iron hollow rod with a sharp horizontal tip on his left hand. With this cutting weapon, the scissor delivered blows that led to minor wounds of the opponent, but the wounds bled very much (several arteries were cut, which, of course, caused fountains of blood). Otherwise, the skissor was similar to a secutor, except for the additional protection of the right arm (from the shoulder to the elbow), which consisted of many iron plates fastened together with strong leather laces. The helmet and protective ammunition of the secutors and skissors were the same.
• Tertiary (also called " Suppositicius"-" substituting"): Three gladiators participated in some competitions. First, the first two fought each other, then the winner of this fight fought with the third, who was called the tertiary. Tertiarii also came to replace if the gladiator declared for the fight, for one reason or another, could not enter the arena.
• Thracian: The Thracians were equipped with the same armor as the hoplomakhs. They had a large helmet covering the entire head and decorated with a stylized griffin on the forehead or on the front of the crest (the griffin was a symbol of the goddess of retribution Nemesis), a small round or flattened shield, and two large greaves. Their weapon was a Thracian curved sword (sicca, about 34 cm long). They usually fought murmillons or hoplomaches.
  

• Venator: Specialized in show hunting for animals, not fighting them in close combat, as bestiaries. Venators also performed tricks with animals: they put their hand in the mouth of a lion; rode on a camel, keeping a lion on a leash nearby; made the elephant walk on a tightrope. Strictly speaking, the venators were not gladiators, but their performances were part of the gladiator fights.
• Pregenary: Performed at the beginning of the competition to "warm up" the crowd. They used wooden swords and wrapped cloth around the body. Their fights took place to the accompaniment of cymbals, pipes and water organs.

Surviving arenas

Gladiators were called fighters in ancient Rome, who fought among themselves for the amusement of the public. Arenas were even created especially for such spectacles. The reason for the appearance of such cruel entertainment was the territorial expansion of Ancient Rome. It turned out that the prisoners simply had nowhere to go. It was just pointless to kill them, so they forced the men to fight each other for the amusement of the public. Only the strongest survived. Gladiator games began to be considered a public spectacle from 106 BC.

In Rome itself and in the whole country, this becomes the most beloved spectacle. That is why gladiator schools appeared. And in 63, Nero allowed women to participate in such battles. The games of gladiators were officially banned in 404, with the advent of Christianity in Rome. These brave fighters have become a symbol of bravery and courage, and the uprising of fighters led by Spartacus in general has become an important part of ancient history. We remember the names of the best gladiators to this day.

Spartacus. Who is the most famous gladiator in history is not worth guessing for a long time. This is Spartak, whose name is given to children, ships and football teams. Although this person is very famous, it is still not clear who he really was in terms of his origin. The classical version is that Spartacus was a Thracian taken prisoner by the Romans. But there are suggestions that the famous gladiator was still a Roman who rebelled and fled from his legion. Just in those years, Rome waged fierce wars with Thrace and Macedonia, so Spartacus could well have been captured. The attribution to Spartacus of Thracian origin is understandable, because in those days all gladiators were divided into Gauls and Thracians, taking into account the type of combat, regardless of where the fighters were from. And judging by the grammar of the Latin language, the name Spartacus means that he was related to Sparta. Historians unearthed that the gladiator studied at the school of Lentulus Batiatus, where he studied the philosophy of Gaius Blossius. There are many interesting moments in it, one of the slogans generally says: "The last will become the first and vice versa." In 73 B.C. a well-known event in the history of Rome happened - the gladiator Spartacus rebelled along with his 70 comrades. At first it was just a group of runaway slaves with four strong leaders - in addition to Spartacus, it was also Crixus, Kast and Guy Gannicus, the rebels simply robbed their own school and fled to the outskirts of Naples with weapons in their hands. The rebels began to trade in robberies and murders, their army grew at the expense of other runaway slaves. A couple of years later, the company was already more than 120 thousand people who calmly moved around the country. There was a slave system in the country, and such an uprising threatened the existence of the state. That is why the best military forces were sent to pacify Spartacus and his comrades. Gradually, the forces of the slaves were defeated, Spartak himself died presumably near the Silari River. The last remnants of the mighty army of the rebels tried to flee north, but were defeated by Pompey. It was he who received the laurels of the main suppressor of the rebellion.

Commodus. Who said that a gladiator had to be a slave? Many free people chose this profession for themselves. There is a historical fact that there was a gladiator of imperial origin. Commodus, already from an early age, had excellent oratory skills, having learned to make vivid speeches. But the older he got, the less interesting were state affairs and caring for his subjects. Commodus was much more interested in entertainment, including sexual ones. The emperor began to show cruelty - the time of his reign was marked by numerous executions and murders. It is no coincidence that Commodus is compared in this indicator with Nero himself. After all, Commodus was not inferior to him either in cruelty or in his depravity. The young emperor had his own harem, in which there were more than a hundred young concubines, and even more boys. The emperor himself loved to wear women's clothes and flirted with his subordinates, playing different roles. Among the favorite games of Commodus was the dissection of living people. And it was Commodus who became the first emperor to enter the battlefield as a gladiator. But for a person of royal blood, this was considered an incredible shame. Contemporaries recalled that Commodus was actually an excellent fighter - he skillfully killed dangerous animals. At the same time, he was not at all shy about his inappropriate entertainment, and even loved to demonstrate his combat skills to his subordinates. Commodus also became famous for his pedantry - a clerk followed him everywhere, who recorded all the actions and speeches of the emperor. But thanks to this, we now know that the gladiator emperor took part in 735 battles. Commodus is also known for his belief in various cruel pagan cults, sometimes he even reincarnated in the clothes of the god Anubis. The emperor demanded that his subjects deify themselves, idealize, and simply killed for disobedience. The death of a tyrant was classic - he was killed as a result of a conspiracy by disgruntled fellow citizens.

Spicul. According to historians, Spikul belonged to such a type of gladiators as murmillos. They were also called myrmillons. The basis of the armament of such fighters was a half-meter rectangular shield, the gladius. The head of the gladiator was protected by a Boeotian helmet in the form of a fish and with a wave-like crest. Spiculus' right hand was protected by manna. Before the start of the battle, this famous gladiator always put on a bandage on his thigh and tied it with a belt. The upper part of his feet was wrapped in thick wrappings. The classic murmillon was also equipped with short armor. Spikul went down in history as a favorite of Nero. Not without reason, after one of his fights, the gladiator even received a palace, several houses and a land allotment near Rome from the all-powerful emperor as a gift. Nero himself repeatedly mentioned that in his army of gladiators it was Spiculus who eliminated his rivals in the most skillful way. Historians say that the favorite of the emperor was also the most experienced fighter. Most likely, he also taught beginners the art of combat. There are legends that Spikul also gained fame as a great lover. In his company, even Nero himself often visited brothels and other similar places of entertainment. And the legendary gladiator died at about the same time as his patron. They say that in the last minutes of his life, Nero even wanted Spikul to kill him. That's just one, as luck would have it, in the palace at that moment was not. And after the death of the despot, his close associates began to be mercilessly pursued. In June 68, Spiculus was thrown under the statues of Nero, which people were dragging around the forum. So it was not Nero who died at the hands of his favorite, but rather the opposite.

Tumelik. It is believed that this gladiator comes from a noble family. His father was the famous German leader Arminius. And he became famous for the fact that in the depths of the Teutoburg Forest he managed to defeat three Roman legions at once. They were commanded by the governor Var. And Tusnelda became Tumelik's mother. That defeat became so humiliating that the Roman Empire could not ignore it. Soon the emperor Tiberius ordered his nephew Germanicus to go on a campaign and defeat the obstinate Germans. Three times the Romans entered the lands east of the Rhine. They destroyed the fortifications of the tribes, liberated the city of Segest, besieged by Arminius. But most importantly, Tusnelda was taken prisoner with her little son Tumelik. Germanicus was about ready to capture Arminius himself, but then Tiberius called him back to Rome. During the celebration of the triumph in honor of the victory over the Germans, the main witnesses of his success, Tusnelda and Tumelik, walked in front of the chariot of Germanicus. Even Tusnelda's father saw this, being next to Germanicus. So the mother of the young captive and his grandfather lived out their lives in a foreign land. Tusnelda became a servant in one of the rich houses, she could even outlive her son. Tumelik himself got into the school of gladiators. When he was eighteen years old, the son of Germanicus, Caligula, became the new emperor. Today, everyone admits that he was simply a mad ruler. So, he ordered Tumelik to be brought to battle. The brave German put on an iron mask, which depicted his unconquered father Arminius. The gladiator had a sword in his hands. But Caligula decided not to field other fighters against him, but ordered the hungry lions to be released. It is difficult to judge the age of Tumelik; according to some sources, he was generally fifteen or sixteen years old at that time.

Enomai. This gladiator went down in history as one of the leaders of the uprising of Spartacus, his right hand. And Enomai commanded the slaves. He was captured by the Romans during the conquest of Gaul by the empire. Enomai was one of those gladiators who studied at the famous school of Lentulus Batiatus. This establishment was in Capua. There is evidence that this school had unbearable conditions for training and living. That is why Enomai without hesitation came out in support of his countryman Crixus and Spartacus, who was born, as they said in Thrace. These gladiators stood at the head of the uprising. But of the whole trinity, it was Enomai who was destined to die first. Historians tend to believe that he died between 73 and 72 BC. And the gladiator died not in the arena and not even on the battlefield, but during the robbery of one of the towns of southern Italy. Historians believe that Enomai was engaged in the craft of a gladiator for more than ten years. Such a long career took place thanks to the huge strength of the fighter and his literally inhuman endurance. It is reported that in one of the battles, Enomai's nose was injured. It did not grow together very well, which is why it twisted. A small hump formed on the bridge of the nose. But although the gladiator had a formidable appearance, his temper remained calm. Enomai even had a lover named Embolaria. There is evidence that Enomai was still not the real name of the gladiator, but his nickname, which he received for performances in the arena. After all, Enomai was the name of the son of the god Ares, who was distinguished by a warlike and cruel disposition. In those days, often the names of gladiators became part of their "stage" image. The Romans did not even want to hear their own, “barbarian” names, considering them simply ugly.

Batiatus. We have repeatedly mentioned the name of this gladiator in connection with his school. But initially he also performed in the arena. After the end of his active career, Lentulus Batiata founded his own school, which became the largest in the country. There is reason to believe that it was Batiata who was the mentor of Spartacus himself. And the school opened in Capua became a model for an institution of this type, which soon began to appear throughout the Roman Empire. And Cornelius Lentulus Batiata lived in Rome. His views were based on materialistic beliefs. And although he called his gladiator wards nothing more than monsters, Batiata did this in a playful and affectionate manner. The founder of the school himself stated that it is essentially a farm where experimental creatures are grown. Such radical life had a right to life, the gladiators from Capua were really popular. People from the most remote places of the empire came to watch their battles. It was not easy for Batiate to work with the gladiators. In addition, it was enough to organize just a couple of fights that were not interesting for the public, as competitors would have removed Batiat's school from performances in the Colosseum. The former gladiator himself was well aware of how competition from other schools is growing. To increase the motivation of his fighters, Batiata introduced an interesting motivation system. The owner inspired his gladiators that life is actually an ordinary dream that comes to a person by the will of the gods. In total, more than two hundred fighters were trained at the school. Most are prisoners from Thrace and Gaul. Historians believe that it was the cruel attitude of the owner towards his gladiators that ultimately resulted in a rebellion.

Guy Ganik. It is not known exactly when this gladiator was born and died. Some encyclopedists believe that Gaius Ganik died in 71 BC. And this man went down in history as an ally of Spartacus. He led a large detachment of slaves who rebelled at that time. Gaius Gannicus was originally from Gaul. But in one of the biographies of Spartacus there is information that his colleague belonged to the ancient people of Italy, the Samnites. It was also said that the gladiator had Celtic roots. Most likely, Guy Gannicus came to Rome, being captured during the conquests of Gaul. Together with Spartacus, Guy Gannicus studied gladiator skills at the Capua school of Lentulus Batitata. In Capua, many believed that it was he who, in fact, was the best gladiator. During the uprising of Spartacus, the former gladiator became the commander, defeating the regular units of the Romans. In 71 B.C. Spartacus, together with Gaius Gannicus, decided to lead the rebels to Gaul and Thrace. But in the last phase of the uprising, after Spartacus decided to capture the city of Brundisium, an army of twelve thousand people broke away from the main forces. It was led by Guy Ganik and Kast. But this time the gladiators failed to resist the trained and superior troops of the Romans. In the last battle, Guy Ganik was brave, as befits a real gladiator. The legendary warrior died near the city of Regia, which is located in the Jura of modern Italy. In his "Comparative Life" Plutarch found a place for Gaius Gannicus, whom the historian called Gaius Cannicius.

Crix. This gladiator was a Gaul and was in slavery for several years. Crixus fell into captivity while fighting the Romans on the side of the Alloborgs. Crixus, like Spartacus, was a gladiator in the school of Lenthal Batiatus, which was in Capua. In 73 B.C. Crixus, along with other fugitives from this school, began to plunder the neighborhood of Naples and collect other runaway slaves. Crixus was one of the most important assistants of Spartacus. But after the first military successes, Crixus separated from his leader, remaining in southern Italy. The main forces of the slaves moved north. Plutarch said that the reason for this separation was the arrogance and arrogance of Crixus. In his army remained the Gauls and Germans, the tribesmen of the leader. In the spring of 72 BC. Roman consul Publicula began to actively fight with the army of Crixus. A decisive battle took place near Mount Gargan in Apulia. In the course of it, Crixus was killed. He fought with great courage, killing at least ten legionnaires and centurions. But in the end, Crixus was stabbed to death with a spear and beheaded. The 30,000th army of slaves was defeated. Spartacus honored the memory of his comrades-in-arms by arranging gladiator games, as was customary in Rome. Only this time, more than three hundred noble Roman prisoners of war were forced to take part in such events.

Gherardesca Manutius. Speaking of the greatest gladiators, it is worth mentioning the most famous woman who mastered this profession. Gherardesca Manutius is perhaps the greatest warrior in history. She killed more than two hundred opponents of different sexes in the arena, meeting her death in battle. She was a beauty, with jet black hair and a perfect body. Roman fans adored her. And Manutius entered the arena just a year before her death. In such a short period of time, she managed to become a celebrity. The fugitive slave was 28 years old when she fell into a group of those tens of thousands of slaves who united under the leadership of Spartacus. In the rebel army, a woman first played the unenviable role of a prostitute. With Spartacus, she traveled all over Italy, in her free time the woman took lessons in working with a sword. This allowed her to become an excellent hand-to-hand fighter with experience in martial arts. At the Battle of Lucania in 71 BC, when Spartacus was killed, Gherardescu was captured by Marcus Lucinius Crassus. Without thinking twice, he ordered the woman to be crucified along with other six thousand runaway slaves. But already at the moment when the Amazon was chained to the cross, the Roman suddenly changed his mind. The beautiful Gherardesca liked her bronzed skin and spent the night in Crassus' tent. The next day, the commander sent the woman to Capua, to the gladiatorial school. He hoped that this craft would help her one day become free. The basics of gladiatorial combat were given to Gerardesca without much difficulty. A few weeks later, the first battle of the Amazon took place. The excitement was explained by the fact that the protégé of Crassus himself entered the arena. But it took the gladiator woman only five minutes to finish off the muscular and tattooed Greek Thracian. The audience watched with delight as the two topless bodies, sweating from the sun, moved in an attempt to kill each other. As a result, the sword entered the groin of the Greek, and the thunder of applause shook the amphitheater. The winner used a trick. But the bloody career could not last long. For 11 whole months, Gherardesca destroyed all her rivals, including already famous fighters. And the gladiator died in a battle with two dwarfs. During the duel, one of them managed to sneak behind the woman and stick the trident right into the kidneys. The former favorite of the public suddenly lost all the sympathies at once, which went to the dwarfs. The entire Colosseum pointed their fingers down, passing judgment on Gherardesca. According to the rules, the wounded woman is light on her back, tormented by pain. She raised the finger of her left hand and at that moment the dwarfs drove their tridents into her stomach and chest, ending the fight. The wounded body of the gladiator was carried away from the arena and simply thrown onto a pile of other victims of the battles. So the idol of Rome, the famous female fighter, did not receive the last worthy honors.

On one wall in Pompeii, you can read the words: "Celadus the Thracian - the hero of girls, making hearts beat." These words, which have come down to us through the centuries, are silent witnesses to the charm that still captivates our imagination. The afternoon sun illuminates the arena of the amphitheater, where the Thracian Celadus and other gladiators fight. They do not fight fearsome legionnaires or barbarian hordes. They kill each other for the pleasure of the public.

In the beginning, gladiators were prisoners of war and those sentenced to death. The laws of ancient Rome allowed them to participate in gladiator fights. In case of victory (with the money received), it was possible to redeem one's life. But not all gladiators were slaves or criminals. Among them were volunteers who were willing to risk their lives for thrill or fame. Their names were written on the walls, respectable citizens talked about them. For almost 600 years, the arena was one of the most popular entertainments in the Roman world. Almost no one opposed this spectacle. Everyone, from Caesar to the last plebeian, wanted to see bloodshed.

It is widely believed that gladiator fights were inspired by Etruscan funeral rituals. Nevertheless, it is known that at the funeral of Brutus Perus in 264 BC. Three duels of gladiators took place. This incident was recorded by the Greek-Syrian historian Nicholas of Damascus, who lived during the period of Emperor Augustus. Over the next hundred years, the custom of arranging battles between slaves at funerals spread. In 174 BC Titus Flamininus held munera - three-day fights, during which 74 gladiators fought.

They tried to celebrate Munera in December, at the same time as Saturnalia. As you know, Saturn was a deity "responsible" for self-sacrifice. At the same time, the muners were not just a number in the commemoration program. They also practiced fighting with animals - venations. Various wild animals brought from all over the empire were killed by specially trained fighters - venators. Venice served as a symbol of the subjugation of wild animals by Roman power. Fights involving lions, tigers and other dangerous predators showed that the power of Rome embraced not only people but also animals. Any culture that was not part of Rome was declared barbarian, the only purpose of which was to wait until it was conquered by Rome.

As more and more wealthy people became convinced that gladiator fights were an excellent way to immortalize the memory of the deceased, they more and more often included in their will a requirement to hold such a fight at their wake. Soon, a simple fight of several pairs of gladiators became boring to the public. In order to impress the people, it was necessary to arrange grandiose spectacles according to the number of fighters or according to the method of battle. Gradually, the munera became more spectacular and expensive. The fighters began to be equipped with armor, while the style of the armor often copied the style of any of the peoples conquered by Rome. Thus, the munera became a demonstration of the power of Rome.

Over time, the munera became so customary that a person who did not bequeath to arrange a battle after his death risked discrediting his name after death as a miser. Many hosted games in honor of their deceased ancestors. The public expected another fight after the death of one of the wealthy citizens. Suetonius described the case that in Pollentia (modern Pollenzo, near Turin), the public did not allow a former centurion to be buried until the heirs organized a battle. Moreover, it was not a simple disorder in the city, but a real rebellion that forced Tiberius to send troops into the city. One dead man in his will ordered to arrange a fight between his former homosexual lovers. Since all the lovers were young boys, it was decided to annul this clause of the will. Munera eventually developed into true gladiator fights, usually held in purpose-built arenas. The first arenas were built in the form of amphitheaters around the Romanum Forum. The stands were wooden, and the arena itself was covered with sand. Sand in Latin will be garena, hence the name of the entire structure.

The amphitheater built by Flavius, known as the Colosseum, was the first stone building of its kind. The floor of the arena was at first sandy, but then it was rebuilt, organizing a network of underground passages under it - hypogees. Various mechanical devices were located in the passages, facilitating a quick change of scenery in the arena. With the help of these moves, animals and gladiators were also released onto the stage.

Entering the amphitheater, the audience could buy various souvenirs. Bone or clay tessera plates served as entrance tickets. Tessers were distributed for free a few weeks before the start of the fighting. The audience was seated in their places by special ministers - locaria.

For wealthy citizens there were seated stands. There were standing stands for the plebs. The Colosseum also had a gallery where the poorest spectators gathered. It was a matter of honor to occupy a place proper to its status.

The tunnels leading to the stands were run by various "entrepreneurs" from food vendors to prostitutes. As the program progressed, the public's excitement grew. Classical writers describe the roar of the excited crowd as "the roar of a storm". Vendors also crowded the stands among the spectators, offering food, flags, and lists of gladiators. Betting was made on these lists. Ovid says that asking a neighbor to read a program was considered a plausible pretext for getting to know a girl. However, under Augustus, separate places were allocated for women. The front rows were occupied by senators, soldiers, married men, as well as students and teachers. The women were placed in the upper ranks.

The shape of the amphitheater reflected heat inward and sound outward. Any sound made by a gladiator was clearly audible in the stands, even in the very top rows. Hence the rule arose that gladiators should not make unnecessary cries and be silent even in case of injury. Even in the worst places, the spectators had a great view of the arena.

By the end of the II century BC. the battles that lasted several days in a row with the participation of more than one hundred gladiators did not surprise anyone. There were also people for whom the maintenance and training of gladiators became a profession. They were called Lanists. Often they were former gladiators themselves. The social status of the lanist was low, they were despised for making money on the death of other people, while remaining completely safe themselves. If gladiators were compared to prostitutes, then lanists can be compared to pimps. To give themselves a bit of respectability, the Lanists called themselves "negociator surname gladiatore", which in modern language can be translated as "commercial director of the gladiatorial troupe." The essence of their activity was that they found physically strong slaves in the slave markets, and preferably prisoners of war and even criminals, ransomed them, taught them all the tricks necessary for performing in the arena, and then rented them out to everyone who wanted to arrange gladiator fights.

Entering the ring, the gladiators had to proclaim: Ave Ceasar, morituri te salutant! - Those who go to death greet you, Caesar! According to tradition, before the start of the fight, the gladiator fighters were divided into pairs and the first demonstration fight began - prolusio, its participants did not fight for real, their weapons were wooden, the movements were more like a dance than the fight was accompanied by a lute or flute. At the end of the "lyrical introduction", the horn blew and announced that the first real battle was about to begin. Gladiators who changed their minds to fight were beaten, and sometimes even killed with whips.

Junior gladiators entered the battle in pairs, determined by lot. The weapons of the gladiators were demonstrated to the public in order to convince everyone that they were combat weapons. The determined couples dispersed around the arena to the sound of trumpets and the battle began. In the arena, in addition to the fighters, there were doctors who gave commands to the fighters, directing the course of the battles. In addition, slaves with whips and sticks stood ready to “cheer up” one of the gladiators who for some reason refused to fight at full strength. After the duel of inexperienced gladiators, the best fighters entered the arena.

If any of the gladiators received a serious wound and could not continue the fight, he raised his hand, showing surrender. From that moment on, his fate depended on the opinion of the audience. The defeated could be spared as a worthy fighter, or they could be doomed to death as a coward and clumsy. Until recently, it was believed that the audience expressed their attitude towards the vanquished with the help of the thumb. If the finger is pointing up - spare, if down - finish off. Recent studies have shown that the opposite was true. A raised finger meant "put it on the blade", and lowered - "a weapon in the ground." Considering the fact that not very skilled gladiators were the first to perform, the fate of the vanquished was a foregone conclusion. The corpses of gladiators were removed from the arena using wheeled carts. The slaves removed the armor from the dead. These slaves had their own small informal "business". They collected the blood of slain gladiators and sold it to epileptics as the best remedy for their illness. After the duel of inexperienced gladiators, the best fighters entered the arena.

In spectacular battles, when people fought with animals, the duel was considered over only if one of the opponents was killed: a man by a beast or a beast by a man.

Gladiators were at the lowest rung of the social ladder, and after the uprising of Spartacus, the attitude towards gladiators became especially wary. Soldiers and guards watched the gladiators, stopping attempts of disobedience or suicide. Prisoners of war sent to the gladiatorial school wore slave collars and shackles that hindered movement. Volunteers, unlike slaves, did not wear chains. Free people, unlike slaves, did not pose a threat to society. Freed slaves in their status approached free citizens. Petronius the Arbiter, in his Satyricon, extols the virtues of a traveling band of gladiators, saying: “The three-day show is the best I have ever seen. These were not ordinary grunts, but for the most part free people.

Sometimes offspring of noble families also got into the arena. Petronius the Arbiter mentions a woman from a senatorial family who became a female gladiator. Lucian of Samosata, who hated gladiator fights, tells of Sisinnius, a man who decided to join the gladiators in order to win 10,000 drachmas and pay a ransom for his friend.

Some people went into gladiators out of a desire for a thrill. Even emperors pecked at this bait. Emperor Commodus (180-192 AD) was a fan of gladiator fights since childhood. This made it possible for the political opponents of his father - Marcus Aurelius - to say that the emperor's wife had a young heir from the gladiator. One way or another, Commodus spent almost all his time with gladiators. As an adult, he began to participate in battles as a secutor. By the time of his death, Commodus had managed to win more than 700 fights, but Commodus's contemporary Victor notes that the opponents of the emperor were armed with lead weapons.

The bulk of the professional arena fighters were from gladiatorial schools. During the reign of Octavian Augustus (about 10 BC), there were 4 imperial schools in Rome: Great, Morning, where bestiaries were trained - gladiators who fought with wild animals, the Gallic school and the Dacian school. While studying at the school, all gladiators were well fed and qualifiedly treated. An example of this is the fact that the famous ancient Roman physician Galen worked for a long time at the Great Imperial School.

Gladiators slept in pairs in small closets with an area of ​​4-6 sq.m. The workouts, which lasted from morning to evening, were very intense. Under the guidance of a teacher, a former gladiator, beginners learned swordsmanship. Each of them was given a wooden sword and a shield woven from willow. The chaotic ringing of metal evoked anguish in the audience, so the instructors trained the gladiators to fight not only spectacularly, but also effectively. In the Roman army, it was customary for beginners to practice on wooden palus poles 1.7 m high. In gladiator schools, they preferred to use effigies stuffed with straw, which gave a more visual representation of the enemy. To strengthen the muscles, the next iron training weapon after the wooden one was specially made 2 times heavier than the combat one.

When a beginner adequately comprehended the basics of martial art, he, depending on his abilities and physical fitness, was assigned to specialized groups of one type or another of gladiators. The least capable students fell into the indabats. They were armed with only two daggers, without any additional protection, completed this equipment with a helmet with two holes that did not match the eyes at all. Therefore, the indabats were forced to fight each other almost blindly, brandishing their weapons at random. The attendants "helped" them, pushing them from behind with red-hot iron rods. The public always had a lot of fun looking at the unfortunate, and this part of the gladiator fights was considered by the Romans to be the most amusing.

Gladiators, like Roman soldiers, had their own charter, some historians call it a code of honor, but in fact this is a conventional name. because initially, a gladiator, by definition, was not a free person, and Roman slaves had no concept of honor as such. When a person got into a gladiatorial school, especially if before that he was free, he needed to perform a number of actions, in many ways purely formal, of course, in order to be legally considered a gladiator. Gladiators took an oath and took an oath similar to a military one, according to which they were to be considered “formally dead” and transferred their lives to the property of the gladiatorial school in which they lived, studied, trained and died.

There were a number of unspoken rules and conventions that every gladiator had to adhere to and not violate them under any circumstances. The gladiator always had to remain silent during the duel - the only way he could contact the public was through gestures. The second unspoken item was the observance of certain "rules" of dignity, which can be compared with the rules of the samurai. A fighter - a gladiator had no right to cowardice and fear of death. If a fighter felt that he was dying, he had to open his face to the enemy so that he would finish him off, looking at his eyes, or cut his own throat, removing his helmet and opening his face and eyes to the audience, and they should have seen what was in them there is not an iota of fear. The third law was that the gladiator could not choose his own opponent, obviously, this was done so that the fighters in the arena did not settle their personal scores and grievances. Entering the arena, the gladiator did not know to the last with whom he would have to fight.

Among the Roman aristocrats, it was fashionable to have their own personal gladiators, who not only earned the owner money by performing, but also served as personal guards, which was extremely relevant during the civil unrest of the late Republic. In this respect, Julius Caesar outdid everyone, who at one time contained up to 2 thousand gladiator bodyguards, who made up a real army. It must be said that they became gladiators not only under the coercion of the slave owner or by a court sentence to the arena, but also absolutely voluntarily, in pursuit of fame and fortune.

Despite all the dangers of this profession, a simple but strong guy from the Roman social bottom really had a chance to get rich. And although the chances of dying on the blood-soaked sand of the arena were much greater, many took the risk. The most successful of them, in addition to the love of the Roman mob, and sometimes the Roman matrons, received solid cash prizes from fans and organizers of the fights, as well as interest on bets. In addition, the Roman spectators often threw money, jewelry and other expensive trinkets into the arena to the especially beloved winner, which also accounted for a significant share of the income. Emperor Nero, for example, once gave the gladiator Spiculus a whole palace. And many of the famous fighters gave fencing lessons to everyone who wanted to, receiving a very decent fee for this.

However, luck in the arena smiled at very few - the audience wanted to see blood and death, so the gladiators had to fight seriously, bringing the crowd to a frenzy.

Catchers of animals worked tirelessly, devastating the Roman provinces in Africa and Asia, as well as adjacent territories. Thousands of professionals were engaged in this extremely dangerous, but equally profitable business. In addition to the fighting people, hundreds and thousands of lions, tigers, wolves, leopards, bears, panthers, wild boars, wild bulls, bison, elephants, hippos, rhinos, antelopes, deer, giraffes, monkeys perished in the arenas. Once the catchers managed to bring even polar bears to Rome! Apparently, there were simply no impossible tasks for them.

All these animals were victims of bestiary gladiators. Their training was much longer than the classical gladiators. Pupils of the famous Morning School, which received such a name due to the fact that animal persecution took place in the morning, were taught not only the handling of weapons, but also training, and also introduced them to the characteristics and habits of different animals.

Ancient Roman trainers reached unprecedented heights in their art: bears walked on a tightrope, and lions placed a bestiary under the feet of a driven, but still alive hare, monkeys rode ferocious Hyrcanian hounds, and deer were harnessed to chariots. These amazing tricks were innumerable. But when the satiated crowd demanded blood, fearless venators appeared on the arena (from Latin wenator - hunter), who knew how to kill animals not only with various types of weapons, but also with their bare hands. It was considered the highest chic among them to throw a cloak over the head of a lion or leopard, wrap it up, and then kill the beast with one blow of a sword or spear.

Gladiator fights were different. There were fights of single pairs, and sometimes several tens or even hundreds of pairs fought at the same time. Sometimes whole performances were played out in the arena, introduced into the practice of mass entertainment by Julius Caesar. So, in a matter of minutes, grandiose scenery was erected, depicting the walls of Carthage, and gladiators, dressed and armed, like legionnaires and Carthaginians, represented the assault on the city. Or a whole forest of freshly cut trees grew in the arena, and the gladiators depicted the attack of the Germans on the same legionnaires from an ambush. The fantasy of the directors of the ancient Roman shows knew no bounds.

And although it was extremely difficult to surprise the Romans with something, the emperor Claudius, who ruled in the middle of the 1st century, succeeded quite well. The naumachia (staging of a naval battle) embodied on his orders was of such magnitude that it was able to capture the imagination of all the inhabitants of the Eternal City, young and old. Although naumachia were arranged quite rarely, as they were very expensive even for emperors and required careful development.

The first Naumachia was held in 46 BC. Julius Caesar. Then, a huge artificial lake was dug out on the Field of Mars in Rome to conduct a naval battle. This performance was attended by 16 galleys, on which there were 4,000 rowers and 2,000 gladiator soldiers. It seemed that it was no longer possible to arrange a larger spectacle, but in 2 BC. the first Roman emperor Octavian Augustus, after a year of preparation, presented the Romans with naumachia with the participation of 24 ships and 3 thousand soldiers, not counting the rowers, who played out the battle between the Greeks and the Persians at Salamis.

Only the aforementioned emperor Claudius managed to beat this record. For the naumachia conceived by him, Futsin Lake, located 80 kilometers from Rome, was chosen. No other nearby body of water simply could accommodate 50 real combat triremes and biremes, the crews of which amounted to 20,000 criminals sentenced to the arena. To do this, Claudius devastated all city prisons, putting on ships everyone who could carry weapons.

And in order to discourage so many criminals gathered in one place from organizing a rebellion, the lake was surrounded by troops. The naval battle took place in that part of the lake where the hills formed a natural amphitheatre. There was no shortage of spectators: about 500 thousand people - almost the entire adult population of Rome, settled down on the slopes.

The ships, divided into two fleets, depicted the confrontation between the Rhodians and the Sicilians. The battle, which began at about 10 am, ended only at four o'clock in the afternoon, when the last "Sicilian" ship surrendered. The Roman historian Tacitus wrote: "The morale of the fighting criminals was not inferior to the morale of real warriors." The waters of the lake were red with blood, not to mention the wounded, only more than 3 thousand people were killed. After the battle, Claudius pardoned all the survivors, with the exception of a few crews who, in his opinion, evaded the battle. The audience was absolutely delighted with what they saw. None of the subsequent emperors managed to “outplay” Claudius. It is no coincidence that literally the whole city mourned his death, because he, like no one else, perhaps with the exception of Nero, knew how to entertain the public. And although during his reign Claudius showed himself to be far from being a brilliant statesman, this did not prevent him from being perhaps the most revered emperor among the people.

It happened that the fight dragged on, and both wounded gladiators could not defeat each other for a long time. Then the audience could stop the fight themselves and demand from the editor - the organizer of the games - to let both fighters out of the arena. And the editor obeyed the "voice of the people." The same thing happened if the gladiator so pleased the public with his skill and courage that she demanded the immediate delivery of a wooden training sword - rudis - to him as a symbol of complete liberation not only from fights in the arena, but also from slavery. Of course, this concerned only prisoners of war and slaves, but not volunteers.

The name of the gladiator Flamma has survived to this day, during whose career admiring spectators demanded a wooden sword to be handed over to him four times, and he refused all four times! It is possible that Flamma showed such unheard of stubbornness in the pursuit of fame and money. One way or another, but he succeeded, he left the arena voluntarily, more or less unharmed, and at a fairly mature age and being the owner of a decent fortune.

Gladiator fights were not alien to the most educated people of that time. Cicero, for example, assessed these games as follows: “It is useful for people to see that slaves can fight courageously. If even a simple slave can show courage, then what should the Romans be like? In addition, the games accustom the warlike people to the form of murder and prepare them for war. Pliny, Tacitus and many other prominent Roman writers and thinkers were ardent admirers of gladiatorial spectacles. The only exception was, perhaps, the philosopher Seneca, who in every way advocated for their prohibition, which not least led to his forced suicide on the orders of his crowned pupil Nero.

Nearly all Roman emperors sought to outdo each other in grandiosity in order to win the love of the crowd. Emperor Titus Flavius ​​at the opening of the Colosseum, which accommodated up to 80 thousand spectators and immediately became the main arena of Ancient Rome, ordered to kill in various ways 17 thousand Jews who had worked on its construction for ten years. Emperor Domitian, being a virtuoso in archery, loved to amuse the audience by hitting the head of a lion or a bear with arrows so that the arrows seemed to become horns for them. And naturally horned animals - deer, bulls, bison, and so on, he killed with a shot in the eye. I must say that the Roman people loved this ruler very much.

Met among the Roman emperors and merry fellows. A very funny story is connected with the name of Gallienus, for example. One jeweler, who sold counterfeit gems and was sentenced to the arena for this, was driven out by the bestiaries to the middle of the arena and placed in front of a closed lion's cage. The unfortunate man, with bated breath, was waiting for an inevitable and, moreover, terrible death, and then the cage door swung open, and a chicken came out of it. Unable to withstand the stress, the jeweler fainted. When the audience laughed enough, Gallienus ordered to announce: "This man was deceiving, therefore he was deceived." Then the jeweler was brought to his senses and released on all four sides.

By the beginning of the 4th century, gladiator fights and animal baiting began to gradually decline. It was a time when the once Great Roman Empire began to literally languish under the blows of numerous "barbarian" tribes. The situation was aggravated by the ongoing economic crisis - the Romans themselves practically did not work, and imported goods were constantly rising in price. Therefore, the Roman emperors of that period had enough worries, in addition to the arrangement of expensive games. And, nevertheless, they continued, although already without the former scope. Finally, gladiator fights were banned 72 years before the fall of the Roman Empire.

Gladiators (lat. gladiatores, from gladius, “sword”) - among the ancient Romans, the name of the fighters who fought each other in competitions in the arena of the amphitheater. Of all the games that satisfied the passion for spectacles of the Roman people, gladiator fights (munera gladiatoria) enjoyed the greatest favor of all classes. Gladiator competitions have their origins in the Etruscan funeral games, which replaced human sacrifices that were once performed in memory of the dead. As a result, gladiator fights were held among the ancient Romans initially only at funeral feasts (ad rogum); the first mention of them refers to 264 BC Chr. Over time, however, these games lost the meaning of sacrifices to the dead and turned into a simple entertainment for the cruel and proud of their freedom of the Roman people, who enjoyed the sight of gladiators fighting to death. At the same time, they began to be seen as an excellent means of maintaining a warlike spirit among the people.

This custom took on such a character in the last days of the republic. In this era, the aediles, as well as other officials, especially when they took office, began to organize gladiatorial games on occasion of the most diverse events, and special amphitheaters with an open arena were even built for this purpose. The number of pairs of fighting gladiators gradually increased. Julius Caesar, in office aedile(65 BC) exhibited 320 pairs of gladiators.

gladiators. Blood sport of the Colosseum. video film

The ancient Roman emperors alternately restricted gladiatorial games or encouraged them to the point of madness. Augustus allowed the praetors to give gladiator fights no more than twice a year, and, moreover, with the condition that no more than 60 couples participate in each of them. At the games arranged by him, according to his own testimony, in general, no less than 10 thousand people fought. Augustus' prohibition was soon forgotten. They say about Trajan that he gave various games for 123 days, in which 10 thousand gladiators fought, and the emperor Commodus was not so proud of anything as the glory of a skilled gladiator, who performed hundreds of times in the arena. Soon, however, gladiatorial games found access to other major cities of the Roman Empire. Yes, according to the story Josephus Flavius, Herod Agrippa I, at the opening of the amphitheater in Caesarea, put up 700 gladiators in one day. Even in Athens and Corinth, these games met with a sympathetic reception, and in later times there was hardly a significant city in Italy or in the provinces that did not have its own amphitheater for gladiatorial games.

Duel of gladiators retiarius and myrmillo. Modern reconstruction

Gladiators were recruited for the most part from prisoners of war, who were brought in masses in ancient Rome by numerous wars. Many slaves were awarded to compete in the arena as a form of punishment. There were also many among the gladiators and free citizens, desperate and impoverished people who had no other means to support themselves. Gladiators who managed to emerge victorious from the competition not only acquired loud fame and were immortalized in works of poetry and art, but also received a significant payment (auctoramentum) for each performance, so that they could hope to spend the rest of their lives in wealthy people. These free gladiators were called auctorati and had to take an oath that they would allow themselves to be "cut with rods, burn with fire and kill with iron."

Fight of gladiators retiarius and secutor

During the Roman Empire, imperial schools for gladiators (ludi gladiatorii) were established, one of which was found in Pompeii. Here, the gladiators were kept in the strictest discipline and severely punished for the slightest misconduct, but they were treated with great care for their bodily well-being. Gladiators practiced their art under the guidance of a fencing teacher (lanists). Beginners used a special rapier (rudis), which was also given to a well-deserved gladiator (rudiarius) after a successful fight, as a sign of complete liberation from the gladiatorial service.

By armament, the gladiators of Ancient Rome were divided into several genera. The so-called Samnites(samnites), who wore an oblong shield, a strong sleeve on the right arm, a cuisse on the left leg, a strong belt, a helmet with a visor and crest, and a short sword. Retiarii(retiarii - "fighters with a net"), whose main weapon was the net (rete), went out almost without clothes; they were protected only by a wide belt and a leather or metal armlet on their left arm. In addition, they were armed with a trident (fuscina) and a dagger. Their art was to throw a net over the head of the enemy, and then stab him with a trident. Their opponents were usually gladiators. secutors(secutores - "pursuers"), armed with a helmet, shield and sword. In addition to secutors, they often also fought with retiarii. myrmillons(myrmillones), armed according to the Gallic model with a helmet, shield and sword. A special kind of gladiators were the Thracians (thraces), armed in Thracian, with a small, usually round shield (parma) and a short curved sword (sica). Also often mentioned essedaria(essedarii), who fought on a war chariot (esseda) drawn by a pair of horses, while the gladiators andabata(andabatae) fought on horseback, wearing helmets, with a visor without holes for the eyes, and armed with a round shield and a spear (spiculum), rushed at each other, seeing nothing.

Armament of a Thracian gladiator. Modern reconstruction

The one who organized gladiatorial games was called editor muneris or munerarius. He appointed in advance the day of the games and published their program (libellus). These libelli, which gave the number of gladiators and listed by name the most prominent of them, were diligently distributed; often bets were also made on the expected victory of one fighter or the other. At the beginning of the performance, the gladiators passed in a solemn procession through the arena, greeting the Roman emperor of the mentioned Suetonius the phrase: “Ave, Imperator (Caesar), morituri te salutant” (“Glory to you, emperor, those who are going to death greet you!” Suetonius, “Vita Claudii”, 21).

Arranged then in pairs, the gladiators began an exemplary battle (prolusio) with blunt weapons, often to music. But now the trumpet gave a signal for a serious fight, and the gladiators rushed at each other with sharp weapons. Pipes and flutes drowned out the groans of the wounded and dying. Those who retreated were driven into battle with whips and red-hot irons. If the gladiator received a wound, then they shouted: "Habet". But usually they did not pay attention to the wounds, and the battle continued until one of the fighters was left with strength. Then he lowered his weapon and, raising his index finger, begged the people for compassion and mercy. The fulfillment of a request (missio), which in later times was usually granted to the emperor, was announced by waving handkerchiefs, and probably also by raising a finger, while turning the thumb required a mortal blow. The ancient Roman people showed concern for the brave fighters, but cowardice aroused rage in him. Fallen gladiators were dragged with special hooks through the Porta Libitinensis ("gate of death") to the so-called spolarium(spolarium) and here they finished off those who still had signs of life.

"Fingers down". Painting by J. L. Gerome on the theme of gladiator fights

In Italy, Campania was the birthplace of the gladiatorial schools mentioned above, and the huge mass of slaves who gathered to study in these schools repeatedly created a serious danger for Ancient Rome with their uprisings (see Spartacus Revolt) . In the internecine wars of Otho with Vitellius, gladiators served in the troops and rendered great services in hand-to-hand combat. Although Christianity rebelled against gladiatorial games, for a long time it was unable to eradicate the addiction to these spectacles in Ancient Rome. They finally stopped, apparently, only in the reign Honoria (404).

Artistic depictions of gladiator fights are not uncommon. Of great importance is a large bas-relief found in Pompeii, representing various scenes from ancient Roman gladiatorial battles. Images of similar battle scenes have been preserved on a mosaic floor found in Nennig (in the district of Trier, Germany).

Violent sports were part of the Etruscan funerary rite as human sacrifice.

The Romans adopted the Etruscan funeral rite and changed it over time, the participants in the mortal combat were no longer killed immediately, but forced them to fight with swords in their hands near the grave of the deceased, the weak died in the duel, and the strong fighter remained alive, causing the delight of those present. The Romans first saw this cruel spectacle in 264 BC. e. in the bull market , where three pairs of gladiators fought at the wake of Brutus Pere, arranged by his sons. The spectacle seemed so unusual and remarkable to the Romans that this event was entered into the annals of Rome.

The connection between gladiatorial games and commemorations has never been forgotten, they were called "funeral games", and the official name is mumus ("duty"), the debt of the living towards the dead.

In 105 BC. e. gladiatorial games were introduced to public spectacles in Rome . From now on, the state entrusted its magistrates with the care of arranging gladiatorial games, and they became the favorite spectacle, both in Rome and in the provinces of the Roman Empire. Caesar in 65 BC uh . arranged gladiator games, in which 320 pairs of gladiators took part. His enemies were frightened: not only these armed fellows were terrible, it was terrible that luxurious games became a sure way to win the favor of the people and secure votes in the elections. In 63 BC. uh . by the proposal Cicero passed a law , which forbade a candidate for magistrates for two years before the election to "give gladiators." No one, however, could forbid a private person to "give" them under the pretext of a commemoration for his relative, especially if the latter bequeathed to his heir to arrange games.

Depending on weapons and specifics their participation in fights distinguished the following types of gladiators:

Andabat (from the Greek word "άναβαται" - "raised, elevated") Andabata fighters were dressed in chain mail, like eastern cavalry (cataphracts), and helmets with visors without slits for the eyes. Andabats fought each other in much the same way as knights in medieval jousting tournaments.

Bestiary were armed with a dart or dagger, these fighters were originally not gladiators, but criminals (noxia), sentenced to fight with predatory animals, with a high probability of death of the sentenced. Later, bestiaries became well-trained gladiators, specializing in combat with various exotic predators using darts. The fights were organized in such a way that the beasts had little chance of defeating the bestiary.

Bustuary. These gladiators fought in honor of the deceased at ritual games during the funeral rite.

Velit - foot gladiators armed with a dart with a cord tied to it for throwing. Named after units of the early Republican Roman army.

dimacher (from the Greek "διμάχαιρος" - " carrying two daggers" ). They fought without a helmet and a shield with two daggers in each hand. They were dressed in a short soft tunic, their arms and legs were bandaged with tight bandages, sometimes they wore leggings.

Gaul. The fighters were equipped with a spear, a helmet and a small Gallic shield.

Goplomakh (from the Greek "οπλομάχος" - "armed fighter"). The fighters were dressed in quilted, trouser-like clothing for legs, possibly made of thick cotton or linen fabric, loincloth, belt, greaves. Of the armor, they put on the forearms (manika) of the right hand, and a helmet with fields and with a stylized griffin on the crest, decorated with a brush of feathers on top and single feathers on each side. From weapons they carried a very small round shield, made of one sheet of thick bronze, examples of shields have been preserved in Pompeii. The fighters were put up for fights against the Mirmillons or the Thracians.

Lakveary - "fighter with lasso". Lakvearii could be a type of retiarii that tried to catch their rivals with a lasso (laqueus) instead of a net.

Mirmillon - "mormylos" - "sea fish", fighters They wore a helmet with a stylized fish on a crest, armor for the forearm (maniku), a loincloth and a belt, leggings on the right leg, thick windings covering the top of the foot, and very short armor. The Mirmillons were armed with a gladius sword (40-50 cm long) and a large rectangular shield, like the legionnaires. They were put up for battle against the Thracians, Retiarii, sometimes also against the hoplomachi.

Pegnaria used a whip, a club and a shield, which was attached to the left hand with straps.

Provocateur - "applicant". The fighters were depicted wearing a loincloth, a belt, a long greave on the left leg, a maniku on the right arm, and a helmet with a visor, without brim and crest, but with feathers on each side. They were the only gladiators protected by a cuirass (cardiophylax), which was at first rectangular, then often rounded. The provocateurs were armed with a gladius and a large rectangular shield. Exhibited for battles with the Samnites or other provocateurs.

Retiarius - "fighter with a net." They p appeared at the dawn of the Roman Empire. The fighters were armed with a trident, a dagger and a net. In addition to a loincloth supported by a wide belt (balteus) and a large armor on the left shoulder joint, the retiarius had no clothing, including a helmet. Sometimes a metal shield (galerus) was used to protect the neck and lower face. There were retiarii who played female roles in the arena (“retiarius tunicatus”), which differed from ordinary retiarii in that they were dressed in a tunic. The retiarii usually fought with the secutors, but sometimes with the myrmillons.

Rudiarium - a gladiator who deserved liberation and was awarded a wooden sword - rudis, but decided to remain a gladiator. Not all rudiarii continued to fight in the arena, there was a special hierarchy among them: they could be trainers, assistants, judges, fighters, etc. Rudiarii fighters were very popular among the public, as they had vast experience and one could expect a truly addictive gladiatorial game.

Samnites - an ancient type of heavily armed fighters, which disappeared in the early imperial period, its name indicates the origin of gladiator fights. Historical Samnites were influential union of italic tribes who lived in the Campania region south of Rome, against whom The Romans fought wars from 326 to 291 BC. e. The equipment of the Samnites was a large rectangular shield (scutum), a feathered helmet, a short sword, and possibly a greave on the left leg.

Secutor - this type of fighters was specially intended for fights with retiarii.

Sagittaria - mounted archers armed with a flexible bow capable of firing an arrow at a long distance.

Secutors were equipped with armor and weapons, large rectangular shields and gladiuses. Their helmet, however, covered the entire face, except for two holes for the eyes, in order to protect the face from the sharp trident of their rival. The helmet is round and smooth so that the net of the retiarius cannot catch on it.

Skissor (scissor, “one who cuts”, “cutting”) - a gladiator who was armed with a short sword (gladius) and instead of a shield had a cutting weapon - two small swords that had one handle or, put on an iron hollow rod with a sharp horizontal tip. With this cutting weapon, the skissor delivered blows that led to minor wounds of the opponent, but the wounds bled very much. Otherwise, the skissor was similar to a secutor, except for the additional protection of the right arm from the shoulder to the elbow, which consisted of many iron plates fastened together with strong leather cords. The helmet and protective ammunition for secutors and skissors were the same

Tertiarii also called "Suppositicius" - "replacing". Some competitions involved three gladiators. First, the first two fought each other, then the winner of this fight fought with the third, who was called tertiary - "third".

Thracians equipped with the same armor as the goplomakhs. The Thracians wore a great helmet covering the whole head and adorned with a griffin on the forehead or on the front of the crest, the Griffin was the symbol of the goddess of retribution, Nemesis. The Thracians wore a small round shield (parmula), and two large greaves. Their weapon was the Thracian curved sword-axe - sicca, about 34 cm long. Thracians fought with the Myrmillons or the Hoplomakhs.

Venators arranged demonstrative hunting for wild animals, without fighting them in close combat, like bestiaries. They performed animal tricks—putting their hand in a lion's mouth, riding a camel with lions on a leash by their side, making an elephant walk on a tightrope (Seneca Ep. 85.41). Venators were not gladiators, but their performances were part of the gladiator fights.

Ekvit ("horseman"). In Sanskrit: - horse. In early descriptions, these lightly armed gladiators were dressed in scaly armor, wearing a medium-sized round cavalry shield ( parma equestris), a helmet with fields, without a crest, but with two decorative tassels. In Roman times, they wore a forearm armor (manica) on their right arm, a sleeveless tunic (which distinguished them from other bare-chested gladiators), and a belt. Equites started the fight on horseback, but after they threw their spear (hasta), they dismounted and continued to fight with a short sword (gladius). Equits usually only fought other Equits.

Essedarius - "chariot fighter", (from the Latin name of the Celtic chariot - "esseda"). Essedaria are mentioned in many descriptions from the 1st century AD. e., may have been first brought to Rome by Julius Caesar from Britain.

Pregenaries in performed at the beginning of the competition to "warm up" the crowd. They used wooden swords (rudis) and wrapped cloth around the body. Their fights took place to the accompaniment of cymbals, pipes and water organs (hydraulis).

Why did Roman citizens become gladiators?
People who took the "gladiator's oath" were deprived of many rights of free citizens, including the right to their own lives, which depended on the outcome of the battle. Perhaps this freed the citizen from debts, and made it possible to get away from creditors, and even earn money if the audience liked the arena during the gladiator fight. Apparently, for many Roman citizens, gladiator fights were a good job - " shod, dressed, have a roof over your head and live on everything ready.

Gladiators had to live in special gladiatorial schools, where they studied the art of gladiatorial combat under the supervision of freedmen, that is, former gladiators. Naturally, there were doctors, masseurs, and cooks at their service, providing the gladiators with everything necessary for training and providing professional fighters.

A good incentive for a bold, dexterous and warlike gladiator was a high salary. Even the gladiator slaves had every right to a part of the reward for winning in the arena, they got the coins that the spectators threw into the arena during the battle. If a former gladiator, having been released, wished to remain in the arena, he received a generous reward. Emperor Tiberius offered a thousand gold coins to one of the freed gladiator slaves if he returned to the arena.

In the morning before the gladiator competition, hunting for wild animals (venatio) took place, in the afternoon the execution of criminals sentenced to death was carried out, they were thrown to be torn to pieces by animals. Before the fight, the gladiators dined at public banquets, together with the locals. Before the start of the gladiator fights, the fighters entered the arena, arranging a kind of parade to preliminarily tune the public and demonstrate their combat form, then the gladiator fights began.

The number of gladiator fights depended on the number of participating rivals. Usually the fights lasted until the end of the day, and each duel lasted an average of about ten to fifteen minutes.

A gladiatorial duel was a hand-to-hand fight of fighters with different weapons. After one of the fighters was injured or weakened, he threw the shield to the ground and raised his finger up (ad digitum), indicating his desire to surrender and stop the fight. The judge of the gladiatorial duel was obliged to intervene and stop the fight, leaving the fate of the defeated mumeraria (the owner of the gladiators). The decision he made sometimes depended on the opinion of the assembled public - he could spare (missio) the vanquished, or even grant freedom to one or both fighters, but such a release did not happen often, since this brought only losses to the mumerarius. Mumerary entered the arena and handed to the happy gladiator wooden sword (rudis), which meant that the gladiator was no longer a slave, but a free man.

Mumerarius could raise his thumb up (pollitz verso) or point it down - this meant the decision of the fate of the vanquished. The audience also expressed their opinion by showing the thumbs up, which meant "missio" (mercy), which allows the gladiator to return to the ludus and prepare for the next fight. The thumb down meant that the winner of the fight must inflict a fatal blow (coup de grace) on the defeated fighter.

There was a double attitude towards male gladiators in Rome, they were loved and despised at the same time. Some citizens of Rome looked at the warlike gladiators as their idols, others treated them with contempt, like barbarians.

For a noble Roman, it was a shame to participate in gladiator fights in the arena, and participation in military campaigns, battles and wars was considered military prowess.

Autocrats - Volunteer Gladiators could not live in gladiator schools, but take lessons from private trainers or visit special studios for training. Autocrats entered the gladiatorial arena quite rarely, two or three times a year.

There is an opinion that all gladiators were doomed to death, but in reality this is not so! Of course, gladiators died, including by decision of the public. However, not as often as it is commonly believed. It was very expensive to educate, teach martial arts, and maintain such a fighter. It was much more profitable to receive money from the audience for the performance of a good gladiator fighter than to pay for his burial.

Fighting in the ancient Roman arena was not exclusively a male affair. In 63 a.d. er. Emperor Nero issued a decree allowing free women to participate in gladiatorial tournaments. After him, Pozzuoli allows Ethiopian women to fight.

Women in the gladiatorial arena fought like men, and trained before the performance, like male gladiators. It is known that most of the gladiators in the Roman Empire were slaves, but some citizens voluntarily became gladiators and took an oath that they agreed "to be doomed, to be beaten, and to die by the sword" (uri, vinciri, uerberari, ferroque necari). By the end of the Roman Republic, about half of the Roman gladiators were volunteers - a huge number, given that the fighting took place not only in Rome, but also in many major cities of the country.

Women participated in fights, lived and died as fighters. The life of female gladiators was perhaps harder than that of men, daily physical training prepared them for the use of various types of weapons during the gladiator fight. Some Roman women, trampling all the limits of all decency, attended special studios, while others trained with their gladiator fathers.

Roman historian Tacitus with condemnation mentions women with a fairly high social status who participated in gladiator fights for the sake of entertainment, and considers these performances in the arena to be their shame. “This year the gladiatorial games were no less magnificent than in the past. However, many ladies from high society and people of senatorial rank have dishonored themselves by appearing in the arena. In general, Roman society considered women's gladiator fights reprehensible and unworthy!

The Roman historian Suetonius (c. 69 - 122 AD) spoke of gladiator fights involving women, under the emperor Domitian, who outdid Caligula, Nero and Heliogabal in his entertainment. Dio Cassius (ancient Greek Δίων ὁ Κάσσιος,) wrote that these gladiatorial fights of women were held by torchlight late at night, at the end of the whole gladiatorial performance.

Roman poet Statius in a poem about gladiator fights under the emperor Domitian, he reports that “Moors, women and pygmies” participated in the battles. “Sex, unfit for weapons, rivals men in battle! You'd think it was a gang of Amazons fighting."
According to the testimony of the Roman senator and historian Tacitus (c. 56 AD - 177 AD), even noble and rich women did not hesitate to appear in the arena, who wanted to perform in the gladiatorial arena and receive the laurels of the winners.

The Roman poet-satirist Decem Juvenal in Satire IV (55 AD - 127 AD), denouncing the vices of Roman society, caustically ridiculed female gladiators: and described the gladiatorial performance in detail:
“Have you heard that women need battle capes and oil to fight?
Have you seen the pieces of wood that they beat and crumble,
Skillful techniques punching them through with a sword or a spear?
It's about the girls who trumpet for the glory of Flora.
Or maybe they are preparing themselves to enter the arena for a real fight?
But is it proper for decent women to put their head in a helmet,
Despising your gender with which you were born?
They love men's things, but they don't want to be men
After all, small things (as they believe) delight their lives!
What "pride" does a husband feel at the sight of a market where
His wife seems to be for sale - in belts, shields and skins!
Listen to her grunts and moans as she toils hard, parrying and attacking;
Look at her neck being bent by the heavy helmet.
See how her legs are bandaged like tree trunks
Laugh as she drops her armor and weapons and reaches for the goblet.
How the daughters of our praetors and consuls are degrading!
Have you seen bare-breasted Amazons against wild boars at the games?
Isn't it more disgusting than gladiatorial girls and naked whores?

It is quite obvious that female gladiatorial fights are not fiction at all, but a fact captured in ancient literature and history! Archaeological finds confirm the existence of female gladiators in Ancient Rome, inscriptions of a local magistrate from Ostia about the organization of female gladiator fights, burials female gladiators, bas-relief from Helicarnassus , which shows two women in secutor gear. They wear belts, greaves and plates on their arms. Each woman is armed with a sword and shield, but both fight with bare heads and bare chests. Their names are indicated under the images and confirm that they are women - one is called Amazonia, the other Achilles. The inscription at the top in Latin means "missae sunt", that is, both of them, or one of them, received an honorary exemption from the fight or the so-called "mercy" (missio) from the public watching the battle.

Legend and Achilles.

Achillia of Pergamon, a Roman province in Asia Minor, was the daughter of the 'castor' of Pergamon. The years of her life fell on the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius ‘the Wise’. In 162 AD, when her life changed dramatically, she was about 20 years old.

Unlike her noble peers, Achille was an extraordinary girl, had a large, strong physique and a cocky character. Since her father's duties included organizing gladiator games for the people of Pergamon, his daughter was intimately familiar with the gladiator business. When she was 17 years old, she began to attend the city's 'ludum' (gladiator school), where she watched gladiator training and fierce fights. Achilles was no different from other noble women who were not indifferent to gladiators; they openly admired their courage and did not miss the gladiator fights. Achille began to take lessons in gladiatorial combat from the school manager and former gladiator Partakos. In Ludum, she met the famous scientist and healer Claudius Galen, who studied human anatomy on the wounded and killed gladiators, and later became the personal physician of Emperor Aurelius. Galen was about thirty years old, and he fell in love with an attractive young girl. Galen did not dissuade Achilles from practicing gladiatorial art, but rather taught her the basics of human anatomy, showing the most vulnerable and painful points of the body for blows. Since Achilleia was born left-handed, Partakos taught her how to use this advantage when fighting right-handers.
This knowledge helped her to improve Achilles in the art of martial arts, she was preparing to really fight in the arena. While training with a wooden sword, Achille mastered the basics of the gladiatorial art, as well as some wrestling techniques. At the age of 19, she competed in a women's gladiatorial match for the first time. Her skill exceeded all expectations, she was a strong and beautiful girl.

A rival for Achilles was quickly found, it was Anahita, a prisoner captured in the Parthian army. She was a real warrior and fought in the gladiatorial arena of Smyrna. Anahita was so belligerent and fearless that she was nicknamed "Amazonia". Achilia and Amazonia soon had to meet in the gladiatorial arena. Well acquainted with the basics of gladiatorial art, after intensive training, Achillia fought with the wild and ferocious Sarmatian warrior Amazonia, who fought like a tigress, but was wounded and lost the battle to a more experienced and stronger opponent. Achilles' gladiatorial career ended as abruptly as it began,

The emperor's wife, Faustina, famous for her waywardness and cruelty, loved gladiator fights and tried not to miss a single one. After the Roman victory over the Parthians in Armenia, Faustina toured the provinces and attended gladiatorial games in the cities of Asia Minor. In Halicarnassus, south of Pergamon, she saw the duel between Achilles and Anahita. The formidable and invincible Anahita struck Achilles with a deft blow, and she asked for ‘missio’ (mercy). The audience was in good spirits, and the defeated girl was given life. Faustina was amazed at how fiercely and skillfully the warlike female gladiators fought and ordered a sculpture carved in stone in memory of the brave warriors. A talented local sculptor completed the order, and the bas-relief depicting Achilles and Amazonia has survived to our time and reminds of these two female warriors.

The bas-relief of fighting female gladiators has preserved this duel for centuries "as an example to posterity."

Gladiator fights were banned in 400 AD when Christianity was adopted in the Roman Empire.

2017-11-12