Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Gladiators

Starting point is 00:00:00 You've probably seen a movie or TV show that took place in ancient Rome where gladiators fought in the Coliseum or in an amphitheater. At the end of the fight, the emperor or some other official would extend their thumb to see if the defeated gladiator would live or die. But how accurate is that depiction of gladiatorial contests? Did gladiators always die in the arena? Did the emperor determine their fate? And how exactly did the entire system work? And perhaps most importantly, why in the world did they do this in the first place? Learn more about gladiators and gladiatorial contests. What Was Fact and What Was Fiction on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong?

Starting point is 00:00:51 ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night and how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. Gladiatorial contests were a very popular form of public entertainment in ancient Rome. As I mentioned in previous episodes, they probably weren't the most popular form of entertainment, as that distinction was held by chariot racing. Gladiatorial games were something that was pretty unique to Roman culture. Other cultures did have blood sports where competitors could be injured and possibly killed,

Starting point is 00:01:34 although not usually on purpose. The Mayans and the Aztecs also had competitions where the losers could be killed, but they weren't necessarily engaged in combat. they were usually engaging in some sort of violent ballgame. So why did the Romans engage in this uniquely brutal form of entertainment? The origin of gladiatorial games is shrouded in the midst of ancient history. The Greek historian Nicholas of Damascus believed that they were actually adopted from earlier Etruscan funeral rites.

Starting point is 00:02:01 The Etruscans were a people who inhabited the Italian peninsula before the Romans and from whom many Roman traditions originated. They supposedly fought in honor of a deceased person, but it wasn't necessarily. necessarily to the death. Another theory is that the tradition came from the Companions, who were another Italian tribe. The Roman historian Livy actually gave a very specific origin and said that gladiatorial games were first held in 310 BC when the Companions celebrated their victory over the Samanites. These gladiatorial contests were held as part of a celebration, and the games were used to reinforce some moral or historical point, with the gladiators representing

Starting point is 00:02:37 the Companions or their enemies. There might be a bit of truth to both stories, as they were both tribes of Italian origin. The earliest physical evidence we have is from frescoes that appeared in tombs from Campania, dating back to the 4th century BC, that depict fights in matched pairs. The first actual Roman gladiatorial games were first recorded in 264 BC

Starting point is 00:02:58 during the first Punic War, when a former Roman consul named Decimus Junius Brutius Scavia had three gladiators fight to the death in Rome's cattle market to honor his deceased father. These early gladiatorial games were considered a

Starting point is 00:03:11 munis or gift or an offering to the dead. However, these Munis games eventually became more elaborate and larger. In 183 BC, the funeral of former console Publius Lincinius consisted of three days of gladiatorial games. These games reflected a transition from a funeral style of combat to that of a more celebratory or entertainment type of game. In 105 BC, the first state-sponsored gladiatorial games were held that were not privately sponsored and not held in association with a funeral. In the first century BC, they became a staple of Roman celebrations and an entire industry

Starting point is 00:03:47 sprang up around gladiators. They were held for both private and public reasons, with private citizens still hosting them for funeral purposes, but funeral celebrations were often conveniently held during election season. By the first century BC, just as gladitorial games were becoming really popular, the Roman Republic was already in its final days. Gladiatorial games were largely something that was popular during Rome's imperial period. So from here on out, know that gladiatorial traditions and norms changed over time, so it's difficult to make universal statements about them that it's true over a 400-year period. So who were gladiators?

Starting point is 00:04:25 The vast majority of gladiators were slaves. They could have been soldiers who were captured in combat and forced into slavery, or they could have been athletic slaves that gladiatorial schools just purchased. Gladiolidatorial schools were known as Ludi or a Luddus. It was here that they were trained and taught. caught in the art of combat. The fact that gladiators were slaves who were trained meant that a great deal of investment was put into them, and that is the key to understanding how most gladiatorial games worked. As investments, they weren't to be thrown away lightly, lest the owner of a gladiatorial

Starting point is 00:04:58 school lose their investment. Gladiatorial games were a cross between professional wrestling and mixed martial arts, but with weapons and the fact that people could actually die. Gladiators first and foremost were there to put on a good show. They had to be a good show. They had to please the crowd. That doesn't mean that the fights were scripted or fake, but that they actually had to put on a good show and fight well. Gladiators came in different styles. These styles reflected the weapons, armor, and fighting techniques of different cultures. There's a long list of different glattatorial styles, but just to give you an idea of the different types, here are a few of them. A secutoris was a heavily armed gladiator equipped with a large rectangular

Starting point is 00:05:37 shield, called a scutum, and a sword, both of which were really heavy. and they often fought against more lightly armed opponents. Retiari were known for using a trident and a net. They wore minimal armor and relied on agility and strategy to defeat their opponents. The Demacheras were gladiators who wielded two short swords, and their fighting style emphasized agility and dual wielding techniques. There were several other types of gladiators as well who used different styles of weapons, shields, and armor.

Starting point is 00:06:06 You can think of them as different classes in a video game. They would often be pitted against each other as the crowd won, wanted to see if a slower, heavier, defended gladiator could beat one who was quicker, but with fewer defenses. Gladiators were certainly athletic, but they were also usually a bit chubby, and this was on purpose. As slaves, they were fed very cheap meals that were very high in carbohydrates, often using a lot of grain. This was not only to reduce costs, but to create a later of subcutaneous fat.

Starting point is 00:06:36 Gladiators were sometimes known as hodary, which means eaters of barley. the fat would protect the gladiators from cuts that they might receive during combat. Speaking of cuts, gladiators would often receive some of the best medical care that Rome had to offer, which isn't necessarily saying much given the state of medical knowledge at the time. One of the most famous surgeons in Roman history was Galen of Pergamon. He got his start treating gladiators, which really was the best place to get on-the-job training for such a career. He was so highly respected that Emperor Marcus Aurelius hired him to be his personal physician. There was also a huge risk in training slaves to be skilled warriors.

Starting point is 00:07:14 This came to a head during the Third Servile War, which was a slave revolt that began at a gladator school, and was led by a gladiator named Spartacus. This, of course, all brings up the really big question. How likely was a gladiator to die in the arena? The answer to this question is surprisingly difficult. Much of what we know comes from the tombs of former gladiators, and these suffer from a form of survivor bias, or in this case, non-survivor bias. What we do know is that the depiction in movies of every fight being a fight to the death is absolutely not true. The owner of the gladiators didn't want to lose their investments, and the crowds also didn't necessarily want to see a good

Starting point is 00:07:56 fighter die. I've seen a range of estimates that put the odds of dying in the arena anywhere is between 5 to 25%. And that's a pretty big range, but it shows that the odds of coming out of a fight of live were still pretty good. This, however, only deals with dying in the arena. It's quite possible that a high number of fatalities were suffered from wounds gained in the arena, which resulted in later infections. Even if they survived, a fight with real weapons would take a toll on someone. The average gladiator would only fight a few times a year for this very reason.

Starting point is 00:08:29 There was a fight known as a sine missione. In such a fight, only one person could survive. However, these were banned under Emperor Augustus as the cause. of having so many gladiators die was becoming too prohibitive. When the Emperor's Claudius and Caligula didn't spare the lives of popular fighters, their popularity with the masses actually suffered, as the crowds wanted to see good fighters spared. The average gladiator usually didn't live beyond the age of 30. One thing that is almost never depicted in movies showing gladiatorial combat is that the fights

Starting point is 00:09:02 had referees. The referees were an important part of the fight. They could separate the fighters, order a pause to allow the combat. a chance to catch their breath, they could allow them to get some water, or they could stop fights entirely. Referees were usually retired, well-respected gladiators. Another staple of gladiatorial fights in movies is the compatents standing before the emperor saying, we who are about to die salute you. In Latin, it would be Morituri te salutant. There is little indication that this was actually used before fights. It comes from a single story from the historian Soutonius,

Starting point is 00:09:36 who wrote about a naval fight that was about to take place before the opening of a large public works project for the Emperor Claudius. The battle, which was to be held on a lake that was going to be drained, had thousands of participants, mostly consisting of condemned criminals. Supposedly, before the battle was to take place, they all shouted in unison, Ave Imperator Morituri te salutant. To which Claudia supposedly replied, Out non, which means, or not. The men thought that they had actually been pardoned and just pretended to fight,

Starting point is 00:10:08 and this was the only case of the phrase ever having been recorded being used. The other thing that's often associated with gladiatorial combat is the emperor or some other official giving a thumbs up or thumbs down to indicate if someone would die. We really don't know what the hand signals were, but many historians think that the hand signals were in fact the exact opposite of this. A thumbs down or a closed fist meant that the victor should be put down their weapon and spare their opponent. A thumbs up in Rome was known as the hostile thumb or the infestus pollux.

Starting point is 00:10:42 It was considered to be an insult on par with using the middle finger today. Alternatively, some think that the symbol for someone to die was a sideways thumb, as it would then be drawn across the neck. I previously mentioned that gladiators were mostly slaves. There were actually free men who volunteered to become gladiators. There were even some cases of men of the equestrian and senatorial. Rang who became gladiators. So why would they do this? Despite being formally placed at the lowest rung of society, gladiators could be incredibly popular. They had fans. They had groupies.

Starting point is 00:11:18 Despite being slaves, some gladiators could wind up becoming quite wealthy. Even Emperor Commodus performed as a gladiator in the Coliseum, which the public loved and the upper class was totally embarrassed by. In addition to regular combat, there would often be special events, including beast hunts where wild animals from all over the empire were brought in to face gladiators. On rare occasions, there were even female gladiators. They would occasionally appear starting in the first century, but they had a very mixed reaction. Some people thought that women fighting and battling beasts was quite the spectacle, and others thought that it was just an example of the decay of Roman morals.

Starting point is 00:11:54 The use of women in gladiatorial combat was banned in the year 200 by the Emperor Septimius Severus, after he failed to have women compete in gladiatorial games. There were two things that ultimately brought about the end of gladiatorial games in Rome. The first was that it became very expensive. In the late empire, money was needed to fund armies, and funding gladiatorial spectacles was considered to be a waste. But the thing that was really the final nail in the gladiatorial coffin was the rise of Christianity in the empire.

Starting point is 00:12:24 Early Christian writers such as Tertullian and St. Augustus both condemned gladiatorial games. In 393, Theodosius I adopted Christianity as the state religion and banned pagan festivals, which eliminated the funeral excuse for many gladiatorial games. They were finally formally banned in 399 by the Emperor Hanorius, who again did it for good measure in the year 404. There were contests that were held in distant parts of the empire for at least the next century, but they were few and far between. As the gladiatorial schools were closed, there was less talent to be able to compete,

Starting point is 00:12:56 and people eventually lost interests as there were fewer games held. For most of the Byzantine Empire, there were no gladiatorial games at all. Gladiators and gladiatorial combat were unique to Rome, and really only something which existed for part of Rome's history, albeit for several centuries. Ancient Rome had many accomplishments, but gladiatorial games were certainly not one of them. It was something that was uniquely barbarous and brutal about Roman culture, and a practice that almost no other culture in the world developed,

Starting point is 00:13:27 at least certainly not in the scale at which it was seen in Rome. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. Today's review comes from listener Blake Wood over on Podbean. They write, I listen to your podcast every night as I'm laying to fall asleep. I like all the different things that you cover in your episodes. Thanks.

Starting point is 00:13:51 And I just discovered the playback speed adjuster. I put it on half speed just to see what it would be like, and you sounded so drunk it was cracking me up. Thanks, Blake. A good reminder to everyone that so long as you're using a podcast app where you can control the speed, I can talk as fast or as low as you want. As to whether or not I sound drunk,

Starting point is 00:14:10 I will leave that up to you. Remember, if you leave a review or send me a boostogram, you two can have it read on the show. Your fame is well-deserved, Spanors. I don't think there's ever been a gladiated to match you. It was for this young man. He insists you I had to be born. What's a turquoise?

Starting point is 00:14:28 Why doesn't the hero reveal himself and tell us all your real name? You do have a name. My name is Gladiator. How dare you show your back to me? Slave! We will remove your helmet and tell me your name. My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius. Commander of the armies of the North.

Starting point is 00:15:06 General of the Felix Legions. Loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife and I will have my vengeance in this life or the next

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Gladiators

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