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Few gladiators survived more than 10 contests, though one survived an extraordinary 150 bouts; and another died at 90 years of age, presumably long after retirement. A gladiator might expect to fight in two or three munera annually, and an unknown number would have died in their first match. Having no personal responsibility for his own defeat and death, the losing gladiator remains the better man, worth avenging.
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The use of volunteers had a precedent in the Iberian munus of Scipio Africanus; but none of those had been paid. Rome’s military success produced a supply of soldier-prisoners who were redistributed for use in State mines or amphitheatres and for sale on the open market. In the later Republic and early Empire, various “fantasy” types were introduced, and were set against dissimilar but complementary types.
Throughout the Roman world, ceramics, lamps, gems and jewellery, mosaics, reliefs, wall paintings and statuary offer evidence, sometimes the best evidence, of the clothing, props, equipment, names, events, prevalence and rules of gladiatorial combat. Mosaics dating from the 2nd through 4th centuries AD have been invaluable in the reconstruction of combat and its rules, gladiator types and the development of the munus. In the later Imperial era, Servius Maurus Honoratus uses the same disparaging term as Cicero—bustuarius—for gladiators.
The ludi and munus
He was lanista of the gladiators employed by the state circa 105 BC to instruct the legions and simultaneously entertain the public. The contract between editor and his lanista could include compensation for unexpected deaths; this could be “some fifty times higher than the lease price” of the gladiator. From the principate onwards, private citizens could hold munera and own gladiators only with imperial permission, and the role of editor was increasingly tied to state officialdom. Henceforth, an imperial praetor’s official munus was allowed a maximum of 120 gladiators at a ceiling cost of 25,000 denarii; an imperial ludi might cost no less than 180,000 denarii. It involved three days of funeral games, 120 gladiators, and public distribution of meat (visceratio data)—a practice that reflected the gladiatorial fights at Campanian banquets described by Livy and later deplored by Silius Italicus.
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- For the poor, and for non-citizens, enrollment in a gladiator school offered a trade, regular food, housing of sorts and a fighting chance of fame and fortune.
- The dearth of freemen necessitated a new kind of enlistment; 8,000 sturdy youths from amongst the slaves were armed at the public cost, after they had each been asked whether they were willing to serve or no.
- The munus itself could be interpreted as pious necessity, but its increasing luxury corroded Roman virtue, and created an un-Roman appetite for profligacy and self-indulgence.
- During the Imperial era, matches advertised as sine missione (usually understood to mean “without reprieve” for the defeated) suggest that missio (the sparing of a defeated gladiator’s life) had become common practice.
- Yet, in the last year of his life, Constantine wrote a letter to the citizens of Hispellum, granting its people the right to celebrate his rule with gladiatorial games.
- The munus thus represented an essentially military, self-sacrificial ideal, taken to extreme fulfillment in the gladiator’s oath.
- Suetonius describes an exceptional munus by Nero, in which no-one was killed, “not even noxii (enemies of the state).”
One gladiator’s tomb dedication clearly states that her decisions are not to be trusted. A wealthy editor might commission artwork to celebrate a particularly successful or memorable show, and include named portraits of winners and losers in action; the Borghese Gladiator Mosaic is a notable example. The bodies of noxii, and possibly some damnati, were thrown into rivers or dumped unburied; Denial of funeral rites and memorial condemned the shade (manes) of the deceased to restless wandering upon the earth as a dreadful larva or lemur. Whether the corpse of such a gladiator could be redeemed from further ignominy by friends or familia is not known. Another, dressed as Mercury, tests for life-signs with a heated “wand”; once confirmed as dead, the body is dragged from the arena.
This yielded two combats for the cost of three gladiators, rather than four; such contests were prolonged, and in some cases, more bloody. A general melee of several, lower-skilled gladiators was far less costly, but also less popular. Increasingly the munus was the editor’s gift to spectators who had come to expect the best as their due. Gladiators may have been involved in these as executioners, though most of the crowd, and the gladiators themselves, preferred the “dignity” of an even contest.
Role in Roman life
Those condemned ad ludum were probably branded or marked with a tattoo (stigma, plural stigmata) on the face, legs and/or hands. By Domitian’s time, many had been more or less absorbed by the State, including those at Pergamum, Alexandria, Praeneste and Capua. The Spartacus revolt had originated in a gladiator school privately owned by Lentulus Batiatus, and had been suppressed only after a protracted series of costly, sometimes disastrous campaigns by regular Roman troops. Hopkins and Beard tentatively estimate a total of 400 arenas throughout the Roman Empire at its greatest extent, with a combined total of 8,000 deaths per annum from executions, combats and accidents. Marcus Junkelmann disputes Ville’s calculation for average age at death; the majority would have received no headstone, and would have died early in their careers, at 18–25 years of age. A natural death following retirement is also likely for three individuals who died at 38, 45, and 48 years respectively.
Their training as gladiators gave them the opportunity to redeem their honour in the munus. Yet, in the last year of his life, Constantine wrote a letter to the citizens of Hispellum, granting its people the right to celebrate his rule with gladiatorial games. Throughout the empire, the greatest and most celebrated games would now be identified with the state-sponsored imperial cult, which furthered public recognition, respect and approval for the emperor’s divine numen, his laws, and his agents. Following Caesar’s assassination and the Roman Civil War, Augustus assumed imperial authority over the games, including munera, and formalised their provision as a civic and religious duty. Thereafter, the gladiator contests formerly restricted to private munera were often included in the state games (ludi) that accompanied the major religious festivals.
- Throughout the empire, the greatest and most celebrated games would now be identified with the state-sponsored imperial cult, which furthered public recognition, respect and approval for the emperor’s divine numen, his laws, and his agents.
- Opposite him on the field, Vitellius’s army was swollen by levies of slaves, plebs and gladiators.
- No such stigma was attached to a gladiator owner (munerarius or editor) of good family, high status and independent means; Cicero congratulated his friend Atticus on buying a splendid troop—if he rented them out, he might recover their entire cost after two performances.
- The Gladiator Mosaic in the Galleria Borghese displays several gladiator types, and the Bignor Roman Villa mosaic from Provincial Britain shows Cupids as gladiators.
- The Spartacus revolt had originated in a gladiator school privately owned by Lentulus Batiatus, and had been suppressed only after a protracted series of costly, sometimes disastrous campaigns by regular Roman troops.
- The climax of the show which was big for the time was that in three days seventy four gladiators fought.
In 365, Valentinian I (r. 364–375) threatened to fine a judge who sentenced Christians to the arena and in 384 attempted, like most of his predecessors, to limit the expenses of gladiatora munera. For that reason we forbid those people to be gladiators who by reason of some criminal act were accustomed to deserve this condition and sentence. Still, emperors continued to subsidize the games as a matter of undiminished public interest. Between 108 and 109 AD, Trajan celebrated his Dacian victories using a reported 10,000 gladiators and 11,000 animals over 123 days. Gladiatorial games, usually linked with beast shows, spread throughout the republic and beyond. Caesar’s showmanship was unprecedented in scale and expense; he had staged a munus as memorial rather than funeral rite, eroding any practical or meaningful distinction between munus and ludi.
Schools and training
Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their lives and their legal and social standing by appearing in the arena. You can contact us via Live Chat or by writing an email to Whether you love fast-paced video slots, classic table games, massive jackpots, or the thrill of live casino tables, Lanista Casino has something for every kind of player. Lanista Casino supports multiple payment methods including Visa, Mastercard, Bitcoin, Skrill, Neteller, and bank transfers. The casino features titles from industry-leading providers such as Pragmatic Play, NetEnt, Microgaming, and Evolution Gaming.
In the republican era, private citizens could own and train gladiators, or lease them from a lanista (owner of a gladiator training school). When a freedman of Nero was giving a gladiatorial show at Antium, the public porticoes were covered with paintings, so we are told, containing life-like portraits of all the gladiators and assistants. The Punic Wars of the late 3rd century BC—in particular the near-catastrophic defeat of Roman arms at Cannae—had long-lasting effects on the Republic, its citizen armies, and the development of the gladiatorial munera.
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Many gladiator epitaphs claim Nemesis, fate, deception or treachery as the instrument of their death, never the superior skills of the flesh-and-blood adversary who defeated and killed them. Rather, she seems to have represented a kind of “Imperial Fortuna” who dispensed Imperial retribution on the one hand, and Imperially subsidised gifts on the other—including the munera. Modern scholarship offers little support for the once-prevalent notion that gladiators, venatores and bestiarii were personally or professionally dedicated to the cult of the Graeco-Roman goddess Nemesis. Ordinary citizens, slaves and freedmen were usually buried beyond the town or city limits, to avoid the ritual and physical pollution of the living; professional gladiators had their own, separate cemeteries. Modern pathological examination confirms the probably fatal use of a mallet on some, but not all the gladiator skulls found in a gladiators’ cemetery.
In 105 BC, the ruling consuls offered Rome its first taste of state-sponsored “barbarian combat” demonstrated by gladiators from Capua, as part of a training program for the military. They clearly show how gladiator munera pervaded Pompeiian culture; they provide information pertaining to particular gladiators, and sometimes include their names, status as slaves or freeborn volunteers, and their match records. Some of the best preserved gladiator graffiti are from Pompeii and Herculaneum, in public areas including Pompeii’s Forum and amphitheater, and in the private residences of the upper, middle and lower classes.
The Christian author Tertullian, commenting on ludi meridiani in Roman Carthage during the peak era of the games, describes a more humiliating method of removal. lanista The body of a gladiator who had died well was placed on a couch of Libitina and removed with dignity to the arena morgue, where the corpse was stripped of armour, and probably had its throat cut as confirmation of death. Even more rarely, perhaps uniquely, one stalemate ended in the killing of one gladiator by the editor himself.