1. Gladiators Blood Sport in the Roman Empire

2. Tacitus on the gladiator  “You could easily think that the city was running wild with insane rage and unharnessed pleasure.”  A quote from Tacitus’ Histories about the city in Vespacian’s time

3. Disgust and Delight  Upper class sponsors gladiators and paints pictures of them in murals in their homes, but claims to hate the combat in public  Roman senate declares that people who fight in gladitorial combat could lose their high status... Yet they had mock-fights themselves

4. The Rules According to Claudius  If a gladiator fell down (even if by accident), he had to be killed, so that the emperor could see his face as he died.

5. Animals and Combat  Animal fights grew more popular as the empire expanded and access to exotic animals from conquered provinces grew  Emperor appears more powerful if he can bring animal fights to the people  Animals are chained together to fight

6. Myth and Gladiators  Orpheus fights, but does not sing  Man who stole an apple = Hercules  Enemies of Jupiter represented by disabled fighters

7. Why did Romans admire them?  Not in Roman society, but still were famous  Courageous fighters  Got praise and were popular heroes

8. When the upper class plays gladiator...  Fight prostitutes dressed up as animals  Fight tame animals that would not really hurt them  Engage in mock arena fights in private

9. Fight to the death  An *intentional* fight to the death was more rare than you might think  Gladiators would often fight until surrender or injury  Often fought with dull weapons  Crowd could demand that the fight stop

10. Explaining death  Gladiators control their fate on their funeral monuments  Say they were victims of Nemesis (revenge)  Opponent cheated  Never appear in death to be the victim of the crowd or killed on a whim

11. All good things come to an end  Constantine publically declares his hatred for gladiatorial combat, but does not stop it  His son, Constantius II, prevents members of the imperial guard from fighting  By the 4 th century, emperors no longer act as sponsors  The result is a decline in gladiatorial combat

12. Conclusions  This is a public spectacle  The Romans equated this experience with going to the theater  For the gladiator, however, this was a chance to overturn the social order of things and receive fame and fortune