Gladiator

Gladiator (from Lat. gladius, 'a sword'), a professional fighter in the arena of a Roman amphitheatre, against either another gladiator or a wild beast. The custom of giving gladiatorial exhibitions seems to have been borrowed from Etruria, where slaves and prisoners were sacrificed on the tombs of illustrious chieftains. This practice was also common in Greece and the East. At Rome the gladiatorial contests took place at first at funerals only, but afterwards in the amphitheatre; and in process of time they lost all trace of a religious character, and came to be a common form of amusement. The first show of this kind that we read of in Roman history was one between three pairs of gladiators, arranged by Marcus and Decius Brutus on the death of their father, in 264 B.C. The fashion rapidly gained ground, especially during the last years of the republic, and as it did so it became customary for magistrates, public officers, and candidates for the popular suffrages to give gratuitous gladiatorial exhibitions to the people. But the emperors exceeded all others in the extent and magnificence of these spectacles. Julius Cæsar gave a show at which 320 couples fought; Titus gave an exhibition of gladiators, wild beasts, and sea-fights which lasted 100 days; Trajan one of 123 days, in which 10,000 men fought with each other or with wild beasts for the amusement of the Romans; and the taste for these cruel spectacles spread through every part of the extensive Roman empire. Even under the republic efforts had been made to limit the number of gladiators, and to diminish the frequency of these spectacles. Cicero proposed a law that no man should give one for two years before becoming a candidate for office. The Emperor Augustus forbade more than two shows in a year, or that one should be given by a man worth less than half a million sesterces. Constantine in 325 prohibited gladiatorial contests altogether; but their final abolition was due to the splendid daring of Telenachus, an Asiatic monk, who in 404 journeyed to Rome, and there, rushing into the arena, strove to part two gladiators. The spectators stoned him to death, but the Emperor Honorius proclaimed him a martyr, and issued an edict suppressing such exhibitions. The gladiators were for the most part, and always at first, prisoners taken in war and slaves, with the worst classes of criminals. But in the times of the emperors freemen and men of broken fortunes began to enter the profession; and later on knights and senators fought in the arena, and even women. The Emperor Commodus was particularly proud of his skill and prowess as a gladiator. The successful combatant was at first rewarded with a palm branch, but in later years it became the custom to add to this several rich and valuable presents and a substantial prize of money. He was in fact the hero of the hour, like the espada of the Spanish bull-ring. It used to be commonly understood that, after a gladiator had been thrown down or disarmed, if the spectators turned up their thumbs, they wish the vanquished man's life to be spared, and, if they turned them down, that he was to be slain. So it is interpreted in Gêrome's famous picture. But this is certainly erroneous. The question mainly turns on the interpretation of vertere pollicem and premere pollicem. Mayor takes the first phrase to mean 'to turn the thumb towards the breast, as the signal for stabbing'; the latter, 'to turn downwards, as the signal for dropping the sword.' Wilkins takes premere as closing the thumb on the hand; and infestus pollex, the signal for death, seems to have been an upturned thumb. Gladiators were trained in special schools; and it was regarded as a legitimate business to keep them and let them out on hire. The revolt of Spartacus (q.v.), the gladiator, and his companions forms an exciting episode in Roman history. Gladiators were known by different names according to the arms, offensive and defensive, that they wore. Thus, the Samnites carried a shield, helmet, greave, some kind of defensive armour on the chest, and a short sword; the retiarii carried a trident and a net to entangle their opponents; the laquearii had a noose or lasso.