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Arena Spectacles (Classics)

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  1. Introduction
  2.  
  3. The staging of various types of violent spectacle characterizes Roman urban culture from the mid-Republic until Late Antiquity. Gradually, temporary structures erected in the Forum were replaced by permanent venues, custom-built (predominantly in the West) or adapted from preexisting theaters or stadia (in the Eastern Empire). The term “arena spectacles” covers all types of spectacle put on in these locations, including gladiatorial combat, beast displays, aquatic spectacles, and spectacular forms of public execution. Some of these spectacles were also staged elsewhere—for instance, staged hunts (venationes) in the circus, and naval battles (naumachiae) on custom-built lakes—but this bibliography is limited to the four categories of display mentioned above; other types of spectacle associated with some of the venues (e.g., chariot-racing in the circus) are not treated here. Participation in arena spectacles was a very low-status activity, although staging them earned their sponsors considerable prestige. Spectacles were a major investment, either financial or ideological, for many different constituents in Roman society. The sources are numerous but fragmentary. Dispassionate assessment is hampered by modern revulsion at the provision of public entertainment that was potentially fatal for the protagonists, whether human or animal. Many factors helped to shape arena spectacles, including the hierarchical nature and military ethose of ancient society, a short life expectancy, the provision of amenities by private benefaction, the spread of Roman power to encompass distant lands and exotic products, the gradual aggrandizement of a single man as world leader, and the development of an instinct for martyrdom in the emerging religion of Christianity. The precise function of arena spectacles is hotly debated in modern scholarship. New interpretations and new discoveries, primarily archaeological, are constantly undermining long-held assumptions. Scholars are struggling to understand an alien, challenging, and intriguing phenomenon.
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  5. General Overviews
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  7. Most overviews lag behind the scholarship in this fast-moving field, but several recent treatments contribute original interpretations based on particular theoretical approaches: Futrell 1997 (central place theory), Kyle 1998 (anthropological theories concerning pollution and cleansing), Plass 1995 (game theory), and Wiedemann 1992 (theory of redemption). Hopkins and Beard 2005 wears its scholarship lightly. Dunkle 2008 and Meijer 2004, aimed at a general audience, include brief coverage of the treatment of arena spectacles in film. Many other book-length accounts, mentioned elsewhere in this bibliography for their treatment of specific aspects, also offer an overview, if not always as comprehensive as the titles listed in this section.
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  9. Dunkle, Roger. 2008. Gladiators: Violence and spectacle in ancient Rome. Harlow, UK: Pearson.
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  11. A readable overview that avoids sensationalism.
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  13. Futrell, Alison. 1997. Blood in the arena: The spectacle of Roman power. Austin: Univ. of Texas Press.
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  15. Argues that arena spectacles were a mechanism for linking center and periphery in the Roman Empire, spreading Roman culture, and establishing civic order. Focuses particularly on the West. Postulates that the amphitheater functioned as a nexus of cult practices to acculturate provincials to Roman power structures.
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  17. Hopkins, Keith, and Mary Beard. 2005. The Colosseum. London: Profile.
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  19. Uses the Colosseum as the entrée to a brisk and sometimes polemical account of arena spectacles. Useful annotated list of further reading. Very readable, and illustrated.
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  21. Kyle, Donald G. 1998. Spectacles of death in ancient Rome. London: Routledge.
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  23. Focuses on the institution of the arena as a means of acquiring victims, both human and animal, most of whom, Kyle argues, were destined to die. He locates the disposal of corpses within the context of Roman views about death, burial, and the afterlife, informed by anthropological comparisons from other cultures.
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  25. Meijer, Fik. 2004. The gladiators: History’s most deadly sport. London: Souvenir.
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  27. English translation of popular Dutch original, Gladiatoren: Volksvermaak in het Colosseum (Amsterdam: Athenaeum-Polak and Van Gennep, 2003).
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  29. Plass, Paul. 1995. The game of death in ancient Rome: Arena sport and political suicide. Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Press.
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  31. A combined study of gladiatorial displays and political suicide, arguing that both are forms of socialized violence in which targeted elements in society are sacrificed for a sense of public welfare. Adapts approaches from sociology and anthropology, especially game theory.
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  33. Wiedemann, Thomas. 1992. Emperors and gladiators. London: Routledge.
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  35. Surveys the entire gamut of arena spectacles. Argues, although without compelling evidence, that gladiators represented an escape from death by the pursuit of virtus (manly attitudes and behavior), and that this brought arena spectacles into conflict with the tenets of early Christianity. While somewhat repetitive, this work is frequently cited and widely available. It was also the catalyst for a thought-provoking review article by Shelby Brown, “Explaining the arena: Did the Romans ‘need’ gladiators?” Journal of Roman Archaeology 8 (1995): 376–384.
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  37. Reference Works
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  39. The impetus in 19th-century scholarship (primarily German) to document the evidence surviving from Antiquity inspired the classic treatments by Lafaye 1896, Friedlaender 1908, and Schneider 1918. These are still valuable repositories of information, although necessarily out of date regarding new finds, and somewhat moralizing in their attitude. Weismann 1981 bridges the gap between the pagan and Christian worlds.
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  41. Friedlaender, Ludwig. 1908. Roman life and manners under the early Empire. Vol. 2. Translated by J. H. Freese and L. A. Magnus. London: George Routledge and Sons.
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  43. Reprinted, New York: Arno, 1979. Translation of Darstellungen aus der Sittengeschichte Roms, 7th edition (Leipzig, Germany: S. Hirzel, 1901). Continuous narrative without documentation, but valuable for treating aspects rarely addressed, such as the influx of foreigners to watch spectacles at Rome. General considerations, pp. 1–19; arena spectacles, pp. 40–90.
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  45. Lafaye, Georges. 1896. Gladiator. In Dictionnaire des antiquités grecques et romaines d’après les textes et les monuments. Vol. 2, pt. 2. Edited by Ch. Daremberg and Edm. Saglio, 1563–1599. Paris: Librairie Hachette.
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  47. In French, with textual sources footnoted and material evidence reproduced in engravings.
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  49. Schneider, K. 1918. Gladiatores. In Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, Supp. Vol. 3, cols. 760–784. Stuttgart, Germany: J. B. Metzler.
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  51. In German. Very dense.
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  53. Weismann, Werner. 1981. Gladiator. In Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum. Vol. 11, cols. 23–45. Stuttgart, Germany: Anton Hiersemann.
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  55. In German. Contains a brief but valuable section on Christian attitudes.
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  57. Textbooks
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  59. It is difficult to find reliable treatments of such a technical area as arena spectacles, with its very specialized terminology and heavily abbreviated epigraphic sources. Sources for arena spectacles are usually treated very briefly in sourcebooks for Greek and Roman sport, or in general sourcebooks for Roman culture, as in Shelton 1998. Futrell 2006 devotes an entire course-length textbook to the material.
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  61. Futrell, Alison, ed. 2006. The Roman games: A sourcebook. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
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  63. Includes Ancient sources in translation (mainly literary; some inscriptions), linked by brief narrative passages, with twenty-eight black-and-white photographs of sites and artifacts (reproductions are sometimes fuzzy). Includes chariot racing, “water shows,” and Christian engagement with the arena.
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  65. Shelton, Jo-Ann, ed. 1998. As the Romans did: A sourcebook in Roman social history. 2d ed. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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  67. Arena events (pp. 348–358) are treated within a section on “Leisure and Entertainment.” Exclusively textual sources.
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  69. Sources
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  71. The sources for arena spectacles comprise a patchwork of literary, epigraphic, and material evidence from the entire spectrum of available media. Most of the literary evidence is accessible through English translations of individual works; most of the inscriptions, however, are not yet available in English. Much of the iconographic register, especially mass-produced items (e.g., lamps), is generic, thereby attesting widespread popularity. Labor-intensive items, probably individually commissioned, may record specific occasions; this is almost certainly the case when the image is accompanied by an inscription, as sometimes occurs on mosaics.
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  73. Literary Sources
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  75. Fully contextualized studies of literary sources are rare, although each of the classical works most concerned with arena spectacles has been the subject of recent individual attention. Generic conventions, and narratological and ideological concerns, color the presentation of arena spectacles in literary sources, Hence, while these sources cannot be treated as transparent reflections of actual practice, they are important testimony to the dissemination of spectacles in Roman culture and to social attitudes toward them. Kleijwegt 1998 deals with a discrete episode in the picaresque novel by Petronius, the Satyrica, as a preoccupation of the freedman class, while Slater 2003 deals with the “slippage” between spectator and participant in a work in the same genre by Apuleius, the Metamorphoses. Cagniart 2000 traces the theme in the prose works of the younger Seneca. Coleman (Martial 2006) explicates the collection of epigrams on spectacle by Martial, while Krapinger (Quintilian 2007) explicates a declamation ascribed to Quintilian. Bradley 1981 accounts for the motif in the biographies of the Julio-Claudian and Flavian emperors by Suetonius. Surveys of the attitude of (mainly) 1st-century authors in Enenkel 2005 and Wistrand 1992 focus on the arena as a positive paradigm.
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  77. Bradley, K. R. 1981. The significance of the spectacula in Suetonius’ Caesares. Rivista Storica dell’Antichità 11:129–137.
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  79. Argues that Suetonius’s arrangement of his material by topic reflects the expectations that the emperor’s subjects had of him, including the demonstration of liberality by the provision of spectacles.
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  81. Cagniart, Pierre. 2000. The philosopher and the gladiator. Classical World 93:607–618.
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  83. Examines references to arena spectacles by the younger Seneca to show that the famous cameos from Epistulae morales 7 and 70 apparently condemning cruelty in the arena should be seen in the context of Seneca’s extensive use of the arena as a metaphor for bravery, endurance, heroism, and other positive values.
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  85. Enenkel, Karl A. E. 2005. The propagation of fortitudo: Gladiatorial combats from ca. 85 BC to the times of Trajan and their reflection in Roman literature. In The manipulative mode: Political propaganda in Antiquity; A collection of case studies. Edited by Karl A. E. Enenkel and Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, 275–294. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
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  87. Argues that the promotion of arena displays by Augustus and Trajan is associated with each emperor’s desire to resurrect traditional Roman values, and that during the 1st century CE a fashion for pitting unskilled fighters against each other was variously interpreted as either enabling or obstructing a display of fortitudo (bravery).
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  89. Kleijwegt, Marc. 1998. The social dimensions of gladiatorial combat in Petronius’ Cena Trimalchionis. In Groningen Colloquia on the Novel 9. Edited by H. Hofmann and M. Zimmerman, 75–97. Groningen, The Netherlands: Forsten.
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  91. Shows how, in the episode in Petronius’s Satyrica known as the Cena Trimalchionis (Trimalchio’s dinner party), the preoccupation of the freedmen with gladiators and the mounting of spectacles illustrates their mistaken belief that money is the means of obtaining social respectability.
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  93. Martial (M. Valerius Martialis). 2006. M. Valerii Martialis liber spectaculorum. Edited with introduction, translation, and commentary by Kathleen M. Coleman. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
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  95. A full-scale commentary on what survives of a collection of elliptical epigrams by the poet Martial celebrating spectacles mounted in the Colosseum. Prefaced by a 68-page general introduction setting the poems in their literary, cultural, and historical context.
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  97. Quintilian (Marcus Fabius Quintilianus). 2007. Der Gladiator (Grössere Deklamationen, 9). Edited and translated by Gernot Krapinger. Cassino, Italy: Edizioni dell’Università degli Studi di Cassino.
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  99. Text, with German translation and commentary, of one of the “Major Declamations” ascribed to the rhetorician Quintilian, concerning the lurid story of a freeborn person, captured by pirates, who is saved from service as a gladiator by his self-sacrificing friend.
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  101. Slater, Niall W. 2003. Spectator and spectacle in Apuleius. In The ancient novel and beyond. Edited by Stelios Panayotakis, Maaike Zimmerman, and Wytse Keulen, 85–100. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
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  103. Examines the theatrical paradigm in the picaresque novel Metamorphoses (otherwise known as The Golden Ass) by the 2nd-century author Apuleius. Shows how the episodic structure repeatedly exploits the fluid categories of spectator and spectacle to transform the protagonist from a witness of spectacle into one of its victims.
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  105. Wistrand, Magnus. 1992. Entertainment and violence in ancient Rome: The attitudes of Roman writers of the first century A.D. Gothenburg, Sweden: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis.
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  107. A slightly reductive analysis of literary attitudes toward the theater (condemned for licentiousness), stadium (condemned for immoral associations), circus (despised for triviality), and arena (admired as a channel for bravery). Footnotes contain the Latin text of sources discussed.
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  109. Epigraphic Sources
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  111. The “epigraphic habit” at Rome preserved public and private records on inscribed surfaces for posterity on a scale unparalleled in the rest of the ancient world. Although frequently very formulaic, and prone to damage and weathering, inscriptions have survived in such numbers as to enable data-based studies that could not be compiled from purely literary evidence. For arena spectacles, gladiators’ epitaphs and the honorific résumés accompanying the statues of local benefactors are especially informative. Robert 1940 and Robert 1940–1965, updated by Carter 1999, comprise fundamental collections of inscriptions attesting arena spectacles in the Eastern Empire. EAOR 1988–2004 is an ongoing project comprising the same for the West and providing raw material interpreted in Fora 1996. Sabbatini Tumolesi 1980 collects advertisements from Pompeii for arena spectacles. Chamberland 2000 interprets epigraphic evidence in Latin to determine under what circumstances sponsorship earned a commemorative inscription. Merkelbach and Stauber 1998–2004 collects inscribed epigrams from the Greek East, including gladiatorial epitaphs. The entries in the section Gladiators, subsection Regional Studies, contain much epigraphic evidence specific to different regions.
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  113. Carter, Michael. 1999. The presentation of gladiatorial spectacles in the Greek East: Roman culture and Greek identity. Ph.D. diss., McMaster Univ.
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  115. Updates the collection of inscriptions from the Eastern Empire by Robert 1940.
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  117. Chamberland, Guy. 2000. The production of shows in the cities of the Roman Empire: A study of the Latin epigraphic evidence. Ph.D. diss., McMaster Univ.
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  119. Analyzes approximately 500 Latin inscriptions to determine the circumstances under which sponsorship of games merited epigraphic commemoration. Deals with all types of games, including theatrical ludi, chariot races, and athletic displays, so that traditional arena displays (gladiators and beasts) are not treated in a vacuum. Illustrated with copious useful tables.
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  121. EAOR (Epigrafia anfiteatrale dell’Occidente romano). 1988–2004. 6 vols. Rome: Quasar.
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  123. This series collects and analyzes inscriptions relating to amphitheaters and arena displays in the West. Regions covered to date: Rome (vols. 1, 6); regions I–XI of ancient Italy (vols. 2, 3, 4); Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica (vol. 3); Gaul, Germany, and Britain (vol. 5). Includes photographs of surviving items.
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  125. Fora, Maurizio. 1996. I munera gladiatoria in Italia: Considerazioni sulla loro documentazione epigrafica. Naples, Italy: Jovene.
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  127. Analyzes the epigraphic evidence from Italy (excluding Rome) for the mounting of gladiatorial displays, based upon the relevant volumes of EAOR 1988–2004 (including the material from Campania being prepared for a subsequent volume) and Sabbatini Tumolesi 1980. Includes analytic tables, a catalog, and a very useful lexical concordance.
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  129. Merkelbach, Reinhold, and Josef Stauber, eds. and trans. 1998–2004. Steinepigramme aus dem griechischen Osten. 5 vols. Stuttgart and Leipzig, Germany: Teubner.
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  131. Collects verse inscriptions from the Eastern Empire, including gladiatorial epitaphs. Arranged by region; thematically related items are grouped together for each city. Includes text, German translation, commentary, and bibliography. The photographs of surviving items are of special benefit.
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  133. Robert, Louis, ed. 1940. Les gladiateurs dans l’Orient grec. Paris: E. Champion.
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  135. Groundbreaking work collecting and analyzing gladiatorial inscriptions from the Eastern Empire. The first publication to demonstrate the popularity of Roman spectacle in areas of the Empire that were culturally Greek. Remains fundamental. Reprinted in 1971 (Amsterdam: Hakkert).
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  137. Robert, Louis, ed. 1940–1965. Hellenica: Recueil d’épigraphie, de numismatique et d’antiquités grecques. 13 vols. Limoges, France: A. Bontemps.
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  139. Contains numerous addenda to Robert 1940. Reprinted, 1972–present (Amsterdam: Hakkert).
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  141. Sabbatini Tumolesi, Patrizia. 1980. Gladiatorum paria: Annunci di spettacoli gladiatorii a Pompei. Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura.
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  143. Collects and analyzes painted notices from Pompeii advertising gladiatorial displays. Useful additions include photographs of a few items that are still legible, reproductions of line drawings from the Corpus inscriptionum latinarum, and maps tracing the distribution of advertisements in the city and its immediate environs.
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  145. Iconographic Sources
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  147. Images of arena spectacles, some very gruesome, are ubiquitous in all media in the Roman domestic context. Practical constraints (e.g., the size of a lamp or the shape of a room) and the occasional presence of unrealistic features (e.g., mythological creatures) mark the distinction between a decorative ensemble and a documentary source, so that deductions about the historicity of images have to be made with special care. All the same, mosaics, being comparatively detailed, are particularly revealing of contemporary attitudes. Dunbabin 1978 examines images of arena spectacles on North African mosaics, in which animals are especially well represented. Carandini, et al. 1982 reproduces the mosaics from Piazza Armerina in Sicily, including several illustrating the beast trade. Brown 1992 is a study of the attitudes behind mosaics that depict human and animal suffering. Wuilleumier and Audin 1952 collects an interesting group of appliqué medallions from the Rhone Valley. Salomonson 1979 analyzes images of damnatio ad bestias (the capital penalty of exposure to beasts) on inexpensive African pottery. Langner 2001 collects the pictorial element in graffiti. Selections of images from all media are analyzed in Augenti 2001 and, in greater detail, in Papini 2004.
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  149. Augenti, Domenico. 2001. Spettacoli del Colosseo nelle cronache degli antichi. Rome: “L’Erma” di Bretschneider.
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  151. Includes high-quality reproductions, some in color, of a wide range of paintings, mosaics, relief sculptures, and lamps illustrating arena spectacles, each accompanied by commentary and a bibliography. Also contains a brief appendix of literary sources in Italian translation, arranged in alphabetical order by author, including some Late Antique sources.
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  153. Brown, Shelby. 1992. Death as decoration: Scenes from the arena on Roman domestic mosaics. In Pornography and representation in Greece and Rome. Edited by Amy Richlin, 180–211. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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  155. An influential article arguing that scenes of violent suffering, both human and animal, on domestic mosaics were intended to celebrate the resources of the ruling class who mounted the spectacles, and that they emphasized the distance of patrons from the suffering represented, rather than empathy with the victim.
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  157. Carandini, Andrea, Andreina Ricci, and Mariette de Vos. 1982. Filosofiana, the villa of Piazza Armerina: The image of a Roman aristocrat at the time of Constantine. Translated by Marie Christine Keith. Palermo, Italy: S. F. Flaccovio.
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  159. A translation of Filosofiana, la villa di Piazza Armerina: Immagine di un aristocratico romano al tempo di Constantino (Palermo, Italy: S. F. Flaccovio, 1982). Analyzes the mosaic decoration in a 4th-century villa in Sicily, famous for the “Great Hunt” and “Small Hunt” mosaics, which show animals being captured alive, presumably for display in the arena. Especially valuable for its high-quality plates, many in color.
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  161. Dunbabin, Katherine M. D. 1978. The mosaics of Roman North Africa: Studies in iconography and patronage. Oxford: Clarendon.
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  163. Analyzes the repertoire of figural mosaics from Roman Africa, including amphitheater scenes (pp. 65–87). Selective catalog arranged alphabetically by site, with extensive high-quality plates, mostly in black and white.
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  165. Langner, Martin. 2001. Antike Graffitizeichnungen: Motive, Gestaltung und Bedeutung. Wiesbaden, Germany: Ludwig Reichert.
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  167. Includes English summary (pp. 143–144) and catalog. Nos. 769–989, 1003–1062, and 1136–1139 pertain to gladiatorial displays; nos. 1063–1128 show hunting scenes, of which those attributed to amphitheaters may be intended to represent staged venationes (beast hunts). Includes only figural graffiti; concordances track accompanying inscriptions. There is a full commentary on each item in an accompanying CD-ROM.
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  169. Papini, Massimiliano. 2004. Munera gladiatoria e venationes nel mondo delle immagini. Memorie (Atti della Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. Classe di Scienze Morali, Historiche e Filologiche) ser. 9, vol. 19. Rome: Accademia nazionale dei Lincei.
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  171. Identifies standard features in images of munera (gladiatorial displays) and venationes (beast hunts), to offset the exceptional. Treats mosaics, paintings, relief sculpture, and some statuettes and glass vessels. Black-and-white photographs, some rather blurred. Valuable appendix of reliefs from Italy illustrating munera and venationes, arranged alphabetically by site (pp. 197–201).
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  173. Salomonson, J. W. 1979. Voluptatem spectandi non perdat sed mutet: Observations sur l’iconographie du martyre en Afrique romaine. Amsterdam: North Holland.
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  175. Argues that Late Antique African red slipware (lamps and household crockery) decorated with scenes of men and women exposed to beasts attests the evolution of the iconographic repertoire from scenes of classical mythology, via biblical scenes, to representations of Christian martyrdom. Numerous black-and-white plates.
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  177. Wuilleumier, Pierre, and Amable Audin. 1952. Les médaillons d’applique gallo-romains de la vallée du Rhône. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
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  179. Catalog of terracotta medallions from the Rhone Valley depicting a standard repertoire of images, including arena scenes, some accompanied by detailed inscriptions recording the outcome of combat. Illustrated by legible line drawings and selected photographs.
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  181. Christian Texts
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  183. For the polemical work On spectacles by the Christian apologist Tertullian, a translation by Glover is available (Tertullian 1960), but there is as yet no in-depth commentary. Much of the evidence comes from accounts of Christian martyrdom, necessarily biased in favor of the martyrs; a convenient collection, with facing translation, is assembled in Musurillo 1972.
  184.  
  185. Musurillo, Herbert, ed. and trans. 1972. The acts of the Christian martyrs. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
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  187. Text, with facing translation, of twenty-eight accounts of Christian martyrdom, providing valuable, if not unbiased, testimony to the implementation of aggravated death penalties in the context of public spectacle.
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  189. Tertullian (Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus). 1960. Apology; De Spectaculis. Edited and translated by T. R. Glover. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
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  191. Text with facing English translation. Tertullian’s impassioned rhetoric is not an easy read, even in translation, but it creates the atmosphere of a personal crusade against what Tertullian characterizes as the pagan idolatry of contemporary spectacles.
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  193. Experimental Archaeology
  194.  
  195. Junkelmann 2008 and Teyssier and Lopez 2005 document reenactments with replicas of authentic weapons that shed light on the capacity of the different modes of combat.
  196.  
  197. Junkelmann, Marcus. 2008. Gladiatoren: Das Spiel mit dem Tod. Mainz, Germany: Philipp von Zabern.
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  199. Insights gained from reenactments are described by participants equipped in eight different fighting styles: eques, hoplomachus, murmillo, provocator, retiarius, scissor, secutor, thraex (pp. 218–228). This is an expanded version of Das Spiel mit dem Tod: so kämpften Roms Gladiatoren (Mainz, Germany: Philipp von Zabern, 2000).
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  201. Teyssier, Eric, and Brice Lopez. 2005. Gladiateurs: Des sources à l’expérimentation. Paris: Errance.
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  203. Tests historical sources against reenactments conducted by an expert in martial arts in conjunction with a historian. Centerfold contains twenty instructive stills showing a sequence of moves in an engagement between a thraex and a murmillo.
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  205. Origins
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  207. Roman sources trace the first gladiatorial spectacle at Rome to the funeral of M. Iunius Brutus Pera in 264 BCE. Where the Romans got the idea is highly disputed. Occasional remarks in literary sources hint at Etruscan origins, although Osco-Samnite tomb paintings show funerary games that are more like gladiatorial combat than the punitive scenes painted on the walls of Etruscan tombs. Ville 1981, Wiedemann 1992, and Futrell 1997 furnish representative modern discussions. Mouratidis 1996 postulates a Greek influence. Most of the entries in the section General Overviews allude to the conundrum.
  208.  
  209. Futrell, Alison. 1997. Blood in the arena: The spectacle of Roman power. Austin: Univ. of Texas Press.
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  211. Offers a succinct account of origins (pp. 9–19). Argues against a borrowing from Osco-Samnite culture, regarding an Etruscan borrowing as more plausible.
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  213. Mouratidis, John. 1996. On the origin of the gladiatorial games. Nikephoros 9:111–134.
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  215. Suggests that tomb paintings pointing to the origin of gladiatorial combat in Campania, an area first colonized by Greeks in the 7th century BCE, may be connected with the cultural memory of human sacrifice at funerary games in prehistoric Greece.
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  217. Ville, Georges. 1981. La gladiature en Occident des origines à la mort de Domitien. Rome: École Française de Rome.
  218. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  219. A detailed examination of the evidence—largely from tomb painting, although no illustrations are included—of prototypical gladiatorial combat in pre-Roman cultures in Italy. Concludes that it was invented in south Italy in the 4th century BCE by a composite Oscan, Samnite, and Etruscan population (pp. 1–42).
  220. Find this resource:
  221. Wiedemann, Thomas. 1992. Emperors and gladiators. London: Routledge.
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  223. Associates the debate about the origins of gladiatorial combat with 19th-century views connecting morality and race (pp. 30–34).
  224. Find this resource:
  225. Venues
  226.  
  227. At a minimum, venues for mounting violent spectacles need to guarantee both visibility and protection for the spectators; additional comforts are a bonus. Both chronological development and regional variations are clearly visible in the spaces that were employed for arena spectacles empire-wide. The most sophisticated structures were extremely expensive, thereby testifying to the belief that their cultural importance justified the investment. Some of the most famous of these structures are still extant, some are visible in the street plans of the medieval towns that rose on top of their ancient predecessors, and some are still to be discovered by aerial photography or archaeological excavation.
  228.  
  229. Structures
  230.  
  231. The amphitheater developed as the quintessential space for mounting gladiatorial spectacles. Its evolution is traced by Futrell 1997, Bomgardner 2000, and, more recently and provocatively, Welch 2007. Futrell 1997 examines structures for arena displays in the western provinces. A detailed catalog of surviving amphitheaters is supplied by Golvin 1988. The challenge of building the Colosseum, whose completion is testimony to the ideological importance of a monumental amphitheater in Rome under the Flavians, is analyzed by Taylor 2003. Ancient representations of the Colosseum and surviving traces of its decoration are discussed in Reggiani 1988. An example of an adapted stadium in the Eastern Empire is discussed by Welch 1998. For an examination of the cost of erecting the Colosseum, see Funding.
  232.  
  233. Bomgardner, D. L. 2000. The story of the Roman amphitheatre. London: Routledge.
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  235. Partially superseded by Welch 2007, but includes a valuable overview of amphitheaters constructed after the Colosseum and—the author’s specialty—amphitheaters in North Africa.
  236. Find this resource:
  237. Futrell, Alison. 1997. Blood in the arena: The spectacle of Roman power. Austin: Univ. of Texas Press.
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  239. Includes a chapter on amphitheaters in the western provinces (pp. 53–76). Questions the straightforward assumption that they attest particularly strong Romanization, pointing to the marked presence of amphitheaters in rural Gaul, and to the departure from the canonical type in Gallic amphitheaters, which are frequently mixed edifices combining theater and amphitheater.
  240. Find this resource:
  241. Golvin, Jean-Claude. 1988. L’amphithéâtre romain: Essai sur la théorisation de sa forme et de ses fonctions. 2 vols. Paris: Boccard.
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  243. Architectural analysis of all the amphitheaters identified by the author, accompanied by seventy-one plates containing detailed ground plans and cross-sections.
  244. Find this resource:
  245. Reggiani, Anna Maria, ed. 1988. Anfiteatro Flavio: Immagine testimonianze spettacoli. Rome: Quasar.
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  247. Contains especially valuable chapters on ancient representations of the Colosseum, marble moldings, and the remnants of stucco decoration.
  248. Find this resource:
  249. Taylor, Rabun. 2003. Roman builders: A study in architectural process. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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  251. Examines the formidable challenge of constructing the Colosseum within the limitations of the available technology (pp. 133–173). Accompanied by drawings by the author (e.g., illustrating the manipulation of building cranes to construct the upper stories).
  252. Find this resource:
  253. Welch, Katherine. 1998. The stadium at Aphrodisias. American Journal of Archaeology 102:547–569.
  254. DOI: 10.2307/506401Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  255. Explains installations in the sphendone (curved end) of the stadium at Aphrodisias as a late adaptation to facilitate the mounting of munera (gladiatorial displays) and venationes (beast hunts) without risk to the spectators.
  256. Find this resource:
  257. Welch, Katherine E. 2007. The Roman amphitheatre: From its origins to the Colosseum. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  258. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  259. Argues that the amphitheater was a quintessentially Roman design, originating in temporary structures in the Roman Forum, disseminated via veteran colonies in the late Republic, and ultimately finding its most sophisticated realization under the Flavians, expressing hierarchical Roman values to counter Nero’s populist cultural program. Chapter 2 is a slightly revised version of the author’s groundbreaking article, “The Roman arena in late-Republican Italy: A new interpretation,” Journal of Roman Archaeology 7 (1994): 59–80.
  260. Find this resource:
  261. Access and Seating
  262.  
  263. Rawson 1987 is a definitive study of hierarchical seating arrangements at arena spectacles. Rose 2005 studies circulation patterns to show how hierarchical divisions are imposed by the architecture. Gutierrez 2007 questions the efficiency of traffic flow in spectacle buildings. Entries under Structures contain summary discussions.
  264.  
  265. Gutierrez, Diego, et al. 2007. AI and virtual crowds: Populating the Colosseum. Journal of Cultural Heritage 8:176–185.
  266. DOI: 10.1016/j.culher.2007.01.007Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  267. Reports on an experiment combining virtual reality technology and artificial intelligence algorithms to estimate the efficiency of moving spectators in and out of the Colosseum. The results show bottlenecks where none had previously been suspected.
  268. Find this resource:
  269. Rawson, Elizabeth. 1987. Discrimina ordinum: The Lex Julia theatralis. Papers of the British School at Rome 55:83–114.
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  271. Reprinted in Rawson, Roman culture and society: Collected papers, 508–545 (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1991). Seminal examination of literary and epigraphic evidence for minutely differentiated seating regulations in the theater and amphitheater introduced at Rome by Augustus, with a discussion of their precedents and duration.
  272. Find this resource:
  273. Rose, Peter. 2005. Spectators and spectator comfort in Roman entertainment buildings: A study in functional design. Papers of the British School at Rome 73:99–130.
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  275. Examines seating and access in the Colosseum, Circus Maximus, and Theater of Marcellus to show how entertainment buildings reflected the social hierarchy. Demonstrates that more accommodation was provided for the upper classes than for the “mob,” which was previously believed to be the prime consumer of spectacles. Amply illustrated with tables.
  276. Find this resource:
  277. Spectator Amenities
  278.  
  279. Gebhard 1975 is a representative study analyzing installations to provide for the safety of spectators in an adapted theater in the Eastern Empire. Graefe 1979 is the standard treatment of the awning that protected spectators from the elements. Killeen 1959 deduces the mechanism for distributing missilia (gifts and tokens) among the spectators, and Briand-Ponsart 2007 examines the use of the term to tease out regional differences in the association of missilia with different contexts and different categories of sponsor. Lombardi 2001 discusses water supply and toilet facilities. Scobie 1988 is a comprehensive study of amenities providing for the comfort of the spectators. Entries under Structures necessarily touch on many of these issues as well.
  280.  
  281. Briand-Ponsart, Claude. 2007. Les “lancers de cadeaux” (missilia) en Afrique du Nord romaine. Antiquités Africaines 43:79–97.
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  283. Identifies the distribution of the term missilia as limited to Suetonius’s biographies, legal texts, and inscriptions at Ostia and in two regions of North Africa: the confederation of Cirta and Africa Proconsularis. Postulates culturally specific circumstances to account for different features associated with the term in these various sources.
  284. Find this resource:
  285. Gebhard, Elizabeth R. 1975. Protective devices in Roman theaters. In Studies in the antiquities of Stobi. Vol. 2. Edited by James Wiseman, 43–63. Belgrade, Yugoslavia: National Museum of Titov Veles.
  286. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  287. Identifies traces of a post-and-net system on top of the podium in the Greek theater at Stobi, Macedonia, presumably designed to protect audiences from injury during munera (gladiatorial displays) and venationes (beast hunts). Eventually, when the orchestra was entirely enclosed with a permanent barrier, traditional theatrical productions must have ceased here altogether.
  288. Find this resource:
  289. Graefe, Rainer. 1979. Vela erunt: Die Zeltdächer der römischen Theater und ähnlicher Anlagen. 2 vols. Mainz, Germany: Philipp von Zabern.
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  291. An exhaustive investigation of possible methods of stringing the awning in theaters and amphitheaters. The main title echoes painted announcements in Pompeii advertising the provision of this amenity by individual sponsors.
  292. Find this resource:
  293. Killeen, J. F. 1959. What was the linea dives (Martial, VIII,78.7)? American Journal of Philology 80:185–188.
  294. DOI: 10.2307/292459Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  295. Uses the evidence of wall painting from Pompeii to interpret a line of Martial as a reference to the distribution of gifts (missilia) by means of overhead cables in the theater and amphitheater, an index of the sponsor’s generosity.
  296. Find this resource:
  297. Lombardi, Leonardo. 2001. The water system of the Colosseum. In The Colosseum. Translated by Mary Becker; edited by Ada Gabucci, 228–240. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum.
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  299. A translation of “Il sistema idraulico,” in Il Colosseo, edited by Ada Gabucci, 228–240 (Milan: Electra, 1999). Surveys the network of aqueducts carrying water into the city of Rome, and traces the hydraulic system that provided drainage in the Colosseum and supplied water fountains and latrines.
  300. Find this resource:
  301. Scobie, Alex. 1988. Spectator security and comfort at gladiatorial games. Nikephoros 1:191–243.
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  303. Important collection of primary material, mainly textual, illustrating amenities to protect spectators from the elements and the participants, and to cater to their physical needs.
  304. Find this resource:
  305. Sponsorship
  306.  
  307. Ancient cities acquired public amenities, including spectacles, via acts of generosity by wealthy citizens who, in return, gained prestige in their communities. In the absence of the impersonal funding agencies of today, the sponsor was the personal conduit for the funds.
  308.  
  309. Civic Sponsorship
  310.  
  311. Veyne 1990 defines the concept of “euergetism,” the provision—simultaneously voluntary and expected—of entertainment, amenities, and public buildings by wealthy patrons of the ancient city for the common good. Sabbatini Tumolesi 1980 is a study of advertisements for spectacles found at Pompeii. Franklin 1997 analyzes the reciprocal benefactions and prestige of a single wealthy citizen of Pompeii. Zuiderhoek 2009 examines euergetism in the cities of the Eastern Empire as a tool for maintaining social equilibrium. Kokkinia 2003 shows the prestige to be gained by public endorsement of such benefactions by Roman governors and emperors, and also illustrates the tension between choosing to underwrite a spectacle (ephemeral but popular) or a building project (less glamorous but longer-lasting and of more practical benefit to the community).
  312.  
  313. Franklin, James L. Jr. 1997. Cn. Alleius Nigidius Maius and the amphitheatre: Munera and a distinguished career at ancient Pompeii. Historia 46:434–447.
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  315. A unique case study reconstructing the career of a leading citizen of Pompeii from the reign of Claudius until the eruption of Vesuvius. Demonstrates the role played by the sponsorship of arena spectacles and provision of amenities for the spectators, and by a gift of new paintings in the amphitheater.
  316. Find this resource:
  317. Kokkinia, Christina. 2003. Letters of Roman authorities on local dignitaries: The case of Vedius Antoninus. Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 142:197–213.
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  319. Collects fifty-four epigraphic martyriai, documents composed by Roman authorities testifying to the munificence displayed by a patron toward the local community. These include a letter of Antoninus Pius to the Ephesians in 145 CE commending a local patron for sponsoring building projects in preference to spectacles.
  320. Find this resource:
  321. Sabbatini Tumolesi, Patrizia. 1980. Gladiatorum paria: Annunci di spettacoli gladiatorii a Pompei. Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura.
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  323. Analyzes painted advertisements from Pompeii in four categories: sponsors attested also in other contexts (pp. 17–59), sponsors not otherwise attested (pp. 61–76), sponsors whose names are missing (pp. 77–89), and sponsors of spectacles outside Pompeii (pp. 91–110).
  324. Find this resource:
  325. Veyne, Paul. 1990. Bread and circuses: Historical sociology and political pluralism. Translated by Brian Pearce. London: Penguin.
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  327. An abridged translation of Le Pain et le cirque: Sociologie historique d’un pluralisme politique (Paris: Seuil, 1976). This was a groundbreaking study and later the subject of a searching review article by Peter Garnsey, “The generosity of Veyne,” Journal of Roman Studies 81 (1991): 164–168.
  328. Find this resource:
  329. Zuiderhoek, Arjan. 2009. The politics of munificence in the Roman Empire: Citizens, elites, and benefactors in Asia Minor. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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  331. Interprets the provision of spectacles, festivals, and distributions as a means of maintaining social equilibrium in a hierarchical society, whereby the beneficiaries received material advantages and the benefactor gained permanent public recognition—usually a statue (pp. 86–109). A caveat: Repeating the argument of his article “The ambiguity of munificence” (Historia 56 [2007]: 196–213), Zuiderhoek contends that a letter of Antoninus Pius to the Ephesians proves that communities might reject acts of munificence; but this interpretation relies upon a supplement to the Greek text that has been emended by Kokkinia 2003 to prove the opposite.
  332. Find this resource:
  333. Imperial Sponsorship
  334.  
  335. Kloft 1970 shows how the Roman emperor acted as patron par excellence. Nollé 1992–1993 shows how grants of imperial permission to hold games conferred prestige on individual cities of the Eastern Empire. Hekster 2005, focusing on imperial patronage, shows the tensions inherent in the reciprocity between benefactor and recipients.
  336.  
  337. Hekster, Olivier. 2005. Captured in the gaze of power: Visibility, games and Roman imperial representation. In Imaginary kings: Royal images in the ancient Near East, Greece and Rome. Edited by Olivier Hekster and Richard Fowler, 157–176. Stuttgart, Germany: Steiner.
  338. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  339. A stimulating examination of literary evidence, showing the tension between the visibility of the emperor at the games, whereby he ran the risk of looking vulnerable instead of impressive, and his exercise of power by having under his gaze a microcosm of the empire that he controlled.
  340. Find this resource:
  341. Kloft, Hans. 1970. Liberalitas principis: Herkunft und Bedeutung; Studien zur Prinzipatsideologie. Cologne, Germany: Böhlau.
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  343. A concise study of liberalitas (generosity, the hallmark of the man who is liber, freeborn) and its demonstration by the emperors from Augustus onwards, predating the creation of the scholarly concept of “euergetism.” Includes brief but pertinent remarks on spectacles (pp. 110–115).
  344. Find this resource:
  345. Nollé, Johannes. 1992–1993. Kaiserliche Privilegien für Gladiatorenmunera und Tierhetzen: Unbekannte und ungedeutete Zeugnisse auf städtischen Münzen des griechischen Ostens. Jahrbuch für Numismatik und Geldgeschichte 42–43:49–82.
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  347. Demonstrates that foundations established for staging games in the Eastern Empire were regularly commemorated by coin legends and images advertising the city’s wealth, measured in terms of munera (gladiatorial displays), venationes (beast hunts), and the emperor’s favor, represented by the imperial privilege granting the city the right to mount spectacles.
  348. Find this resource:
  349. Funding
  350.  
  351. Deniaux 2000 shows how, under the Republic, ties of patronage were exploited to supply beasts for the arena. Cavallaro 1984 analyzes evidence for the funding of spectacles by the Julio-Claudian emperors. Chamberland 2007 assembles evidence for a dual pricing structure, whereby spectacles were free for members of the local community while visitors were charged a fee. Oliver and Palmer 1955 and Carter 2003 interpret an important document responding to inflationary pressures on gladiatorial displays in the reign of Marcus Aurelius. Reynolds 2000 interprets a letter of Hadrian to the city of Aphrodisias as evidence that civic patrons preferred mounting spectacles to funding an aqueduct. Coleman 2008 argues in response that the alternative of funding the aqueduct was intended to encourage candidates for office for whom the burden of supplying gladiators was too expensive. Bomgardner 2000 assembles evidence for inflation in the cost of supplying beasts as well as gladiators. Coleman 2003 uses estimates of the cost of building the Colosseum to argue that expense, as well as ideological considerations, may have prevented Augustus from realizing his alleged ambition of building a monumental amphitheater in Rome.
  352.  
  353. Bomgardner, D. L. 2000. The story of the Roman amphitheatre. London: Routledge.
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  355. Includes a brief but suggestive overview of the increasing costs of supplying gladiators and beasts from the 2nd century CE onward (pp. 207–216).
  356. Find this resource:
  357. Carter, Michael. 2003. Gladiatorial ranking and the SC de pretiis gladiatorum minuendis (CIL II 6278 = ILS 5163). Phoenix 57:83–114.
  358. DOI: 10.2307/3648490Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  359. Examines the evidence from an anti-inflationary senatorial decree of 177 CE for a ranking system determining differential price structures for various grades of gladiator. Illustrated with useful tables correlating charges for gladiators with the overall cost of different categories of spectacle. Builds upon Oliver and Palmer 1955.
  360. Find this resource:
  361. Cavallaro, M. Adele. 1984. Spese e spettacoli: Aspetti economici-strutturali degli spettacoli nella Roma giulio-claudia. Bonn, Germany: Habelt.
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  363. Analyzes the evidence for the financing of spectacles under the Julio-Claudian emperors. Very dense.
  364. Find this resource:
  365. Chamberland, Guy. 2007. A gladiatorial show produced in mercedem sordidam (Tacitus, Ann. 4.62). Phoenix 61:136–149.
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  367. Starts from Tacitus’s condemnation of the profit motive behind the construction of the amphitheater that collapsed at Fidenae under Tiberius. Argues that entrance fees could be charged to visitors from outside the community, whereas locals, for whom the benefaction was intended, could attend gratis.
  368. Find this resource:
  369. Coleman, Kathleen M. 2003. Euergetism in its place: Where was the amphitheatre in Augustan Rome? In “Bread and circuses”: Euergetism and municipal patronage in Roman Italy. Edited by Kathryn Lomas and Tim Cornell, 61–88. London: Routledge.
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  371. Argues that Augustus, alleged by Suetonius to have intended to build a permanent amphitheater in Rome, was deterred by a combination of symbolic and practical constraints, and that he may have cultivated fiscal restraint as an imperial virtue in the latter half of his reign. Includes a catalog of arena spectacles in Augustan Rome.
  372. Find this resource:
  373. Coleman, Kathleen M. 2008. Exchanging gladiators for an aqueduct at Aphrodisias (SEG 50.1096). Acta Classica 51:31–46.
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  375. A reply to Reynolds 2000, suggesting that the reluctance of nominees to assume priesthoods was caused by the burden of providing gladiators, and that the alternative of contributing to an aqueduct was intended as a more attractive option to boost the pool of available candidates.
  376. Find this resource:
  377. Deniaux, Elizabeth. 2000. L’importation d’animaux d’Afrique à l’époque républicaine et les relations de clientèle. In L’Africa romana: Atti del XIII convegno di studio, Djerba, 10–13 dicembre 1998. Edited by Mustapha Khanoussi, Paola Ruggeri, and Cinzia Vismara, 1299–1307. Rome: Carocci.
  378. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  379. Demonstrates that, under the Republic, the magistrates at Rome responsible for mounting venationes exploited their ties of patronage with provinces rich in supplies of beasts in order to gain prestige by discharging this obligation on a particularly lavish scale.
  380. Find this resource:
  381. Oliver, J. H., and R. E. A. Palmer. 1955. Minutes of an act of the Roman Senate. Hesperia 24:320–349.
  382. DOI: 10.2307/147154Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  383. Text of a senatorial minute responding to the promulgation of an imperial decree of 177 CE limiting the cost of gladiators, with translation, commentary, and a useful index of Latin words. The same document is further analyzed by Carter 2003.
  384. Find this resource:
  385. Aldrete, Gregory S. 2000. New letters from Hadrian to Aphrodisias: Trials, taxes, gladiators, and an aqueduct. Journal of Roman Archaeology 13:5–20.
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  387. Interprets a letter of Hadrian to the city of Aphrodisias, in modern Turkey, interpreting it as evidence that nominees for the high priesthood became reluctant to assume the office when the traditional duty of sponsoring gladiatorial shows was replaced by a financial contribution towards building an aqueduct. The letter is interpreted differently by Coleman 2008.
  388. Find this resource:
  389. Spectator Participation
  390.  
  391. Acclamationes (acclamations), slogans shouted spontaneously and in concert by the spectators to communicate their wishes and opinions to the sponsor (e.g., “Christians to the lion!”), are analyzed by Aldrete 1999 and in entries cited under Executions. Corbeill 1997 is a thorough examination of the evidence for the gesture of the thumb, with which spectators signaled their verdict on the fate of a defeated gladiator. For participation in the arena by members of the upper classes, themselves ordinarily spectators rather than participants, see entries under Legal and Social Standing.
  392.  
  393. Aldrete, Gregory S. 1999. Gestures and acclamations in ancient Rome. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.
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  395. Includes two chapters investigating the evidence for spontaneous acclamations by the audience at public spectacles and assessing their function as a means of communication between audience and sponsor.
  396. Find this resource:
  397. Corbeill, Anthony. 1997. Thumbs in ancient Rome: Pollex as index. Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 42:1–21.
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  399. Republished with slight adaptations in Nature embodied: Gesture in ancient Rome, 41–66 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 2004). Examines the disputed gesture of the “turned thumb”—(con)verso pollice—that signified the spectators’ fatal verdict on a defeated gladiator. Assembles textual, visual, and anthropological evidence to demonstrate that the thumb pointed aggressively upward to signify execution, whereas in the gesture for mercy—pollicem premere (to press the thumb)—it was pressed against the fist.
  400. Find this resource:
  401. Gladiators
  402.  
  403. Ville 1981 provides the most comprehensive coverage of the gladiatorial profession. There is no comparable study in English.
  404.  
  405. Ville, Georges. 1981. La gladiature en Occident des origines à la mort de Domitien. Rome: École Française de Rome.
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  407. Magisterial coverage of literary and epigraphic evidence. Catalogs the known munera (gladiatorial displays) and venationes (beast hunts) in Rome and the western provinces down to 96 CE, with a detailed discussion of participants, staging of spectacles, and attendant ideology. A mild caveat: this work does not have the imprimatur of the author, who died before it was finished. Supplements by Paul Veyne are bracketed in the text. A fundamental work.
  408. Find this resource:
  409. Regional Studies
  410.  
  411. Assemblages of site-specific material offer a valuable opportunity for contextualization. Jacobelli 2003 studies the record for Pompeii, Bouley 2001 for the Danube regions, Kayser 2000 and Hope and Whitehouse 2003 for Egypt, Roueché 1993 and Hrychuk Kontokosta 2008 for Aphrodisias (in Caria, in southeastern Turkey), Rumscheid and Rumscheid 2001 for Mylasa (also in Caria), and Ritti and Yilmaz 1998 for Hierapolis (in Phrygia, in eastern Turkey). The entries cited under Epigraphic Sources yield further material assembled by region.
  412.  
  413. Bouley, Elisabeth. 2001. Jeux romains dans les provinces balkano-danubiennes du IIe siècle avant J.-C. à la fin du IIIe siècle après J.-C. Paris: Presses Universitaires Franc-Comtoises.
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  415. A detailed examination of evidence for athletics, dramatic productions, and arena spectacles in the Hellenized Danube regions that constituted the Roman provinces of Dacia and Pannonia. Includes copious tables, maps, and black-and-white plates (some a little indistinct, but still providing valuable testimony to relatively inaccessible material). Incorporates material from the author's article “La gladiature et la venatio en Mésie Inférieure et en Dacie à partir du règne de Trajan,” Dialogues d’Histoire Ancienne 20 (1994): 29–53.
  416. Find this resource:
  417. Hope, Colin A., and Helen V. Whitehouse. 2003. The gladiator jug from Ismant el-Kharab. In The Oasis papers 3: Proceedings of the Third International Conference of the Dakhleh Oasis Project. Edited by Gillian E. Bowen and Colin A. Hope, 291–310. Oxford: Oxbow.
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  419. Contextualizes a painted glass jug, excavated in 2000 at the remote site of ancient Kellis in Egypt, depicting two pairs of gladiators, each accompanied by an umpire. The decoration either derives from the standard repertoire or was specially commissioned, and the jug was probably made in Alexandria. Accompanied by striking color-enhanced plates. Also available online.
  420. Find this resource:
  421. Hrychuk Kontokosta, A. C. 2008. Gladiatorial reliefs and élite funerary monuments. In Aphrodisias papers 4: New research on the city and its monuments. Edited by Christopher Ratté and R. R. R. Smith, 190–229. Portsmouth, RI: Journal of Roman Archaeology.
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  423. Argues that, as at Hierapolis in Phrygia (see Ritti and Yilmaz 1998), most of the gladiatorial stelae at Aphrodisias were displayed to honor the high priest of the imperial cult and his gladiatorial troupe, and probably belonged to extramural tomb complexes for the élite, thereby illustrating the éclat associated with the staging of gladiatorial spectacles.
  424. Find this resource:
  425. Jacobelli, Luciana. 2003. Gladiators at Pompeii. Translated by Mary Becker. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Trust.
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  427. English translation of Italian original, Gladiatori a Pompeii (Rome: “L’Erma” di Bretschneider, 2003). Lavishly illustrated, mostly in color. Contextualizes the surviving archaeological remains and material traces from Pompeii—including painted advertisements, graffiti, paintings, etc.—within the historical institution of gladiatorial combat.
  428. Find this resource:
  429. Kayser, François. 2000. La gladiature en Égypte. Revue des Études Anciennes 102:459–478.
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  431. Shows that gladiators, although sparsely mentioned in Egyptian texts, left traces in material culture, and were probably most prominent in Alexandria. Argues that, because of specific circumstances surrounding the imperial cult in Egypt, the traditional link between the cult and gladiatorial displays is weaker here than elsewhere. Abstract in English.
  432. Find this resource:
  433. Ritti, Tullia, and Salim Yilmaz. 1998. Gladiatori e venationes a Hierapolis di Frigia. Memorie (Atti della Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. Classe di Scienze Morali, Historiche e Filologiche) ser. 9, vol. 10. Rome: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei.
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  435. A detailed analysis of a series of brutally explicit relief plaques recovered from Hierapolis in modern Turkey. The series constitutes the memorial of a troupe of gladiators, beast hunters, and bull baiters belonging to a high priest of the imperial cult and his wife, both of whom are commemorated on the accompanying inscription.
  436. Find this resource:
  437. Roueché, Charlotte. 1993. Performers and partisans at Aphrodisias in the Roman and late Roman periods. London: Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies.
  438. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  439. A collection and analysis of material, primarily epigraphic, from the stadium, theater, and odeon at Aphrodisias, in modern Turkey, relating to the organization and reception of spectacles. The continuation of spectacles into the 5th and 6th centuries in Aphrodisias contrasts with their decline from the 3rd century onward elsewhere.
  440. Find this resource:
  441. Rumscheid, Jutta, and Frank Rumscheid. 2001. Gladiatoren in Mylasa. Archäologischer Anzeiger 2001:115–136.
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  443. Examines evidence—inscriptions, seven funerary reliefs, and a graffito—commemorating a sponsor, gladiators, venatores (beast hunters), and an umpire at Mylasa in Caria (southeastern Turkey). Postulates that these spectacles were performed in the theater (location not yet identified). Suggests that arena spectacles may have been established earlier at Mylasa than elsewhere in Caria.
  444. Find this resource:
  445. Terminology
  446.  
  447. The language of the arena is highly technical and poorly understood. Continuing philological research and the discovery of new evidence (primarily epigraphic) precludes the application of the term “definitive” to the lexicon assembled by Mosci Sassi 1992, which is nevertheless comprehensive for its time and a useful resource.
  448.  
  449. Mosci Sassi, Maria Grazia. 1992. Il linguaggio gladiatorio. Bologna, Italy: Pàtron.
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  451. Provides a detailed lexical analysis of Latin terminology associated with arena spectacles, much of it of very uncertain meaning, and of cognomina (surnames) given to gladiators that allude to their profession (e.g., Mucro, “Weapon-Tip”).
  452. Find this resource:
  453. Careers
  454.  
  455. Ville 1981 surveys the career pattern. Diliberto 1981 is the standard work on the formal mechanism whereby freeborn persons could suspend their free status to serve as gladiators, who were normally slaves.
  456.  
  457. Diliberto, Oliviero. 1981. Ricerche sull’ “Auctoramentum” e sulla condizione degli “Auctorati.” Milan: Giuffrè.
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  459. A detailed study of the oath of obedience whereby freeborn persons were assimilated to the servile status of regular gladiators, analogous to—and perhaps derived from—the ritual whereby a recruit submitted to military discipline upon joining the army.
  460. Find this resource:
  461. Ville, Georges. 1981. La gladiature en Occident des origines à la mort de Domitien. Rome: École Française de Rome.
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  463. Includes succinct remarks on career patterns, pp. 306–329.
  464. Find this resource:
  465. Modes of Combat
  466.  
  467. Gladiatorial combat was very specialized, deploying gladiators trained in specific styles. Matches were highly regulated, being refereed by at least one umpire (summa rudis), who was often accompanied by a second (secunda rudis). Carter 2006 and Carter 2006–2007 review the rules and conventions governing combat. Coleman 1996 documents the advantageous capacity of fighting left-handed. Junkelmann 2000, Teyssier and Lopez 2005, and Junkelmann 2008 integrate the authors’ practical observations derived from reenactments based on a faithful reconstruction of weapons and armor mentioned in ancient texts and depicted in iconographic sources.
  468.  
  469. Carter, Michael. 2006. Gladiatorial combat with “sharp” weapons (tois oksési sidérois). Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 155:161–175.
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  471. Argues that the term “sharp,” when applied to gladiatorial weapons, refers to a pointed tip, rather than the edge of the blade, because stab wounds are more dangerous than cuts. Deduces that gladiators usually fought with blunt-tipped weapons, which inflicted less damage.
  472. Find this resource:
  473. Carter, M. J. 2006–2007. Gladiatorial combat: The rules of engagement. Classical Journal 102:97–114.
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  475. Argues that victory, not murder, was the aim in gladiatorial combat, and that, in addition to rules enforced by the umpire, an “unwritten code of conduct” may have kept gladiators from killing one another even when they were technically permitted to do so.
  476. Find this resource:
  477. Coleman, K. M. 1996. A left-handed gladiator at Pompeii. Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 114:194–196.
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  479. Proposes a new supplement to the wording of a graffito at Pompeii so that it matches the accompanying drawing, which shows a gladiator with his sword in his left hand.
  480. Find this resource:
  481. Junkelmann, Marcus. 2000. Familia gladiatoria: The Heroes of the Amphitheatre. In Gladiators and Caesars: The power of spectacle in ancient Rome. Translated by Anthea Bell; edited by Eckart Köhne and Cornelia Ewigleben. English edition edited by Ralph Jackson, 31–74. London: British Museum Press; Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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  483. A succinct introduction to the gladiatorial profession, with an emphasis on the main modes of combat. Lavishly illustrated, mainly in color.
  484. Find this resource:
  485. Junkelmann, Marcus. 2008. Gladiatoren: Das Spiel mit dem Tod. Mainz, Germany: Philipp von Zabern.
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  487. An up-to-date account of gladiatorial combat and the different fighting styles, including a discussion of recent archaeological discoveries (pp. 170–217), notably the newly excavated gladiatorial graveyard at Ephesus. Lavishly illustrated, with excellent captions. No index.
  488. Find this resource:
  489. Teyssier, Eric, and Brice Lopez. 2005. Gladiateurs: Des sources à l’expérimentation. Paris: Errance.
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  491. Juxtaposes ancient images with photographs of modern reenactments. Contains a glossary of terms and a detailed table of contents (at the back) but no index.
  492. Find this resource:
  493. Military Features
  494.  
  495. The relationship between gladiators and soldiers is hotly debated; entries under General Overviews and Social and Ideological Function touch upon the question of whether gladiatorial displays nurtured the military ethos in cities far removed from the armies fighting on the frontiers, as well as the role of amphitheaters on the frontiers themselves as an institution to boost morale and provide the barbarians with an example of Roman practices. Coulston 1998 compares the training and equipment of gladiators and soldiers. Le Roux 1990 examines the role that the arena played in the lives of soldiers on the frontiers.
  496.  
  497. Coulston, J. C. N. 1998. Gladiators and soldiers: Personnel and equipment in ludus and castra. Journal of Roman Military Equipment Studies 9:1–17.
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  499. Compares and contrasts the ethos, living conditions, training, swordsmanship, and equipment of gladiators and soldiers. Concludes that, in civic society, gladiators evoked the military ethos that had built the Empire, and that in arenas on the frontiers they reinforced core Roman values of virtus (manly attitudes and behavior).
  500. Find this resource:
  501. Le Roux, Patrick. 1990. L’amphithéâtre et le soldat sous l’Empire romain. In Spectacula I: Gladiateurs et amphithéâtres, Actes du colloque tenu à Toulouse et à Lattes les 26, 27, 28 et 29 mai 1987. Edited by Claude Domergue, Christian Landes, and Jean-Marie Pailler, 203–215. Lattes, France: Imago.
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  503. Discusses the role of soldiers in building amphitheaters in the provinces, attending as spectators, mounting spectacles, and using arenas as barracks or exercise grounds. Stresses differences between the gladiatorial and military contexts.
  504. Find this resource:
  505. Legal and Social Standing
  506.  
  507. Wiedemann 1992 provides a general survey of the legal and social standing of gladiators. Ville 1981 provides a detailed and systematic analysis. Levick 1983 is the seminal treatment of a senatorial decree banning stage and arena performances by members of the upper classes. Edwards 1997 discusses the upper-class fascination with a profession that its members could not participate in without incurring legal disability. Hope 2000 analyzes the (ostensible) self-presentation in gladiators’ epitaphs. Carter 2008 examines the connotations of the retiarius (net-fighter) within the hierarchy of gladiatorial styles. Consult also the section Social and Ideological Function.
  508.  
  509. Carter, Michael. 2008. (Un)dressed to kill: Viewing the retiarius. In Roman dress and the fabrics of Roman culture. Edited by Jonathan Edmondson and Alison Keith, 113–135. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press.
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  511. Explores the effeminate associations of the retiarius (net-fighter), the most scantily clad of the gladiatorial types.
  512. Find this resource:
  513. Edwards, Catharine. 1997. Unspeakable professions: Public performance and prostitution in ancient Rome. In Roman sexualities. Edited by Judith P. Hallett and Marilyn B. Skinner, 66–95. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
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  515. Contrasts professions that incurred infamia (ill repute) with the impulse among members of the upper classes, including some emperors, to embrace these professions. Analyzes the moral yardstick whereby the ancient sources treat these episodes as emblematic of transgressive rule, and therefore destabilizing of the established social order.
  516. Find this resource:
  517. Hope, Valerie. 2000. Fighting for identity: The funerary commemoration of Italian gladiators. In The epigraphic landscape of Roman Italy. Edited by Alison E. Cooley, 93–113. London: Institute of Classical Studies.
  518. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  519. Analyzes gladiators’ epitaphs from the Latin West to show that they conform to the standard features of funerary epigraphy from other walks of life and betray no trace of shame concerning the gladiatorial profession.
  520. Find this resource:
  521. Levick, Barbara. 1983. The senatus consultum from Larinum. Journal of Roman Studies 73:97–115.
  522. DOI: 10.2307/300074Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  523. The first full-scale commentary on a senatorial decree of 19 CE, discovered in 1978 on a bronze tablet from Larinum (modern Larino, near the Adriatic coast in central Italy). The decree prohibited members of the upper classes from performing in public as actors or gladiators. The article contains an important and nuanced discussion of infamia, ill repute that warranted legal disqualification.
  524. Find this resource:
  525. Ville, Georges. 1981. La gladiature en Occident des origines à la mort de Domitien. Rome: École Française de Rome.
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  527. Examines the supply of gladiators from different social classes (pp. 228–270) and their ambivalent position in society, poised between heroic status and degradation (pp. 329–344).
  528. Find this resource:
  529. Wiedemann, Thomas. 1992. Emperors and gladiators. London: Routledge.
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  531. Includes a chapter on background and status (pp. 102–127).
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  533. Female Gladiators
  534.  
  535. The rare deployment of female gladiators, by definition incapable of displaying the quality of virtus (manly courage) exhibited by a man (vir), testifies to the taste for novelty in the arena. Coleman 2000 studies an inscribed relief testifying to the existence of the only pair of female gladiators known to us by name. Brunet 2004 explodes the myth that women fought dwarfs in the arena.
  536.  
  537. Brunet, Stephen. 2004. Female and dwarf gladiators. Mouseion 4:145–170.
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  539. Provides an extensive discussion of the evidence for female gladiators and demonstrates that the common belief that female gladiators were pitted against dwarfs is a misreading of the ancient sources.
  540. Find this resource:
  541. Coleman, Kathleen M. 2000. Missio at Halicarnassus. Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 100:487–500.
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  543. Discusses a relief from Turkey depicting two female gladiators labeled in Greek as “Amazon” and “Achillia,” names appropriate to their profession. Argues that the rounded objects alongside the platform at the bottom represent their helmets, removed to symbolize the result recorded in Greek above their heads. Collects evidence for terminology describing a fight to a draw.
  544. Find this resource:
  545. Injury and Mortality
  546.  
  547. In combat gladiators faced the possibility of injury and death, frequently at the hands of their barrack-mates, with whom they were regularly paired. Coleman 2005 examines ancient methods of coping with these prospects. Leon 1939 demonstrates that the salutation acknowledging the inevitability of death that is alleged to have been pronounced by gladiators before combat is a modern myth. Ville 1981 computes a gladiator’s chances of survival at different periods under the Empire. Scarborough 1971 examines medical techniques documented in the treatment of gladiators. Skeletal remains from a gladiatorial graveyard discovered in Ephesus are documented in Grosschmidt, et al. 2002 and Kanz and Grossschmidt 2006. Watson 1952 is a classic discussion of the theta nigrum (black theta), the visual symbol conveying a fatality. Consult also the section Social and Ideological Function.
  548.  
  549. Coleman, Kathleen. 2005. Bonds of danger: Communal life in the gladiatorial barracks of ancient Rome. Sydney: Department of Classics and Ancient History, Univ. of Sydney.
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  551. A pamphlet exploring the paradox that gladiators could train together and then face one another in public combat. Collects evidence, primarily from epitaphs, to argue that professionalism and fatalism were the chief enabling mechanisms.
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  553. Grossschmidt, Karl, et al. 2002. Gladiatoren in Ephesos: Tod am Nachmittag; Eine Ausstellung im Ephesos Museum Selçuk. Seit 20. April 2002. Vienna: Österreichisches Archäologisches Institut.
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  555. A catalog accompanying an exhibit of skeletal remains from a gladiatorial graveyard discovered at Ephesus, Turkey, by Austrian excavators in 1994. In German, with contributions by multiple authors. Very instructive diagrams and illustrations.
  556. Find this resource:
  557. Kanz, Fabian, and Karl Grossschmidt. 2006. Head injuries of Roman gladiators. Forensic Science International 160:207–216.
  558. DOI: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2005.10.010Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  559. An English-language publication by Austrian forensic scientists analyzing the skeletal remains from the first incontrovertible find of a gladiatorial graveyard. Argues that the remains discovered at Ephesus show wounds inflicted selectively and with restraint, in contrast to the wholesale butchery attested by the remains at some medieval battle sites.
  560. Find this resource:
  561. Leon, H. J. 1939. Morituri te salutamus. Transactions of the American Philological Association 70:46–50.
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  563. Examines the phrase commonly assumed to have been the regular salutation pronounced by gladiators before the start of combat, showing that it is only attested once, delivered not by gladiators but by prisoners condemned to fight in a naval battle staged by Claudius on the Fucine Lake in central Italy in 52 CE.
  564. Find this resource:
  565. Scarborough, John. 1971. Galen and the gladiators. Episteme 5:98–111.
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  567. From Galen’s references to his early career treating gladiators at Pergamon, Scarborough extrapolates evidence for contemporary practice in surgery and the treatment of wounds.
  568. Find this resource:
  569. Ville, Georges. 1981. La gladiature en Occident des origines à la mort de Domitien. Rome: École Française de Rome.
  570. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  571. Shows that the risk of dying in combat increased in the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE. Calculates that a gladiator’s chances of survival were 90 percent in the 1st century, decreasing thereafter (pp. 311–325).
  572. Find this resource:
  573. Watson, G. R. 1952. Theta nigrum. Journal of Roman Studies 42:56–62.
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  575. Examines the “black theta” that symbolizes a fatality on some gladiatorial images. Argues that it derives from the abbreviation for Latin obiit (he died) on casualty lists from the Roman army, not, as the Romans themselves supposed, from the first letter of the Greek words for “die” (thnēiskō) and “death” (thanatos).
  576. Find this resource:
  577. Beast Displays
  578.  
  579. Beasts were variously displayed in arena spectacles: they were hunted en masse by professionals in venationes (beast hunts), they engaged in single combat with an animal of a different species (e.g., a bull and a bear chained together), they performed tricks, and they engaged in stunts of various sorts. For their role in the dispatch of criminals, most notoriously as agents of Christian martyrdom, consult the Executions section.
  580.  
  581. Supply of Beasts
  582.  
  583. The effort involved in supplying beasts for arena spectacles empire-wide was enormous. Jennnison 1937 supplies a chronological account of beast shows (pp. 42–98) and discusses the logistics of capture, transport, and display (pp. 137–181). Bertrandy 1987 focuses on the delivery of beasts from Africa to Italy. Beschaouch 1966 discusses the “Magerius mosaic” from Smirat in Tunisia, crucial evidence for the beast trade in North Africa. Epplett 2001 discusses the role of the army in capturing animals in distant provinces for display in cities hundreds of miles away. Epplett 2003 documents the handling of the beasts prior to their display. MacKinnon 2006 discusses the wastage and attrition rate. For the funding of the beast trade, consult Funding. For relevant images, consult Iconographic Sources.
  584.  
  585. Bertrandy, François. 1987. Remarques sur le commerce des bêtes sauvages entre l’Afrique du Nord et l’Italie. Mélanges de l’École Française de Rome, Antiquité 99:211–241.
  586. DOI: 10.3406/mefr.1987.1542Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  587. Examines mosaics from North Africa and Ostia to determine the logistics of capturing and transporting beasts from Africa to Italy, primarily the cages and other forms of restraint employed for different species, the types of seagoing vessels used, and the social status of the personnel involved (freedmen and slaves).
  588. Find this resource:
  589. Beschaouch, Azédine. 1966. La mosaïque de chasse à l’amphithéâtre découverte à Smirat en Tunisie. Comptes rendus de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 1966:134–157.
  590. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  591. Examines the famous “Magerius mosaic” from Smirat in Tunisia. This is the first of a series of articles in the same journal—1977: 496–503, 1979: 410–420, 1985: 453–474—documenting the evidence for a “logo” system identifying companies involved in the supply of beasts for the arena.
  592. Find this resource:
  593. Epplett, Christopher. 2001. The capture of animals by the Roman military. Greece and Rome 48.2: 210–222.
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  595. Collects and examines epigraphic and papyrological evidence for the role of the army, including as vestigiatores (trackers), in the capture, care, and transport of thousands of wild animals slaughtered in imperial spectacles at Rome and at lesser events elsewhere.
  596. Find this resource:
  597. Epplett, Chris. 2003. The preparation of animals for Roman spectacula: Vivaria and their administration. Ludica 9:76–92.
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  599. Collects literary, epigraphic, iconographic, and archaeological evidence for vivaria (animal enclosures), both imperial and private, in Italy (especially the city of Rome) and the provinces.
  600. Find this resource:
  601. Jennison, George. 1937. Animals for show and pleasure in ancient Rome. Manchester, UK: Manchester Univ. Press.
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  603. Old-fashioned, but remarkable for insights into animal behavior derived from the author’s intimate association with Manchester’s Belle Vue Zoological Gardens, which belonged to his family. Includes selective black-and-white plates, with ancient sources listed in the margins. Reprinted in 2005 (Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press).
  604. Find this resource:
  605. MacKinnon, Michael. 2006. Supplying exotic animals for the Roman amphitheatre games: New reconstructions combining archaeological, ancient textual, historical and ethnographic data. Mouseion 6:137–161.
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  607. Demonstrates the probability that selective reporting in the ancient literary sources disguises massive wastage and failed enterprises in the importing and display of beasts in the metropolitan centers of the Roman Empire.
  608. Find this resource:
  609. Deployment of Beasts in the Arena
  610.  
  611. Ville 1981 catalogs known instances of venationes to the end of the reign of Domitian. Coleman (in Martial 2006) supplies a commentary on the epigrams in Martial’s Liber spectaculorum that were inspired by the performance of animals in the arena. Brown 1992 examines the mentality behind depictions of animals in torment in representations of the arena on Roman mosaics. Brief treatments can also be found in entries cited under Supply of Beasts, and the other entries cited under Iconographic Sources should be consulted.
  612.  
  613. Brown, Shelby. 1992. Death as decoration: Scenes from the arena on Roman domestic mosaics. In Pornography and representation in Greece and Rome. Edited by Amy Richlin, 180–211. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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  615. A probing attempt to account for the apparent pride in animal and human suffering exhibited by mosaics that were commissioned (presumably) by sponsors to commemorate their displays.
  616. Find this resource:
  617. Jennison, George. 1937. Animals for show and pleasure in ancient Rome. Manchester, UK: Manchester Univ. Press.
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  619. Old-fashioned, but remarkable for insights into animal behavior derived from the author’s intimate association with Manchester’s Belle Vue Zoological Gardens, which belonged to his family. Includes selective black-and-white plates, with ancient sources listed in the margins. Reprinted in 2005 (Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press).
  620. Find this resource:
  621. Martial (M. Valerius Martialis). 2006. M. Valerii Martialis liber spectaculorum. Edited with introduction, translation, and commentary by Kathleen M. Coleman. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
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  623. The commentary on poems 6–22, 24–26, and 32–33 discusses the behavior and treatment of different species exhibited in the arena.
  624. Find this resource:
  625. Ville, Georges. 1981. La gladiature en Occident des origines à la mort de Domitien. Rome: École Française de Rome.
  626. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  627. Traces contact with Carthage as the primary influence on venationes (pp. 51–56). Catalogs venationes under the Republic (pp. 88–99), their evolution under Augustus (pp. 106–116, 123–128), and the combined record for munera (gladiatorial displays) and venationes until the end of the Flavian era (pp. 129–173).
  628. Find this resource:
  629. Aquatic Displays
  630.  
  631. Aquatic displays were special events that involved particularly complex logistics. The feat of staging them in urban spaces exploited the conceit of turning land into sea, an almost magical feat on the part of the sponsor who could so manipulate nature. Coleman 1993 analyzes evidence (primarily literary) for staged naval battles (naumachiae), mimes, and other waterborne feats. Berlan-Bajard 2006 offers a very detailed study combining literary and archaeological evidence. Rea, et al. 2000 records archaeological evidence supporting ancient authors’ claims that aquatic displays were mounted in the Colosseum at its inauguration and shortly thereafter. Taylor 1997 investigates the hydraulic engineering involved in supplying the custom-built lakes in the city of Rome, chiefly the lake dug by Augustus, and estimates its lifespan and the impetus to replace it.
  632.  
  633. Berlan-Bajard, Anne. 2006. Les spectacles aquatiques romains. Rome: École Française de Rome.
  634. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  635. A detailed study of aquatic displays: naval battles, aquatic hunts, and mythological tableaux/water ballet. Includes chapters on origins and influences and on symbolic significance. Contains appendices of literary sources (with accompanying translations), epigraphic and numismatic evidence, and archaeological remains. Stronger on textual evidence than archaeological. Includes four specialized indexes but no general index.
  636. Find this resource:
  637. Coleman, K. M. 1993. Launching into history: Aquatic displays in the early Empire. Journal of Roman Studies 83:48–74.
  638. DOI: 10.2307/300978Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  639. Investigates, in particular, the impulse behind the staging of naval battles from Greek history, both actual and imaginary.
  640. Find this resource:
  641. Rea, Rossella, Heinz-Jürgen Beste, Patrizia Campagna, and Franca Del Vecchio. 2000. Sotterranei del Colosseo: Ricerca preliminare al progetto di ricostruzione del piano dell’arena. Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts (Römische Abteilung) 107:311–339.
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  643. From footings in the floor of the hypogeum (basement) of the Colosseum and corresponding niches in the perimeter wall, the authors hypothesize an original timber structure supporting the arena floor that could be dismantled when the floor was removed, allowing the hypogeum to be flooded for aquatic displays.
  644. Find this resource:
  645. Taylor, Rabun. 1997. Torrent or trickle? The Aqua Alsietina, the Naumachia Augusti, and the Transtiberim. American Journal of Archaeology 101:465–492.
  646. DOI: 10.2307/507107Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  647. Provides a thorough investigation of the location of the lake built by Augustus in Trastevere for staging mock naval battles and also looks at comparable projects accomplished by later emperors.
  648. Find this resource:
  649. Executions
  650.  
  651. Penal aims in Antiquity required that capital punishment be conducted in public. An amphitheater guaranteed good visibility, and for executions in which the agents were wild animals it afforded the appropriate infrastructure. Vismara 1990 provides a concise introduction to the staging of executions as public spectacle. Coleman 1990 examines executions staged as mythological enactments in the arena (“fatal charades”). Much of the evidence comes from accounts of Christian martyrdom, accessible in entries cited under Christian Texts and analyzed in Potter 1993 and Potter 1996.
  652.  
  653. Coleman, K. M. 1990. Fatal charades: Roman executions staged as mythological enactments. Journal of Roman Studies 80:44–73.
  654. DOI: 10.2307/300280Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  655. Interprets rare but striking evidence for the theatrical staging of aggravated death penalties, chiefly exposure to beasts (damnatio ad bestias), within the context of an imperial display of power. Prefaced by an account of Roman penal aims.
  656. Find this resource:
  657. Potter, David. 1993. Martyrdom as Spectacle. In Theater and society in the classical world. Edited by Ruth Scodel, 53–88. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press.
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  659. An analysis of accounts of martyrdom as evidence for the workings of the Roman penal system from the point of view of the victim of spectacular executions.
  660. Find this resource:
  661. Potter, David. 1996. Performance, power, and justice in the high Empire. In Roman theater and society. Edited by W. J. Slater, 129–159. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press.
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  663. Analyzes political motivations for the martyrdom of Polycarp and the Martyrs of Lyons to argue that, in addition to the exercise of imperial authority, a public execution could reveal complex internal conflict in the ancient city. Contains an important discussion of acclamationes (concerted chanting) and the role of claques.
  664. Find this resource:
  665. Vismara, Cinzia. 1990. Il supplizio come spettacolo. Rome: Quasar.
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  667. An illustrated handbook in the series “Vita e costumi dei Romani antichi” produced by the Museo della Civiltà Romana. Annotated with reference to ancient sources and illustrated by instructive black-and-white plates.
  668. Find this resource:
  669. Ritual Aspects
  670.  
  671. Cultic aspects of the arena are examined in Bouley 2001 and Domergue, et al. 1990. Futrell 1997 applies the paradigm of human sacrifice to the arena. Hornum 1993 examines the cult of Nemesis. A ritual explanation for the cena libera, the gladiator’s last meal before combat, is analyzed in Brettler and Poliakoff 1990. The harnessing of magic to curse participants in the arena is addressed in Tremel 2004.
  672.  
  673. Bouley, Elisabeth. 2001. Jeux romains dans les provinces balkano-danubiennes du IIe siècle avant J.-C. à la fin du IIIe siècle après J.-C. Paris: Presses Universitaires Franc-Comtoises.
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  675. Collects evidence for arena cults in the Danube provinces (pp. 281–304). Expanded version of Domergue, et al. 1990 (pp. 241–251).
  676. Find this resource:
  677. Brettler, Marc Zvi, and Michael Poliakoff. 1990. Rabbi Simeon ben Lakish at the gladiator’s banquet: Rabbinic observations on the Roman arena. Harvard Theological Review 83:93–98.
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  679. Shows that a Jewish comment on the cena libera, the gladiatorial banquet held the night before a display, is unique in explaining it as a ritual to “sweeten” the gladiator’s blood, i.e., to make him a worthy sacrificial victim.
  680. Find this resource:
  681. Domergue, Claude, Christian Landes, and Jean-Marie Pailler, eds. 1990. Spectacula I: Gladiateurs et amphithéâtres; Actes du colloque tenu à Toulouse et à Lattes les 26, 27, 28 et 29 mai 1987. Lattes, France: Imago.
  682. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  683. Includes eight papers under the heading “Religion et société.” Three address cult: Marcel Le Glay, “Les amphithéâtres: loci religiosi?” (pp. 217–229); Jacqueline Carabia, “Diana victrix ferarum” (pp. 231–220); and Elisabeth Bouley, “Le culte de Nemesis et les jeux de l’amphithéâtre dans les provinces balkaniques et danubiennes” (pp. 241–251), expanded in Bouley 2001.
  684. Find this resource:
  685. Futrell, Alison. 1997. Blood in the arena: The spectacle of Roman power. Austin: Univ. of Texas Press.
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  687. Includes a chapter examining gladiatorial spectacle as a ritual of human sacrifice (pp. 169–210).
  688. Find this resource:
  689. Hornum, Michael B. 1993. Nemesis, the Roman state, and the games. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
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  691. Collects evidence for the cult of Nemesis, goddess of vengeance and retribution, in Roman amphitheaters. Includes a catalog of inscriptions.
  692. Find this resource:
  693. Tremel, Jan. 2004. Magica agonistica: Fluchtafeln im antiken Sport. Hildesheim, Germany: Weidmann.
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  695. Examines the use of magic spells and curse tablets as a means of influencing the outcome of competitive events in the ancient world, including athletics, chariot racing, and arena spectacles (specifically beast hunts). Includes a catalog of 100 items; nos. 91–100, from Caerleon, Delos, and Carthage, pertain to the amphitheater.
  696. Find this resource:
  697. Christian Reactions
  698.  
  699. The most notorious institution associated with arena spectacle is Christian martyrdom. Since the bibliography on martyrdom by scholars of early Christianity is too large to be covered within the confines of this bibliography, two contributions are offered here exempli gratia; the spectrum of approaches canvassed in such scholarship complements and expands the Romanocentric viewpoint of classical scholars. Bremmer 2002 is one representative example of the work of a prolific scholar who has profoundly influenced contemporary understand of early Christianity within its cultural context. Castelli 2004 shows that Christian critics of the arena simultaneously offered alternative spectacles in the Eucharist and in visions of the Apocalypse. Further titles dealing with aspects of the Christian response to arena spectacles are cited under Textbooks, Iconographic Sources, Christian Texts, Executions, and Decline.
  700.  
  701. Bremmer, Jan N. 2002. Perpetua and her diary: Authenticity, family and visions. In Märtyrer und Märtyrerakten. Edited by Walter Ameling, 77–120. Stuttgart, Germany: Steiner.
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  703. Examines the famous account of the martyrdom of Saint Perpetua in Carthage in 203 CE, showing how Christian exploitation of arena spectacles for the staging of martyrdom was embedded in a series of revolutionary attitudes and beliefs generated by the new cult (life as a spiritual contest, belief in an afterlife, etc.).
  704. Find this resource:
  705. Castelli, Elizabeth A. 2004. Martyrdom and memory: Early Christian culture making. New York: Columbia Univ. Press.
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  707. Argues, in a chapter titled “Martyrdom and the Spectacle of Suffering,” that early Christian apologists, bishops, and polemicists combined criticism of Roman spectacles with the promise that Christian ritual and apocalyptic vision provided a rival spectacle of their own (pp. 104–133).
  708. Find this resource:
  709. Social and Ideological Function
  710.  
  711. The social and ideological function of arena displays is too complex to match a single neat paradigm that accounts for all its aspects. Edmondson 1996 examines the social function of arena spectacles for both sponsor and spectator. Barton 1993 and Edwards 2007 focus on the figure of the gladiator as simultaneously paradox and paradigm. Mann 2009 and Carter 2009 examine the ideological function of Roman spectacles in a cultural context that is traditionally Greek. The interpretation of Hopkins 1983 is influenced by Foucault, that of Toner 1995 by Marx.
  712.  
  713. Barton, Carlin A. 1993. The sorrows of the ancient Romans: The gladiator and the monster. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
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  715. Explores the paradox in the Roman fascination with gladiators and the “monstrous” (grotesque figures of various sorts) as a symbol of an emotionally unstable society in the late Republic and early Empire. Draws on a wide range of disciplines. Controversial.
  716. Find this resource:
  717. Carter, M. J. 2009. Gladiators and Monomachoi: Greek attitudes to a Roman “cultural performance.” International Journal of the History of Sport 26:298–322.
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  719. Interprets gladiatorial combat in the Eastern Empire as a Roman “cultural performance” imbued with the heroic and athletic values of Greek culture. Reads gladiatorial epitaphs in the East as reflecting the values of the spectators to whom they were addressed.
  720. Find this resource:
  721. Edmondson, Jonathan. 1996. Dynamic arenas: Gladiatorial presentations in the city of Rome and the construction of Roman society during the early Empire. In Roman theater and society. Edited by W. J. Slater, 69–112. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press.
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  723. Argues that arena spectacles fostered social cohesion and visibly glorified the patronage system in a dynamic context that adapted to changes in society. Focuses on the transition from Republic to Empire, when citizens became less invested in the political process and their loyalty had to be transferred to the emperor.
  724. Find this resource:
  725. Edwards, Catharine. 2007. Death in ancient Rome. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.
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  727. Interprets the death of gladiators in the arena as simultaneously affirming them by the presence of witnesses to their bravery and providing the spectators with an edifying—even pleasurable—spectacle (pp. 46–77).
  728. Find this resource:
  729. Hopkins, Keith. 1983. Murderous games. In Death and renewal: Sociological studies in Roman history. Vol. 2 By Keith Hopkins, 1–30. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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  731. Argues that, after conquering the Empire, Rome used the amphitheater to preserve its militaristic traditions and release collective tensions in society. Stresses the brutality of a slave-owning society. Marks a revival of scholarly interest in arena spectacles.
  732. Find this resource:
  733. Mann, Christian. 2009. Gladiators in the Eastern Empire: A case study in Romanization. International Journal of the History of Sport 26:272–297.
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  735. Examines gladiatorial culture in the Eastern Empire as a Roman institution that had been accommodated in a Greek context without becoming Hellenized (e.g., by being assimilated to traditional athletic competitions or by abandoning Latin terminology).
  736. Find this resource:
  737. Toner, J. P. 1995. Leisure and ancient Rome. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
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  739. A chapter on the games interprets them as an attempt by the emperors to inculcate élite values in the masses as a consensus-building exercise (pp. 34–52).
  740. Find this resource:
  741. Riots and Calamities
  742.  
  743. The only riot known to have occurred in an amphitheater is documented by a passage in the Annals of Tacitus and a wall painting from Pompeii. The causes are highly disputed. Competing explanations are offered by Moeller 1970, Galsterer 1980, and Franklin 1997. Chamberland 2007 examines the only major catastrophe known to have occurred, the collapse of a wooden amphitheater outside Rome, for which contradictory details are supplied by Tacitus and Suetonius.
  744.  
  745. Chamberland, Guy. 2007. A gladiatorial show produced in mercedem sordidam (Tacitus, Ann. 4.62). Phoenix 61:136–149.
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  747. Provides a close analysis of surviving accounts of the collapse of an amphitheater at Fidenae, outside Rome, in the reign of Tiberius, to establish the profit motive behind the original construction.
  748. Find this resource:
  749. Franklin, James L., Jr. 1997. Cn. Alleius Nigidius Maius and the amphitheatre: Munera and a distinguished career at Ancient Pompeii. Historia 46:434–447.
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  751. Blames the riot at Pompeii on gladiatorial fan clubs, on the analogy of pantomime artistes’ fan clubs.
  752. Find this resource:
  753. Galsterer, Hartmut. 1980. Politik in römischen Städten: Die “Seditio” des Jahres 59 n. Chr. in Pompeii. In Studien zur antiken Sozialgeschichte: Festschrift Friedrich Vittinghoff. Edited by Werner Eck, Hartmut Galsterer, and Hartmut Wolff, 323–338. Cologne: Böhlau.
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  755. Notes that Capua, home of the “Campani” who were implicated in the riot, and Nuceria, Pompeii’s close neighbor, were Caesarean colonies that had received a new injection of colonists in 57 CE, whereas Pompeii, a Sullan colony, had not. Infers that intercity rivalry may have motivated a direct attack on the Nucerians.
  756. Find this resource:
  757. Moeller, W. O. 1970. The riot of A.D. 59 at Pompeii. Historia 19:84–95.
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  759. Suggests that the spectaculum that caused the riot was a display of gladiatorial exercises by collegia iuvenum (youth brigades) from Pompeii and Nuceria.
  760. Find this resource:
  761. Decline
  762.  
  763. The debate over the reasons for the decline of arena spectacles centers on the role of Christianity, treated from different angles in Ville 1960, MacMullen 1986, Wiedemann 1992, and Bomgardner 2000. A practical issue is addressed in Bomgardner 1992, documenting the diminishing supply of beasts.
  764.  
  765. Bomgardner, D. L. 1992. The trade in wild beasts for Roman spectacles: A green perspective. Anthropozoologica 16:161–166.
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  767. Argues that by converting natural habitat into arable land and engaging in hunting as both leisure pursuit and business venture (i.e., to supply the beast displays), the Romans irrevocably altered the ecology of North Africa, leading to the problems attested in Late Antiquity in supplying beasts for the games.
  768. Find this resource:
  769. Bomgardner, D. L. 2000. The story of the Roman amphitheatre. London: Routledge.
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  771. Supplies a clear summary of the evidence for the decline of munera (gladiatorial displays) and venationes (beast hunts), emphasizing the role of Christian opposition to pagan institutions, along with financial pressures (pp. 201–221).
  772. Find this resource:
  773. MacMullen, Ramsay. 1986. What difference did Christianity make? Historia 35:322–343.
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  775. Argues that while Christianity bred strict attitudes toward sexual mores, it made no discernible difference to attitudes toward the arena (a view contested by Wiedemann 1992). Also contends that instead of sympathy toward victims and the oppressed, the 4th century was characterized by the imposition of increasingly savage penalties.
  776. Find this resource:
  777. Ville, Georges. 1960. Les jeux de gladiateurs dans l’empire chrétien. Mélanges de l’École Française de Rome 72:273–335.
  778. DOI: 10.3406/mefr.1960.7470Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  779. An exhaustive and nuanced discussion demonstrating that, after Constantine’s Edict of Beirut in 325 CE, gladiatorial spectacles soon disappeared in the Eastern Empire but survived at Rome for another century, ultimately to be outlived by beast shows.
  780. Find this resource:
  781. Wiedemann, Thomas. 1992. Emperors and gladiators. London: Routledge.
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  783. Supports the theory that Constantine’s Edict of Beirut was not a ban on gladiatorial combat but a measure to prevent Christians being condemned to hard labor in the mines (pp. 128–164). Suggests that, contra MacMullen 1986, Christianity did affect arena spectacles, by offering an alternative model for overcoming death.
  784. Find this resource:
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