Classes of Gladiators
Gladiators received special names according to the time or circumstances in which they exercised their calling, as well as by the types of arms and armor with which they were equipped - two distinct means of categorization. Bustuarius was a gladiator who engaged in mortal combat round the funeral pyre (bustum) at the burning of a body, a custom which originated in the notion that the manes were appeased with blood, and the consequent practice of killing prisoners taken in war over the graves of those slain in battle. The Meridiani came forward in the middle of the day for the entertainment of those spectators who had not left their seats. Fiscales were those under the empire who were trained and supported from the fiscus, the imperial treasury. Postulaticii were such as were demanded by the people from the editor, the giver of the show, in addition to those who were exhibited.
Gladiators fought usually in pairs, man against man, but sometimes in masses (gregatim, catervatim). Gladiators who fought in pairs were termed Ordinarii; at times, however, by way of variety, a number rushed together in a melee, and such were named Catervarii. Ordinarii was the name applied to all the regular gladiators, who fought in pairs, in the ordinary way. Gladiatores ordinarii were Gladiators bred and trained in the regular manner, that is, who were thoroughly instructed in the rules of their art, as opposed to the catervarii, who fought without science and in tumultuous bodies. The lightest "normal" gladiator would fight unarmored and armed with just a sword and a shield. Ordinarii was the general name for those slaves who occupied a position corresponding to what would be called upper servants in modern households, including the atriensis or house porter, cellarman, dispensator or steward, promus-condus, procurator, &c. They superintended and directed the execution of menial services, but did not themselves perform them, for they had slaves of their own (vicarii), purchased with their own money, who attended upon them.
Contrary to popular opinion, most of the arena's dead victims were not true gladiators but doomed, Damnati, who included both gladiators and noxii, but there was a hierarchy of skill, virtue, and hope. Malefactors (noxii) condemned to death: these were freemen, ingenui or libertini; condemned slaves and freedmen being sent to the venatio. Of those who were condemned, some were said to be condemned ad gladium, in which case they were obliged to be killed within a year; others, sentenced to poenae mediocres, ad ludum, who might obtain their discharge at the end of five years.
Some writers think that the Secutor was the same as the Suppositicius/ supposition, mentioned by Martial (v. 24), who were gladiators substituted in the place of those who were wearied or were killed. (Suet. Cal. 30; Juv. vi. 108, with the Schol., viii. 2tO.) Of Hermes (an invincible gladiator) it was said "Hermes suppositicius sibi ipse" ' His own substitute,' i. e. requiring no one to take his place, because he is never Wounded. The assumption of Henzen (Mtts. Borgh., p. 117) that meridiani was the name of a special class of gladiators, is based on an inscription (Orelli, 2587 = Gruter, 335, 4) which is not genuine.
Venatores included the taurocenlae and taurarii (IRN, 2378 = CIL, x, 1074) ; the same inscription mentions succursores and pontarti. Succursores probably, like successores (a successor Augusti in IRN, 4785 = CIL, ix, 2369), appear to have been persons who irritated the bull and then took to flight (Henzen, Man. Borgh., p. 151). On monuments the figures of men badly armed or quite unarmed are probably condemned criminals (bestiarii), the well-equipped trained venatores, whose chief armament was the manica. Pronto, Ad M. Caesarem epp., v, 23 : consul populi Romani posita praetexta manicam induit, leonem inter juvenes quinquatribus percussit populo Romano spectante. Whereupon Marcus inquires : quando id factum et an Romae ? num illud dicis in Albano factnm sub Domitiano ? In Juvenal, iv, 99 : cominus ursos figebat-nudus arena venator, nudus ----- wearing nothing but the simple tunica.
Well-armed venatores may be seen in Bartoli, Pitt, aniiche, ii, 27, especially on the Torlonia relief, where Henzen's (Mus. Borgh., p. 117 ; cp. Adi, 1841, p. 15) recognition of a Parthian equipment receives additional support from the fact that the Parthians were experts at shooting wild animals with arrows : Tindates distinguished himself in this manner (Dio, Ixiii, 3), and Cornmodus took lessons in archery from Parthians, in javelin-throwing from Moors (Herodian, i, 15). A venator on horseback, pursuing a deer in flight, already wounded by a spear, in Garrucci, Graff., pi. xiv, 5 ; mounted venatores on contorniates (Sabatier, Descr. gin. des c., pi. iv, i and pi. ix). Slings as weapons of venatores (P. J. Meier, in Banner Jahrbucher, Ixi, p. in). On the whole they appeared variously equipped, sometimes without any defensive weapons, only armed with a hunting spear (Bull. Nap., iv, tav. i). Yet venatores appears to have been the general name for all who fought with wild beasts (except condemned criminals).
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