Gladiators - Training
Gladiators were either of captives, slaves, and condemned malefactors, or of freeborn citizens who fought voluntarily. Even men of birth and fortune not seldom entered the lists, cither for the pure love of fighting or to gratify the whim of some dissolute emperor; and one emperor, Commodus, actually appeared in person in the arena. Down to the time of the empire only greater malefactors, such as brigands and incendiaries, were condemned to the arena; but by Caligula, Claudius and Nero this punishment was extended to minor offences, such as fraud and peculation, in order to supply the growing demand for victims. For the first century of the empire it was lawful for masters to sell their slaves as gladiators, but this was forbidden by Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius.
Of those who were condemned, some were said to be condemned ad gladium, in which case they were obliged to be killed at least within a year; and others ad ludum, who might obtain their discharge at the end of three years. Freemen who became gladiators for hire were called auctorati, and their hire auctoramentum or gladiatoriuin. They also took an oath on entering upon the service, similar to that which is preserved by Petronius (117): "In verba Eumolpi sacramentum juravimus, uri, vinciri, verberari, ferroque necari, et quicquid aliud Eumolpus jussisset, tamquam legitimi gludiatores domino corpora animasque religiosissime addicimus." Even under the republic free-born citizens fought as gladiators, but they appear to hare belonged only to the lower orders, and the profession was considered degrading, though to some it had many attractions. Under the empire, however, both equites and senators fought in the arena, and even women; a practice which was at length forbidden in the time of Severus.
Gladiators were kept in schools (in ludis), where they were trained by persons called lanistae. The whole body of gladiators under one lanista was frequently called familia. They sometimes were the property of the Lanistae, who let them out to persons who wished to exhibit a show of gladiators; but at other times belonged to citizens, who kept them for the purpose of exhibition, and engaged lanistae to instruct them. Thus Cicero, in his letters to Atticus, congratulates his friend on the good bargain he had made in purchasing a band, and urges that he might easily recoup himself by consenting to let them out twice. Spartacus belonged to the school of at Capua, and Caesar had one at the same place. Domitian built four at Rome, and there were several others in Italy and the provinces. A great number of gladiators were trained at Ravenna on account of the salubrity of the place.
Men recruited mainly from slaves and criminals, whose lives hung on a thread, must have been more dangerous characters than modern galley slaves or convicts; and, though highly fed and carefully tended, they were of necessity subject to an iron discipline. In the school of gladiators discovered at Pompeii, of the sixty-three skeletons buried in the cells many were in irons. But hard as was the gladiators' lot - so hard that special precautions had to be taken to prevent suicide - it had its consolations. A successful gladiator enjoyed far greater fame than any modern prize-fighter or athlete. He was presented with broad pieces, chains and jewelled helmets, such as may be seen in the museum at Naples; poets like Martial sang his prowess; his portrait was multiplied on vases, lamps and gems; and high-born ladies contended for his favors. Mixed, too, with the lowest dregs of the city, there must have been many noble barbarians condemned to the vile trade by the hard fate of war.
There are few finer characters in Roman history than the Thracian Spartacus, who, escaping with seventy of his comrades from the school of Lentulus at Capua, for three years defied the legions of Rome; and after Antony's defeat at Actium, the only part of his army that remained faithful to his cause were the gladiators whom he had enrolled at Cyzicus to grace his anticipated victory.
The number of gladiators which any citizen might keep was limited by the senate in BC, but Caligula did away with the restriction. The superintendence of the ludi, which belonged to the emperors, was entrusted to a person of high rank, called curator or procurator. The gladiators fought in these ludi with wooden swords. Great attention was paid to their diet in order to increase the strength of their bodies, whence Cicero speaks of "gladiatorin tutius corporis firmitas." They were fed with nourishing food, called gladiatoria.
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