The principal public entertainments of the Roman imperial period fall into six categories: horse/chariot racing, theatrical events, unarmed contests between humans, armed contests between humans, contests involving beasts, and events in which criminals were put to death. Each of these events has its own particular history, and the evolution of the full spectrum of entertainments available between the first and fourth centuries ce reflects the considerable ability of the imperial system both to absorb and to influence the choices of the empire’s population.
Horse and chariot racing reflect the different practices that evolved in Rome and the Greek world at very early stages in their history. Horse races in the Greek world were for big-spenders, be they individuals or cities seeking publicity for themselves by sponsoring a race team. In all cases credit for the victory would go first to whomever it was that paid for the horses. In some cases it appears that the sponsor might actually run the horses himself, and some prominent men did so, but this was not necessary to gain credit for the triumph. The coincidental result of this was that affluent women who sought to exalt their position in the world might well do so by paying for race teams. Nearly all the women listed as victors in athletic competitions gained their victory in equestrian events.
The first point upon which Roman racing differed from Greek was the use of a specific race course. This should not be surprising since Greek racing traditions developed in accord with the topography at different sites, while the Roman tradition was shaped by the terrain at one spot in the urban landscape: the area of the circus Maximus at Rome. The restricted space available in the Circus Maximus meant that, if a satisfactory race was to be run, it needed to involve multiple laps around a pair of turning posts. Restricted space also meant that the Roman system could not involve a massive starting mechanism such as that at Olympia, which could accommodate up to 48 contestants (Humphrey 1986: 8-9). The Olympic start involved the horses running along a track until they reached the first turning post, at which point they would turn onto another track, with a second turning post, to run their laps (we do not know how many). The Roman race was run on a single track, which may have restricted the number of entries to 12. Here though we run into a classic chicken and egg problem - was the choice of the number 12 (still somewhat impractical) the result of the fact that there were four factions that were charged with running the races from an early date, or were there four factions because there was enough space to run 12 chariots? We cannot know for certain, but we do know that by the mid fourth century BCE the first set of permanent starting gates erected in the Circus presumed 12 teams; in the early second century we get the first - admittedly somewhat ambiguous - evidence for the factions themselves in a fragment of Ennius (Livy 8.20.2; Enn. 1 fr. xlvii, 79-83 Skutsch; Potter 1999b: 291-2). The fact that we do not get possible evidence for the factions before the controversial passage of Ennius is not in and of itself a problem - there being virtually no contemporary evidence for any Roman institutions before this time. I believe that the organization of the ground in the Circus Maximus confirms the existence of these groups, referred to by the colors worn by their members as the Reds, Whites, Blues, and Greens, by the middle of the fourth century bce.
The particular requirement of Roman-style racing - a large stadium that could accommodate a huge crowd - is likely the reason why it took so long for the sport to spread around the empire. It is not until the third century ce that we start finding circuses in cities other than Rome, and then only in major cities. By the end of this century, however, the fact that the circus at Rome had become the primary venue for communication between the emperor and his subjects made a circus the mandatory accompaniment of an imperial palace, wherever these were built.
In thinking about theatrical and athletic events, the most important distinction is between agonistic and epideictic, that is between those that took place in the context of an agon, or contest, and those that were presented at an epideixis, or recital (Robert 1982: 36 = 1989b: 710). Amongst the agones, there was a further distinction, between local contests where monetary prizes were often awarded along with the crowns for victory, and the great ‘‘panhellenic’’ festivals, connected with the celebration of divinities and awarding only a crown. In the archaic and classical period there were four such contests - the Olympic, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian games - forming the ‘‘periodic cycle,’’ organized in a four-year cycle based on the Olympics (an ‘‘Olympiad’’). Like the Olympics, the Pythian games took place every four years, in the third year of each Olympiad; the Isthmian and Nemean were held every two years, in the second and fourth year of each Olympiad.
The expansion of agones beyond the ‘‘periodic’’ cycle may be traced in the century after the death of Alexander the Great. The model followed for these new games appears to have been established by Ptolemy II, who created the first festival outside the classical cycle in honor of his father. This Ptolemaia, as it was called, asserted that it was ‘‘isolympic,’’ or ‘‘equal to the Olympics.’’ Ptolemy’s lead was followed 30 or so years later by the League of the Aetolians, which re-founded the Slotereia, originally established to commemorate the defeat of Gallic raiders at Delphi in 279, as a ‘‘crowned’’ festival (Robert 1982: 37 = 1989b: 711).
After the re-foundation of the Siotereia, the typical format for the creation of a crowned festival involved some great event - either a victory in war or some manifestation of divine power. The event, and the establishment of the festival, was then announced by the city to the Greek world as a whole. Cities would decide if they would accept the festival as being on a par with other ‘‘crowned’’ and sacred games. For a victor in such a contest - this is an important distinction between the ‘‘crowned’’ games and local contests where prizes might also be given for second and third place - there might be a ceremonial entry into his home city. In some cases this might involve the home city making a breach in its walls through which the victor would enter (in other cases he would simply come through a city gate), and place his crown on the statue of a local god. The victor would then be eligible for a maintenance grant. Games which gave the victor the right of such an entry were known as eiselastikos (Robert 1982: 42-3 = 1989b: 716-17). By the beginning of the second century CE, it appears as if the imperial government had stepped in to try and bring some order to these events and to their prizes (especially since cities were continuously trying to enhance the status of their games by having them granted eiselastic status). The most significant evidence for this development is in an exchange between the younger Pliny and the emperor Trajan. Pliny wrote that:
Athletes, Lord, think that they ought to be awarded those rewards that you have established for eiselastic contests on the day that they are crowned; they claim that the date upon which they are carried into their home city does not matter, rather the date on which they won the victory for which they won the right to be carried in. I responded by pointing to the title “eiselastiskos,” so I think that the date upon which they make their entry must be relevant.
They also claim maintenance grants from a contest that was given eiselastic status by you, although they won before that happened. They say it is fair, since they do not receive maintenance grants from those games that ceased to be eiselastic after they won, if they receive maintenance grants from those that afterwards acquire them. I think that this is nonsense since there should be no retrospective claim for something that did not exist when they won. (Ep. 10.118)
Trajan agreed with Pliny, but that is scarcely the end of the story. The situation that Pliny confronted arose as a result of the fact that the imperial government was taking a close interest in what happened on the local level with these entertainments. Despite Trajan's refusal to support the position of the athletes, the imperial government had granted very great favors to professional athletes, and relied upon what had become, by this period, the one international association of crowned athletes to bring order to the ever-expanding range of games that had come into being after Actium. These games provided a critical venue for the exposition of imperial ideology, and of communication between the court and provincial communities.
The distinction between agonistic and epideictic performance is also crucial for understanding the competitive events that took place in the theater. Some events had long been part of agonistic festivals, and they remained, in the Greek world, events that drew performers from the upper classes - victors in these games were people who might reasonably be expected to be honored by public decrees, and, from the late fourth century bce onwards they formed their own professional associations, the so-called technttai of Dionysus (Lightfoot 2002: 212). Epideictic performances on the stage, and alongside it, involved a wide range of other performances, of which the most significant were mime (a form of ancient sitcom) and pantomime (dance on a mythological theme). Unlike the performers in agonistic events, the performers of epideictic drama did not form professional associations in the east, and did not draw upon members of the higher orders as performers. In the west, where there was no tradition of agonistic performance before the first century ce (Robert 1982: 40-1 = 1989b: 714-15; 1970: 7-10 = 1989a: 648-51), we do find professional associations of entertainers in mime and pantomime. Membership in these groups was restricted to individuals of low social status, in keeping with the Italian tradition that performers were clients of the aristocrats who dominated civic life. In this sense they were similar to gladiators.
Gladiatorial combat was but one of a number of entertainments that were characteristic of the amphitheater. These entertainments developed at different times, and appear to have derived from quite different sources. Gladiators are first attested in the archaeological record from south-central Italy (in tomb paintings at Paestum) in the middle of the fourth century bce. The first exhibition of gladiators at Rome is said to have taken place at the funeral of Lucius Junius Brutus Pera in 264 bce (Livy Per. 16; Val. Max. 2.4.7). The context is significant, for it placed gladiatorial combat firmly in the context of aristocratic munera rather than community ludi: a munus was intended to celebrate the individual’s relationship with the community, while ludi were events whereby the community celebrated itself. As a general rule, ludi tended to include entertainments with a very long history at Rome - theatrical events and chariot racing - and to exclude relative novelties, of which gladiatorial combat was one, and wild beast hunts another. Ludi could, however, be venues for public punishments, as is clear from Fabius Pictor’s account of one of the earliest, which centered on the story of the flogging of a slave (FGrH 809 Fr. 13, with Bernstein 1998: 87-96).
Despite their late arrival on the Roman scene, gladiators rapidly came to be identified with the martial virtues of the Roman people, though our best evidence for this comes from well outside of Rome itself. This evidence is provided by a performance in 167 bce that shows how Antiochus IV of Syria, who had spent some time in Rome as a hostage, ‘‘read’’ the gladiatorial combats he had witnessed: he thought that they inspired young men with thoughts ofvalor on the battlefield. By the end of the second century the connection between gladiators and martial glory was reified when Gaius Marius introduced elements of gladiatorial training into that of legionaries. The connection continued into the first century, and it is in the African War, an account of Julius Caesar’s North African campaign of 46 bce, that we find Caesar explicitly compared to a gladiatorial trainer as he shouted instructions to the raw troops under his command (B. Afr. 71).
The connection between gladiators and military virtue may have enhanced the popularity of gladiatorial entertainment throughout the rest of peninsular Italy. A gladiatorial training ground, evidently to supply gladiators for the local market, is known to have been established at Capua in the 70s bce, and, at the same time, we begin to find permanent stone amphitheaters throughout municipal Italy. These amphitheaters seem to have been modeled on the temporary wooden structures that were mandatory at Rome, and they appear first in cities settled by veterans of Sulla’s army, victorious in the civil war of the late 80s (Welch 1994: 79-80). to the ample evidence available for the generation of Cicero and Caesar, we gain important perspectives not only on the ever-expanding scale of gladiatorial combat - leading to a law limiting the number of pairs that could be exhibited at any one time when Caesar tried to exhibit 320 of them - but also of the role of gladiators outside the arena (Plut. Caes. 6.5; Ville 1981: 60, 290-2). They made admirable bodyguards for the politicians of the era, and appear to have been a good investment even for members of the Senate like Cicero, who rented them out (Att. 4.8.2; 4.4a.2). Julius Caesar also appears to have remained a major investor: his troupe in Campania was regarded as a threat to public order when the civil war broke out in 49 bce, and he spent part of the day before crossing the Rubicon inspecting a training ground in northern Italy (Caes. BC 1.14.4-5; Cic. Att. 7.14.2; Suet. Jul. 31.1).
By the time Augustus emerged victorious from the civil wars, gladiatorial combat appears to have been well established throughout the empire. Antony had established gladiatorial training grounds in the east, and there is some evidence to suggest that local aristocrats had been employing gladiators in civic festivals before Actium (Dio 51.7.2). After Actium, the primary venues for gladiatorial exhibitions included celebration of the imperial cult and the annual munera that civic magistrates had to offer as the price for their office. By the third century ce, there is good evidence that some cities might seek permission from an emperor to stage gladiatorial combats and beast hunts, rather than more traditional Greek style events, as a way of demonstrating their attachment to Rome (Nolle 1992/3).
As early as the reign of Augustus, it appears that costs, at least as measured against the perceived value returned from the expenditure on games, sky-rocketed at Rome. Augustus had difficulty in finding people willing to hold the aedileship and pay for their aedilician games; the result was that he had to fund some of these events himself and offer advantages in the senatorial career for people willing to undertake the cost themselves (Dio 49.16; 53.2.2, 33.3; 55.24.9; Hammond 1933: 135). He also had to limit the opportunities for competition with games that he funded on the part of very wealthy members of the aristocracy who might challenge his domination of spectacle. When Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus (the emperor Nero’s grandfather) advertised a particularly violent display of gladiators, Augustus stepped in to ban munera in which a fight to a defined conclusion was demanded - the so-called munera sine missione (Suet. Aug. 45.3; Nero 4). Tiberius, who paid a staggering sum in appearance money for some famous gladiators (see below), would later institute empire-wide restrictions on the money that could be spent on local munera, as well as, presumably, at Rome. The controls instituted by Augustus and Tiberius over the violence and expenditure on games continued throughout the imperial period. These controls, which could be lifted by decree of the Senate, or by imperial fiat (both are attested), enabled the imperial government to intervene at the local level to grant favors to people who, for their own reasons, might want to exceed the statutory limits.
The economics of gladiatorial exhibitions had a profound effect on the nature of the games. By the second century, two systems of acquiring performers for amphitheatric events are attested. One involved the outright purchase of the performers by the prospective munerarius, the other involved rental. The jurist Gaius mentions a penalty clause that appears to have been standard for gladiatorial rentals, according to which a person in whose games a gladiator was killed had to repay 50 times the rental cost, while a pair of inscriptions, one from Sardis in Asia Minor, the other from Italica in Spain, record a discussion in the Senate of a measure by Marcus Aurelius to fix the purchase price of gladiators according to the financial capacities of cities across the empire (Gaius Inst. 3.146; Mommsen 1892: 414). The survival of the vast majority of gladiatorial combatants is implied by both these schemes. Survival was not, however, the order of the day for people condemned to fight in the amphitheater as a result of the judicial process (see below), and it may be that restrictions on the danger of gladiatorial combat enhanced the appeal of these spectacles of public punishment.
The exhibition of wild beasts, both fighting each other and fighting humans, developed in the course of the republican period, and did so separately from gladiatorial combat (see below). By the imperial period there appears to have been a well-developed network to supply animals for contests, enabling a person who had obtained the requisite imperial permission to collect the animals himself. Beast handlers ( bestiarii), who would also be charged with delivering human victims for the animals, and beast hunters, venatores, appear to have been organized separately, and, as was the tradition with events that developed under Roman influence, were supposed to be people of lower status (but see below).
All the forms of entertainment outlined in the last few pages flourished throughout the first three centuries ce, a sign of the importance of these events in the cultural and political life of the empire (Robert 1982: 45 = 1989b: 719; van Nfjf 2001: 334). Fiscal crises at the end of the third century appear to have impaired athletic contests as endowments that supported many of them were probably wiped out in the currency reforms of the period, while gladiatorial combat seems to have declined in popularity as Christian emperors withdrew their direct support (though they did not ban them). At the same time the spread of circus buildings throughout the major cities of the empire, and the direct connection between circuses and imperial palaces, meant that chariot racing would enter a golden age in the later empire. The theater, despite howls of protest from local bishops, would likewise remain very popular as long as civic life endured.
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