Download THE ROMAN GAMES

THE ROMAN GAMES
Chariot Racing
Romans loved chariot racing and most supported one of the teams and its colors, - white,
green, red or blue. Sometimes this support got out of hand, leading to violent fights between fans
of different teams. These supporters were kind of like NASCAR fans, cheering for their teams in
race after race. Emperor Caligula was a big supporter of the green team. He spent hours in their
stables with the horses and charioteers, he even ate there. The public adored the top drivers.
They were very similar to modern day sports stars. And there was a huge amount of betting
surrounding the races. Most drivers were slaves, but there were also some professionals among
them because a good driver could win a lot of money. The chariots were built for speed, as light
as possible, and were drawn by teams of two, four or sometimes even more horses. The larger
the teams of horses, the greater the driver needed to be. Crashes were frequent and spectacular.
The charioteers drove standing up in their chariots, wearing a tunic in the colors of his team and a
light helmet. The full length of the race was seven laps around the stadium. There were incredibly
tight turns at either end of the track, around the narrow center of the arena. The skilled charioteer
would try to take the corner as tightly as possible, sometimes grazing it, sometimes crashing into
it. The arena was sand, and there were no lanes - and there were no rules except the first to
complete the seven rounds was the winner. Between start and finish pretty much anything was
allowed. This doesn’t mean that a skilled charioteer had as dangerous a job as a gladiator. Some
of the drivers achieved over a thousand victories and some horses won several hundred races.
Chariot racing was very common in Rome. Under the rule of Augustus one might see up to 10 or
12 races in a day. From Caligula onwards there would even be as many as 24 races each day.
The Gladiators
For people of our modern age, it is difficult to understand what could have made the
Romans want to watch men fighting each other to the death. Roman’s were not sadistic people
(sadistic means a cruel person who likes to see others suffer). To most Romans the games were
more than just wanting to see a man killed. There was a magic about the games which their
society appeared to understand. In Rome, getting in to the games was free. It was a citizens right
to see the games, not a luxury like buying a ticket to a game today. Although sometimes there
would not be enough room in the buildings, leading to angry fights outside. People would begin to
wait in line over night to get a good seat. Much like in modern day sports events, there is more to
the game than just the event itself; there are the people involved, the personal drama, and the
technical skill and determination. Just like football fans do not just go to see 22 men chase a ball,
and a baseball fan does not just go to watch a few men throw a little ball around, Romans did not
just sit and watch people being killed. It’s difficult to understand today, but there was something
different about the games to a Roman.
The tradition of gladiator combat was not a Roman idea. Native tribes of Italy (like the
Etruscans) seemed to have invented this idea. In pre-Roman times it was a custom to sacrifice
prisoners of war when you buried a warrior. To try to make the sacrifice less cruel and to give the
victim a chance to survive, the sacrifices were turned into fights between the prisoners. The first
recorded gladiator fight in Rome was held to honor the deceased Junius Brutus in 264 BC. Three
pairs of slaves fought each other that day. This first fight took place in the Forum Boarium, which
are the meat markets on the banks of the Tiber. But the fights soon became established in the
Forum Romanum in the very heart of Rome itself. Later, seats were placed around the forum, but
at first one merely would find a place to sit or stand and watch the spectacle, which at that time
was still a part of a religious ceremony, not for entertainment. Somehow these early gladiator
fights became parts of other religious ceremonies, in addition to being a part of a funeral
ceremony.
It was close to the end of the republic era of Rome when the gladiator fights lost their
religious significance. Their popularity led to the fights getting more and more common, usually
with no other ceremony involved. Many rich politicians hosted gladiator fights to make
themselves more popular. Because they were so popular, it is easy to see that the gladiator fights
turned more and more from a ritual into a show. The senate tried its best to stop this, but didn't
ever try to ban them, which would have made so many people mad. As the rich patricians tried
harder and harder to dazzle the audience, the plebeians became very demanding. Spoiled by the
huge shows, people demanded more from their fights. Caesar even had his gladiators wear
armor made of pure silver at the funeral games he held in honor of his father. But even this didn’t
excite the crowd, once it became common. Once the empire was ruled by the emperors, the
games became a way for the emperor to get people to like him. It was a way for the emperor to
show his generosity. The games were his 'gift' to the people. The emperor Trajan had over
10,000 gladiators fight each other. Private games still continued to be held, but they couldn’t
come close to the show that was put on by the emperor. The games and their requirement of a
large number of gladiators created a new profession, the lanista. He was the man who supplied
the wealthy politicians with the fighters. He was the middle man who made money by buying
healthy male slaves, training them to be gladiators and then sold or rented them to the host of the
games.
Gladiators were almost always dressed up to resemble barbarians. Whether they really
were barbarians or not, the fighters would be clad in exotic clothes and used strange weapons.
This helped make the fights a celebration of Rome's empire. The Gaul, the Thracian, and the
Samnite all represented different barbarians Rome had defeated, confirming to Romans what
they wanted to hear - that Rome was the very center of the world it had conquered.
Types of gladiator
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Some gladiators had their arms and lower torso protected by chain mail armor, a chest and
a back plate, and a large helmets with eye holes.
Dimachaerus were sword fighters, but used two swords and no shield
Equestrian were horse riders with armor on their chest, back and thigh, and with a round
shield and a lance
Essedarius fight from war chariots
Laquearius used a 'lasso' and a spear
Myrmillo wore a large helmet with a visor, had a little shield and a lance
Paegniarius had a whip, a club and a shield fixed to the left arm with straps
Retiarius had a trident, a net, a dagger, and scaled armor covering their left arm and a
shoulder piece to protect the neck
Samnite had a shield, a short sword, armor on the left leg, protective leather bands on their
wrists, knees and ankle of right leg, a helmet with vizor, and a small chest plate
Tertiarius were substitute fighters
Thracian had a curved short sword (sica), scaled armor covering left arm.
The fighters' equipment as it is mentioned above is not based on an absolute rule. Equipment
could vary to a point. A retiarius for example did not necessarily always have armor on his arm
or on his shoulder. The above descriptions are only rough guidelines.
Despite all their training, gladiators were still bad soldiers. There were times when
gladiators were recruited to fight in battle, but they clearly were no match for real soldiers.
Gladiator fighting was like a dance, made for the arena, not for the battlefield. In Gladiator school
the slaves or other people wishing to fight were taught how to put on a good show. It would be
like putting a WWE star up against a Spartan. The WWE guy would get crushed.
When gladiators were training they would use a wooden sword called a rudis. But in the
arena, the rudis was the symbol of freedom. If a gladiator was given a rudis by the holder of the
games it meant he had earned his freedom and could leave as a free man. The holder of the
games, which was often the emperor or someone high up, checked all the weapons and gave
titles of honor to the best fighters. The weapons had to be checked since so many people put
bets on the fights.
A lot of the interest in the fights was the way the various fighters and their different
fighting techniques were matched. Certain matches were deemed incompatible. If the two fighters
were a bad match, the fights were not staged. A retiarius for example never fought another
retiarius. One gladiator might only be lightly armed with little to nothing to protect him, whereas
the other might be better armed, but restricted in his movements by his equipment. Generally a
fight would be between two contestants, which is called a “paria”, but sometimes a fight might be
made up of two teams against one another. Meanwhile to make sure the gladiators gave
maximum effort, attendants would stand by with red-hot irons, with which they would poke any
fighters who didn't try hard enough.
It was mostly left to the crowd to decide whether a wounded and downed gladiator should be
finished off by his opponent. They did so by giving thumbs up, saying to deliver the death shot, or
giving the thumbs down' signal to let him live. The deciding word was that of the Emperor, yet
since the point of holding such games was to win popularity with the people, the Emperor would
rarely go against the people. Sometimes both gladiators would leave the arena alive. As long as
the crowd was convinced that the two fighters had tried their best and had entertained them with
a good show, it might not demand the death of the loser. It could also happen that the better
fighter might have some bad luck and lose a fight. Weapons might break, or an unfortunate
stumble might let the other man win. In such cases, audiences did not ask for the loser to be
killed. There were even female gladiators, although they seem only to have been used in order to
add to the variety of the games, rather than as an equal to the male gladiators.
Even with the death of a gladiator the strange show was not yet over. Two strange
characters would enter the arena after several corpses littered the floor. One was dressed as
Hermes and carried a red-hot wand with which he would poke the corpses on the ground. The
second man was dressed as Charon, the ferryman of the dead. He had a large mallet, which he
would smash onto the skulls of the dead. Once again these actions were symbolic. The touch of
Hermes' wand was supposed to be able to bring the worst enemies together. And the thundering
blow of the hammer was supposed to represent death taking possession of the soul. But their
actions had other purposes too. The hot iron would quickly prove if a man was dead and not just
wounded or unconscious. The hammer would finish anyone off who was close to death, but not
quite gone. Once this was over the corpses would be removed. The carriers would drive a big
hook into the body and drag them out of the arena.
The Wild Beast Hunts
Adding a hunt was something which was introduced as a means by which to make the
games more exciting. Wild animals were rounded up from all parts of the empire to be killed as
part of the spectacle in the morning as an opening act to the gladiator fights in the afternoon.
Starving tigers, panthers and lions were let out of cages to be confronted in long and dangerous
chases by armed gladiators. Bulls and rhinoceroses were first brought to a rage, much like in a
Spanish bullfight, before they were met by hunters. For variety, animals were forced to fight each
other. Elephant versus bull was a favorite in the games by 79 BC. This hunt was not just the
slaughter of animals. The animals were 'fought' and the animals did stand a slight chance of
being left alive or sometimes won the mercy of the audience.
Emperor Nero once went into the arena to fight a lion, and he was unarmed. Nero wanted
people to see how brave he was. But in reality, Nero was not in any danger. Nero fought a lion
that had been made harmless by having its teeth and claws removed, and it was injured, so it
posed no threat to him at all. Nonetheless the mob cheered him. Others though were less
impressed. Emperor Commodus also went into the arena to slay beasts previously made
helpless. Such occurrences were much frowned upon by the ruling classes which saw them as
cheap tricks to gain popularity and beneath the dignity of the Emperor
Public Executions
Public execution of criminals was also part of the games. Perhaps the most popular
forms of such executions were mock plays that ended in the death of the leading 'actor'. It was
through these “Death Plays” that Romans could watch a real-life Orpheus being chased (and
eaten) by lions. Or in a reproduction of the tale of Daedalus and Icarus, Icarus would be dropped
from a great height to his death onto the arena floor, when in the story he fell from the sky.
Another such real-life play was the tale of Mucius Scaevola. A condemned criminal playing
Mucius would, like the hero in the story, have to remain silent while his arm was terribly burnt. If
he achieved it, he would be spared. But if he screamed from the pain, he would be burnt alive,
already being dressed in a tunic soaked in flammable liquid. As part of the opening of the
Colosseum a play was held in which an unfortunate criminal, in the role of the pirate Lareolus was
crucified in the arena. Once he had been nailed to the cross, an enraged bear was let loose, who
tore his body to shreds. The official poet who described the scene went into great detail to
describe how what was left of the poor man no longer resembled a human body in any shape or
form.
Under Nero animals were used to tear apart condemned and unarmed criminals. Many
Christians were executed because of Nero's claim that they had started the Great Fire of Rome.
Nero’s favorite ways to execute Christians were to feed them to lions, crucify them, or cover them
in flammable tunics and burn them alive. At home Nero lit his huge gardens at night with the
brightness of the human torches made from the burning bodies of Christians.
The 'Sea Battles'
Perhaps the most spectacular form of combat was the sea fight. This would involve
flooding the arena, or simply moving the show to a lake. The Colosseum held many large battles
recreating famous events in Roman history. The first man to hold a sea battle was Julius Caesar,
who went so far as to have an artificial lake created in order to have two fleets fight each other in
a naval battle. For this no fewer than 10,000 oarsmen and 1,000 sailors were part of the show
which was to reenact a battle between Phoenician and Egyptian forces. The famous Battle of
Salamis (480 BC) between the Athenian and the Persian fleets proved very popular and was
recreated several times in the first century AD.
Why Are Gladiators Important?
What gladiators did was kill and die well. These were two very important things for
Romans. For one thing, Romans had a really high death rate. They did not have the opportunity
to grow old before their deaths. A Roman at the age of 20 knew he would probably die before he
was 30, and he wanted to meet death with honor and dignity, so it was important to know how to
“die well”. He could see gladiators do it in the arena. Also, as members of a strict military culture,
Romans valued the art of killing in a way we simply don't understand. Roman soldiers did much
more one on one fighting during battle than the Greeks did. The success of the Roman battle line
often depended on the courage of individual soldiers in hand to hand combat. So the ability of an
ordinary citizen to kill single handedly was a skill that the entire empire depended on to survive.
People needed to get used to killing and seeing death in order to be successful. They also had to
see that the punishment for going against the empire was a painful death. But mostly, they
needed entertainment!