After the wild animal hunts and the midday executions came the munus, the gladiatorial show that was the highlight of the day’s entertainment. Several days before an important show notices would go up around the city announcing who would be appearing and the order in which the fights were due to take place. League tables were distributed so that people could bet on the outcome of the fights based on a gladiator’s past record. There were programmes and scorecards so that you could keep track of the contests - V for a victory, M {missus) for a gladiator who had been defeated but not killed and 0 (theta) for a gladiator who had been killed.
There are examples of some of these announcements, which were painted in red on the walls of houses at Pompeii:
Thirty pairs of gladiators furnished by Gnaeus Alleius Nigidius Maius, the quinquennial duumvir, together with their substitutes, will fight at Pompeii on 24, 25 and 26 November. There will be a hunt. Hurrah for Maius the quinquennial! Bravo Paris.
Another dated to the time of Claudius reads:
Twenty pairs of gladiators furnished by Decimus Lucretius Satrius Valens, permanent priest of Nero, son of the emperor, and ten pairs of gladiators furnished by Decimus Lucretius Valens. his son, will fight at Pompeii on 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 April. There will be a big hunt, and awnings.
The advertisements in Rome always contained the claim ‘... qitos nec spec-tasset quisquam nec spectaturus essef (‘... which no one has ever seen or would ever see again’).
Painting after a funerary relief from Pompeii showing the procession (pompa) that began the gladiatorial games.
Plutarch records that on the eve of the games the gladiators would be given a good meal and put on show for anyone who wanted to view them. Like punters looking at the horses before a race, people would study form and pick out their favourites before deciding how to place their bets. On the morning of the munus the gladiators would gather at their barracks and stay there while the animal hunts were taking place. They would then march in a solemn procession (pompa) to the amphitheatre together with the organizers of the games, their lanistas, the referees, and other
Arena personnel such as stretcher-bearers and armourers. The procession would also include all the condemned criminals. The procession was always led by the magistrate who was sponsoring the games, accompanied by his lictors carrying bundles of rods and axes (the symbols of the magistrate’s power to whip and execute) marching ahead of him. If he were a praetor he would be accompanied by six lictors whereas a consul had twelve.
There is an illustration of a gladiatorial procession on a bas-relief from a tomb at Pompeii, now in the collection of the Naples Museum. (A painting of the relief is shown on pages 126-7.) It shows two lictors dressed in togas, carrying rods and axes. They are followed by three cloaked figures blowing long trumpets. Behind the trumpeters there are four men in tunics carrying a bier on their shoulders with two small figures (possibly armourers) on top, one wielding a hammer. Behind the bier are two more men in tunics carrying placards, probably proclaiming the crimes the condemned men had committed, the names of the gladiators due to fight, and the order of play so to speak. Next comes a man in a toga, presumably the magistrate who is hosting the games (known as the editot). Following him there are six men carrying helmets and shields. They are probably armour-bearers because gladiators would have been wearing purple cloaks embroidered in gold. The first two men carry small round shields, identifying them as possibly coming from the Thracian camp. Then there are two men blowing horns (cornua). Several of these instruments were found in the gladiator barracks at Pompeii. Right at the end of the procession are two horsemen, who would probably have opened the show with a demonstration of mounted combat. This example is a wonderful record but should be accepted as an artistic interpretation of what a gladiatorial procession would have involved. Even in Pompeii a munus would have involved more than three pairs of gladiators and in Rome, especially at the Colosseum, there would have been many more.
The Warm-Up
A munus always kicked off with a few warm-up acts to get the spectators in the mood for the gladiatorial contests to follow. These took the form of freak shows with dwarfs and cripples, mock fights, men on stilts goading animals, displays on horseback, performances by acrobats and jugglers.
This scene from the Zliten mosaic shows a band of musicians: a trumpeter, a woman playing the water organ and two horn players. The curious bed-like object in the background is probably a stretcher with a pillow at the far end.
Theatrical scenes, masquerades and tableaux. All of this went on against a background of loud music.
The Roman philosopher and orator Apuleius (b. c. AD 123) describes one of these acts in his satirical novel The Golden A55. Three young women playing the parts of the goddesses Minerva, Juno and Venus re-enact the ‘Judgement of Paris’. Venus, the goddess of love, is attended by a number of plump little boys dressed as cupids and a troupe of girls representing the graces and seasons, who dance and lay flowers in her path. The goddess is unclothed ‘to show her perfect beauty; all naked save that her fine and comely middle was lightly covered with a thin silken smock, and this the wanton wind blew hither and thither...’ and Mercury, the messenger of the gods, played by a handsome youth, is also naked, except for his winged hat and sandals. Paris, the abductor of Helen of Troy, is tending goats on a hill. When he declares Venus to be the most beautiful of the three goddesses, Minerva and Juno leave, vowing vengeance on him, while Venus and her entourage dance triumphantly around the arena. A stream running down the hill turns red, presaging the bloodletting of the Trojan War.
The Main Attraction
When the warm-up was over the gladiatorial procession entered the arena by the ceremonial entrance at the western end of the long axis and halted in front of the imperial box where all the participants saluted the emperor. There followed the ritual testing of weapons and the preparation of punishments for any gladiators who did not fight properly: the whip, cane and heated iron bar. At this point the tiros had to endure an initiation ceremony in which they were whipped by officials dressed up as demons. The equites cantered round the arena while the gladiators prepared. The trumpets sounded, the gladiators moved to the edge of the arena and the horsemen charged. When the cavalry battle was finished the trumpets sounded again and the gladiators took the stage. Some scholars argue that several pairs of gladiators fought in the arena at the same time but others claim that there is no real proof of this. The only clue is that several visual representations appear to show more than one fight taking place in the arena, but as pictures cannot truly show the passage of lime they cannot be accepted as conclusive. It would certainly have made the task of the referees more difficult if they had to keep track of more than one contest at a time, and would certainly have been a problem for the emperor when it came to his final decision on the outcome of a fight.
The Kill
A gladiator might well be killed by a blow inflicted during the fight but more often one of the gladiators would be overcome by his opponent, probably badly wounded. If he felt unable to go on he would signal his submission to the referee by holding up his left index finger or fall to his knees and let his shield drop. In the latter case he would reverse his sword, holding it by the tip. The trumpets would sound the submission. The victorious gladiator was forbidden by law to go in for the kill. Originally, because of the sacrificial character of the fights, the fallen gladiator would automatically have been killed. This had become less common during the late Republic but some sadistic editors such as Nero’s grandfather, Aheno-barbus, insisted on their ‘pound of flesh’. Augustus strongly disapproved of this and tried to persuade Ahenobarbus to be more moderate but when he persisted the emperor passed a law putting an end to this savage practice.
When the losing gladiator held up his finger asking for mercy the referee would intervene. Several pictures show him holding back the
Victorious gladiator. The referee would look to the editor for his decision while the crowd yelled their opinion. If the fallen gladiator had fought well they would shout 'missus calling for his life to be spared. If he had fought badly they would shout 'verbera' (whip), 'ure (burn) or 'iugida' (kill), and signal their displeasure with their thumbs (pollice verso). The editor would signal his decision to the referee, usually following the wishes of the crowd but not always. There was always an outside chance of a reprieve, as Juvenal
This fragment of bas-relief held at the Clyptothek museum in Munich shows the end of a gladiatorial contest. The hand emerging from behind the trumpeter's tunic, with its index finger and forefinger extended, may provide evidence of what the missus gesture (the signal indicating that a gladiator's life should be spared) looked like.
Observed: ‘Even a gladiator who has been defeated in the savage arena continues to hope although the crowd threatens him with hostile thumb.*
The pollice verso gesture does not necessarily mean the same as a modem ‘thumbs down’ sign and there is no evidence whatsoever for the Romans using a ‘thumbs up’ gesture to indicate that they wanted the life of a fallen gladiator to be spared. A fragment of a bas-relief held by the Glyptothek museum in Munich shows two gladiators, one sitting on the ground and the other standing above him, sword raised waiting for the order to kill or spare. Opposite are several trumpeters sounding the end of the contest. Extending from behind these trumpeters is a hand with its index finger and forefinger extended. It would be difficult to interpret this as anything other than the sign for sparing the life of the fallen gladiator. This being so, the pollice verso could just as well mean ‘thumbs up’ or more likely ‘thumbs forward’, imitating a sword thrust.
If the verdict was for death, the defeated gladiator would extend his neck and the victor would thrust his sword into the man’s throat, dispatching him quickly and cleanly. The code of the gladiators was all about dying well and his comrades would make sure that the coup de grace was delivered as painlessly as possible. There are many mosaics, graffiti and sculptures depicting this moment.
After the Fight
After the fight the emperor would present the victorious gladiator with a palm branch and, if his performance had been particularly good, a crown. Like modern sporting heroes the triumphant winner would then do a lap of honour around the arena, waving the tokens of his victory to the crowd. It is uncertain whether successful gladiators and those who had been spared left the arena by the ceremonial entrance or by the death gate.
Winners also received prize money according to a scale stipulated in the gladiators’ contract. Marcus Aurelius regulated this prize money, relating it to the purchase price of the individual gladiator. The maximum reward was set at one fifth of his purchase price for a slave and a quarter for a freeman. The crowd enjoyed joining in with this part of the ceremony, counting out loud as the editor hdiXiAed out the gold coins to the winner.
We cannot be certain exactly how a gladiator’s body was treated after death. Tertullian implies that all the corpses were abused and desecrated, whether they were Christian martyrs, common criminals or brave gladiators:
We have laughed, amid the noon’s blend of cruelty and absurdity, at Mercury using his burning iron to see who was dead. We have seen Jupiter’s brother [Pluto], too, conducting out the corpses of gladiators, hammer in hand.
Maybe Tertullian was confused here. Gladiatorial contests were held in the afternoons whereas noon was the time when the Christians were executed or thrown to the beasts alongside the criminals. They suffered the same fate because the Romans viewed both groups as lawbreakers who were therefore equally culpable.
From other sources it is possible to draw a reasonably accurate picture of what actually happened after the games. When a gladiator died after combat two officials and a pair of stretcher-bearers would enter the arena. One official was dressed as Mercury and he carried a caduceus in the form of a red-hot wand. The second official was dressed and armed as Charun. Mercury would touch the body with his wand to make sure that the gladiator really was dead. If not, then Charun would cut his throat. The stretcher-bearers would then lift the body onto a stretcher and exit through the Gate of the Dead. One of these stretchers, shown on the Zliten mosaic from Libya (see page 129), is more like a bed than the accepted notion of a stretcher. It even has a cushion at one end for the wounded gladiator to rest his head. It has been suggested that these stretchers doubled up as operating tables and that one of the rooms flanking the gladiators’ entrance to the arena could have been used as an operating theatre.
The evidence from the posters advertising gladiatorial contests at Pompeii implies that the mortality rates for gladiators was not all that high. Popular gladiators who had survived four or five matches could rely on the crowd to save their lives if they lost. These posters refer to men who had survived 20 or even 30 fights but had only won about half of them. Clearly if you put on a good show you were unlikely to be killed. But this was not always the case. The sadistic emperor Caracalla developed a particular dislike for a gladiator named Bato and refused to let him leave the arena after he had won his fight, forcing him to face a second opponent. When Bato won this fight as well, the emperor forced him to fight a third contest, which he lost. Caracalla refused to reprieve him and so he was killed by his final opponent.
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