by M. C. Bishop
have been a core of truth behind it. What is significant are the
details of gladiatorial tradition that such passages betray:
At gladiatorial shows he would come to watch and stay to fight,
covering his bare shoulders with a purple cloth. And it was his
custom, moreover, to order the insertion in the city gazette
of everything he did that was base or foul or cruel, or typical
of a gladiator or a procurer – at least, the writings of Marius
Maximus so testify. He entitled the Roman people the ‘People of
Commodus’, since he had very often fought as a gladiator in their
presence. And although the people regularly applauded him in his
frequent combats as though he were a god, he became convinced
that he was being laughed at, and gave orders that the Roman
people should be slain in the Amphitheatre by the marines who
spread the awnings. He gave an order, also, for the burning of the
city, as though it were his private colony, and this order would
have been executed had not Laetus, the prefect of the Guard,
deterred him. Among other triumphal titles, he was also given
the name ‘Captain of the Secutores’ six hundred and twenty times.
( HA, Commodus 15.3–8)
On one occasion, Commodus took the opportunity to show off
his skill as an archer:
He shot arrows with crescent-shaped heads at Moroccan ostriches,
birds that move with great speed, both because of their swiftness
afoot and the sail-like nature of their wings. He cut off their heads
at the very top of the neck; so, after their heads had been severed by
the edge of the arrow, they continued to run around as if they had
not been injured. (Herodian 1.15.5)
This may have been the same occasion when he issued a rather
menacing threat to the watching senators (who included the
historian Cassius Dio). Their response resembles that of many
sane people to subsequent despots of questionable sanity:
CHApTeR 4: AT THe peAk | 57
Here is another thing that he did to us senators which gave us every
reason to look for our death. Having killed an ostrich and cut off
his head, he came up to where we were sitting, holding the head in
his left hand and in his right hand raising aloft his bloody sword;
and though he spoke not a word, yet he wagged his head with a
grin, indicating that he would treat us in the same way. And many
would indeed have perished by the sword on the spot, for laughing
at him (for it was laughter rather than indignation that overcame
us), if I had not chewed some laurel leaves, which I got from my
garland, myself, and persuaded the others who were sitting near me
to do the same ... (Cassius Dio 73.21.1–2)
Commodus decided to make a minor change or two to the
enormous statue which gave its name to the Colosseum:
He removed the head of a huge Colossus which the Romans
worship and which bears the likeness of the Sun, replacing it with
his own head, and inscribed on the base not the usual imperial and
family titles; instead of ‘Germanicus’ he wrote: ‘Conqueror of a
Th ousand Gladiators’. (Herodian 1.15.9)
Suffi ce it to say that the last emperor who had put his own head
on the Colossus had been Nero and that had not ended well.
When Commodus’ possessions were sold off after after his death
by Helvius Pertinax (AD 193), they were found to include
Crupellarius
• Armour: plate, helmet
• Special feature: heavily protected
• Period: Imperial
• Common opponent: unknown
58 | GLADIATORS
a gladiator’s cloak and arms decorated with gold and jewels; also
swords, such as those with which Hercules is represented, and the
necklaces worn by gladiators ( HA, Pertinax 8.3–4)
Commodus had a well-known fondness for being identified with
Hercules and a bust of him in the guise of that hero is displayed
in the Capitoline Museums in Rome.
The Severans
Appropriately, Septimius Severus (AD 193–211) – whose first
task was to deal with other pretenders to the purple – was
proclaimed emperor in an amphitheatre (one of the two at
Carnuntum in Austria) in AD 197. One of his opponents,
Didius Julianus (AD 193 – who, his biographer sneered, had
himself trained with gladiatorial weapons), attempted to arm the
gladiators at Capua to form an army to oppose Severus, all to
no avail.
The games continued unabated during Severus’ reign, with him
providing a show in Rome before he left for his Parthian Wars in
the East. His son, Caracalla (AD 198–217) who murdered his
brother Geta once their father was dead, was said to have liked
the company of gladiators and charioteers (one of his nicknames
was Tarautas, after an ugly gladiator of that name), but one tale
about him provides an incidental detail of interest:
He took pleasure in seeing the blood of as many gladiators
as possible; he forced one of them, Bato, to fight three men in
succession on the same day, and then, when Bato was slain by the
last one, he honoured him with a brilliant funeral. (Cassius Dio
78.6.2)
Clearly, it was not normal to expect a gladiator to fight three
opponents in one day. Whilst on campaign in the East, based at
Nicomedia, one of the ways he amused himself was to fight as a
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gladiator (although whether he competed in the arena or merely
trained as one is unclear). Indeed, he celebrated his birthday
there with games:
Here it is said that when a defeated combatant begged him to spare
his life, Antoninus said: ‘Go and beg your opponent. I have no
power to spare you.’ And so the wretch, who would perhaps have
been spared by his antagonist, had these words not been spoken,
lost his life; for the victor did not dare to release him, for fear of
appearing more humane than the emperor. (Cassius Dio 78.19.3)
The crisis years
The old fear of gladiator armies resurfaced during the reign
of Maximinus Thrax (AD 235–8), when a senatorial revolt
threatened the Praetorian Guard in Rome:
Gallicanus, by his reckless crime, brought civil war and widespread
destruction upon the city. He persuaded the people to break into
the public arsenals, where armour used in parades rather than in
battle was stored, each man to protect himself as best he could. He
then threw open the gladiatorial schools and led out the gladiators
armed with their regular weapons; finally, he collected all the
spears, swords, and axes from the houses and shops. The people,
as if possessed, seized any tools they could find, made of suitable
material, and fashioned weapons. They assembled and went out to
the Praetorian Camp, where they attacked the gates and walls as if
they were actually organizing a siege. The Praetorians, with their
vast combat experience, protected themselves behind their shields
and the battlements; wounding their attackers with arrows and
long spears, they kept them from the walls and drove them
back.
With evening approaching, the besiegers decided to retire, since the
civilians were exhausted and most of the gladiators were wounded.
The people retreated in disorder, thinking that the few Praetorians
would not dare to pursue so large a mob. But the Praetorians
now threw open the gates and gave chase. They slaughtered the
60 | GLADIATORS
gladiators, and the greater part of the mob also perished. (Herodian
7.11.6–9)
The notion that gladiatorial games hardened the population
for war had been voiced by Pliny and reappears in the Historia
Augusta (composed in the 4th century AD but using 2nd- and
3rd-century sources):
Whence this custom arose, that emperors setting out to war gave
an entertainment of gladiators and wild beasts, we must briefly
discuss. Many say that among the ancients this was a solemn ritual
performed against the enemy in order that the blood of citizens
being thus offered in sacrifice under the guise of battle, Nemesis
(that is a certain avenging power of Fortune) might be appeased.
Others have related in books, and this I believe is nearer the truth,
that when about to go to war the Romans felt it necessary to behold
fighting and wounds and steel and naked men contending among
themselves, so that in war they might not fear armed enemies or
shudder at wounds and blood. ( Historia Augusta, Maximinus and
Balbinus 8.5–7)
Gordian I (AD 238) was not emperor for very long, but he was
familiar with gladiatorial games. Before he was emperor and
whilst he was aedile, he personally provided twelve munera (one
a month for his term of office!) which included between 150
and 500 pairs of gladiators in each event. Once he had become
emperor, he left his mark not only on the arena but also on the
walls of the house of Pompey the Great (known as the Domus
Rostrata from the fact the vestibule was decorated with the prows
of captured pirate ships).
There exists also today a remarkable wild-beast hunt of his, pictured
in Gnaeus Pompey’s Domus Rostrata; this palace belonged to him
and to his father and grandfather before him until your privy-purse
took it over in the time of Philip. In this picture at the present day
are contained two hundred stags with antlers shaped like the palm
of a hand, together with British stags, thirty wild horses, a hundred
CHApTeR 4: AT THe peAk | 61
wild sheep, ten elks, a hundred Cyprian bulls, three hundred red
Moorish ostriches, thirty wild asses, a hundred and fifty wild boars,
two hundred chamois, and two hundred fallow deer. And all these
he handed over to the people to be killed on the day of the sixth
exhibition that he gave. ( Historia Augusta, The Gordians, 3.6–8)
Thus Gordian I’s contribution to arena games was to introduce
a level of interactivity for the audience which was previously
unknown: they could actually participate in killing the wildlife
assembled for their entertainment.
That same Philip (the Arab, AD 244–49) decided to hold the
Secular Games in Rome in April of AD 248. These Ludi Saeculares
marked the 1,000th anniversary of the traditional foundation of
Rome in 753 BC. This had to be done in a significant way and,
fortunately, there were a few spare beasts that could drawn upon.
There were thirty-two elephants at Rome in the time of Gordian
(of which he himself had sent twelve and Alexander ten), ten
elk, ten tigers, sixty tame lions, thirty tame leopards, ten belbi or
hyenas, a thousand pairs of imperial gladiators, six hippopotami,
one rhinoceros, ten wild lions, ten giraffes, twenty wild asses,
forty wild horses, and various other animals of this nature without
number. All of these Philip presented or slew at the Secular Games.
All these animals, wild, tame, and savage, Gordian intended for a
Persian triumph; but his official vow proved of no avail, for Philip
presented all of them at the Secular Games, consisting of both
gladiatorial spectacles and races in the Circus, that were celebrated
on the thousandth anniversary of the founding of the City, when he
and his son were consuls. ( Historia Augusta, The Gordians 33.1–3)
The Historia Augusta’s biography of Probus (AD 276–82) has a
particularly juicy tale to tell of the games he provided, whilst at
the same time providing a cautionary tale over the use of such
literary sources.
He also gave the Romans their pleasures, and noted ones, too,
and he bestowed largesses also. He celebrated a triumph over
62 | GLADIATORS
the Germans and the Blemmyes, and caused companies from all
nations, each of them containing up to fifty men, to be led before
his triumphal procession. He gave in the Circus a most magnificent
wild-beast hunt, at which all things were to be the spoils of the
people. Now the manner of this spectacle was as follows: great trees,
torn up with the roots by the soldiers, were set up on a platform of
beams of wide extent, on which earth was then thrown, and in this
way the whole Circus, planted to look like a forest, seemed, thanks
to this new verdure, to be putting forth leaves. Then through all the
entrances were brought in one thousand ostriches, one thousand
stags and one thousand wild-boars, then deer, ibexes, wild sheep,
and other grass-eating beasts, as many as could be reared or
captured. The populace was then let in, and each man seized what
he wished. Another day he brought out in the Amphitheatre at
a single performance one hundred maned lions, which woke the
thunder with their roaring. All of these were slaughtered as they
came out of the doors of their dens, and being killed in this way
they afforded no great spectacle. For there was none of that rush on
the part of the beasts which takes place when they are let loose from
cages. Besides, many, unwilling to charge, were despatched with
arrows. Then he brought out one hundred leopards from Libya,
then one hundred from Syria, then one hundred lionesses and at
the same time three hundred bears; all of which beasts, it is clear,
made a spectacle more vast than enjoyable. He presented, besides,
three hundred pairs of gladiators, among whom fought many of
the Blemmyes, who had been led in his triumph, besides many
Germans and Sarmatians also and even some Isaurian brigands.
( Historia Augusta, Probus 19, 1–8)
If this is an accurate account, there had been no letting up in the
taste for or desire to provide lavish spectacles, despite the troubles
of the Empire at this time. It does highlight one of the more
unusual aspects of the whole ‘bread and circuses’ aspect of Roman
society. Although there were snacks available to the audience, it had
become a tradition to hand out free food in the form of gifts to the
audience at munera. Often these were missilia (literally ‘missiles’)
hurled into the audience in the form of small wooden balls bearing
inscriptions which could be redeemed for those gifts, including
CHApTeR 4: AT THe peAk | 63
&
nbsp; food. Once the Colosseum came into use, its ticketing system
provided a ready-made token scheme akin to lottery tickets. One
of the things given away apparently included meat. Huge displays
of wild animals, most of them inevitably slaughtered, meant the
organisers were faced with a glut of meat which had to be disposed
of, so it ended up being given away to the crowd.
Probus’ games were evidently divided between the animal
‘hunt’ in the circus (probably the Circus Maximus) and the
gladiatorial show in the arena (the Colosseum). Th at the games
occurred seems highly likely, but one of the problems with our
principal source, the Historia Augusta , is that historians harbour
serious doubts over its accuracy when relating detail. Without
independent verifi cation, how is it possible to be sure that so
much enticing material was not in fact fi ctional?
We do know that a rather alarming incident occurred during
his reign, when 80 gladiators escaped after killing their keepers
and set about plundering in Rome. Although Probus was able
to deal with the incident, it must have struck a chord with all
Romans and reminded them of Spartacus.
Amidst all the wearying excess, we fi nd the fi rst hints of a new
attitude emerging from the Emperor Diocletian (AD 284–305):
Diocletian and the tetrachy
Diocletian was the founder of the Roman tetrarchy
(meaning rule-of-four). At the end of the troubled
times of the 3rd century AD, the Roman empire was
divided into two halves, the Eastern and the Western.
Each of these had a senior emperor (or Augustus )
and a junior emperor (or Caesar ). Diocletian was
Augustus of the Eastern Empire.
64 | GLADIATORS
When Diocletian himself presented spectacles, after inviting all
nations thereto, he was most sparing in his liberality, declaring
that there should be more continence in games when a censor was
looking on. ( Historia Augusta, Carus, Carinus, & Numerian 20.3)
One of Diocletian’s major reforms was his attempt to tackle
the problem of inflation in the form of his Edict on Maximum
Prices from AD 301. Included within this were limits for beasts
imported for the games, that for a first-rate lion being 150,000
denarii (600,000 sesterces), whilst a second-rate one was listed at
125,000 denarii (500,000 sesterces). The same list rated a military
