Outside Rome, munerarii were generally municipal and provincial priests of the imperial cult, or local governors. The giver of the games, a member of the upper orders acting privately (rare after the Republic) or in his official capacity as a magistrate or priest, or the emperor. The classic Italian munus plena included venations in the morning, various noontime activities ( meridiani), and gladiatorial duels in the afternoon. The show (carrying a connotation of "duty"), usually lasting for three or more days and, under special circumstances, for weeks or months: Titus's games in A.D. The editor took the crowd's response into consideration in deciding whether to let the loser live or order the victor to kill him. If he had not fallen he could be "sent away standing" ( stans missus). As in gladiatorial combat, men condemned to fight or perform in venatorial games could sometimes win their freedom.Ī gladiator who acknowledged defeat could request the munerarius to stop the fight and send him alive ( missus) from the arena. Literary accounts and inscriptions often stress the numbers of animals killed. Venatores were skilled spearmen usually pitted against carnivorous beasts bestiarii were animal-handlers and killers of less skill and finesse. Dangerous animals were also set upon one another or herbivores. Even equites and, more rarely, senators sometimes enlisted as gladiators ( gladiator = "swordsman").Ī display of men hunting and killing animals in various ways.
Aibell gladiator begins free#
There were also volunteer gladiators, ones who either enlisted voluntarily as free or freed men, or who reenlisted after winning their freedom. Others, untrained, were expected to die within a short time. These men were trained in a specialized form of combat. Criminals and prisoners could be damned to fight in the arena, with the hope of a reprieve if they survived a certain number of years. Games could be private, public, or extraordinary.ĭuels of men expected to fight to the death (or at least show themselves willing to die).
Dare ludum gladiatorium or venatorium = to give gladiatorial or venatorial games. Games in general, and festivals involving games. Tacitus ( Annals 13.54) uses this term to describe the separation of the orders in the theater, clearly referring to a hierarchy of preferential seating according to social rank and status. The victims were criminals, deserters, rebels, traitors, runaway slaves, and those guilty of various sorts of antisocial behavior, such as Christians and Jews. During the noon break, and at other times, the arena served as a place of dramatic public execution, including damnatio ad bestias or obiectio feris (throwing people to the beasts).
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