History of Torture: Gladiators
In
the ancient world, the elliptical-shaped Colosseum, taking ten years
to build, was the largest structure of its type. It stood 160 feet
high with four
stories of windows, arches, and columns. Each of the three exterior
floors consisted of 80 arches. As many as 50,000 spectators with numbered
tickets entered through 76 of the entrances on the ground level. Two
of the remaining entrances were used by Emperor Titus and two for
the gladiators.
Upon entering the Colosseum, visitors climbed sloping ramps to their
seats, according to gender and social class. Women and the poor stood
or sat on
wooden benches in the fourth tier. Depending on the weather, an enormous,
colored awning (velarium) could be stretched overhead to prevent the
hot
sun from coming in on the spectators. A wooden flooring was used to
cover the subterranean chambers where the gladiators as well as the
animals
were kept prior to performance. During the first ten years of its
existence, the stadium was filled with water and used for mock naval
battles. However,
over time the Romans found it was damaging to the foundation as well
as to the flooring. Most shows in the Colosseum lasted all day beginning
with
comedic contests and exotic animal shows in the morning and moving
on to professional gladiator events in the afternoon. In most tournaments
and
games, death played a prominent role. Professional gladiators, primarily
condemned criminals, prisoners or war, and slaves, fought either animals
or
each other, generally until death. Their weapons might include nets,
swords, tridents, spears, or firebrands. Occasionally, free Romans
and women
would enter the fight for a few brief moments of glory. Basically
these bloody forms of entertainment served political purposes. They
were to teach the
local Romans how to fight in preparation for visits outside their
empire and to display the strength and courage of the Roman citizen
to unemployed
visitors to the city of Rome. During the Colosseum's opening ceremonies
in A.D. 80, spectacles were held for 100 days in which hundreds of
animals
and 2,000 gladiators were killed. Eventually, gladiator fights were
outlawed by Emperor Honorius in A.D. 404; however, animal combats
continued for
another century.
GLADIATORS
The word gladiator comes from the Latin word for swordsman, from gladius
we get the word, sword. The gladiators were made up of prisoners of
war,
slaves, criminals, and volunteer free men. The crimes that could lead
one to the arena included treason, robbery, and murder, among others.
Some free
men became gladiators of their own free will in hopes of gaining notoriety
and patronage among the wealthy citizens. By the end of 50 BC almost
half of
the gladiators were made up of free men. The gladiators competed against
one another for the sake of public entertainment at festival games.
Although
some gladiators fought wild animals the combats usually featured a
pair of male human contenders. They fought in diverse styles depending
on their
background and how much training they had endured. Originally as captured
soldiers they were made to fight with their own weapons. The odds
of a
professional gladiator surviving a match were one in 10. There were
three special gladiatorial schools where slaves were trained to fight
combat. The
Ludus Magnus was the largest, connected to the Colosseum by an underground
tunnel. Many gladiators were paid well for their presentation. Tiberius
paid 1000 gold pieces to each ex-gladiator for one performance. The
free man, Publius Ostorius, a famous gladiator at Pompeii, survived
51 fights.
Some women even volunteered in hopes of winning fame but they were
banned from fighting by Severus in 200 AD'