Gladiators Flashcards
Who became gladiators
Soldiers taken as prisoners of war
Slaves who had committed specific crimes (running away)
Free men volunteered
What did being a gladiator offer?
Job
Food
Shelter
Chance to win fame, fortune, wealth and gifts
What was the ludus gladiatorius
Gladiator school
After Spartacus, legislature specified location, organisation and ownership of the larger schools
By imperial times, 4 schools which were owned by the state
Who was the lanista
Gladiator trainer
‘Lanio - I tear to pieces’ - incites violence
Hire out his fighters to a magistrate wishing to be an editor of a show
Gladiators societal position
Infamis
Beneath the law
Socially marginalised
Buried in separate cemeteries
The oath
I will endure to be burned, to be bound, to be beaten and to be killed by the sword’
Training
Hours practising
Fighting drills with blunted wooden swords
Taught how to show nobility at the moment of death
Spartacus
73BCE
Broke out of gladiator school in Capua
Following of thousands of runaway slaves which he turned into a rebel army
Routed in far south of Italy
Who were the procuratores?
Agents of the emperor who ran gladiator schools in the imperial times
Describe barracks
Housed 100 men Punishment cell (low ceiling)
High quality medical care, regular massage, fed on high energy diet (beans, barley, oatmeal, fruit, ash)
Sex symbol
Graffiti from Pompeii ‘Celadus the Thracian is all the girls’ heart-throb’
Buy a jar of gladiator’s sweat mixed with dust and sand from the arena as an aphrodisiac
