Pod Insights Short History Of... The Gladiators (Repeat) About this episode Take a trip back in time to Ancient Rome, to discover the bizarre and barbaric world of the gladiators. But who were these mysterious warriors? And how much truth lies behind the legends? Take your seat in the Roman Colosseum, the games are about to begin.
This is a Short History Of the Gladiators.
A Noiser production, written by Addison Nugent. With thanks to Dr. Neville Morley, historian and author of The Roman Empire: Roots of Imperialism.
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Transcript 0:01 Speaker 00 You sound horrible.
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0:31 Speaker 04 It's the second century AD.
0:34 Speaker 04 All 50,000 seats of the Roman Colosseum are filled with spectators. The late afternoon sun beats down on them as they nibble on salted peas, sip wine, and talk excitedly about the match they're about to witness. In the center, perched atop a podium in the imperial box, sits the Emperor Hadrian. Hadrian isn't just here to rally public support. He is, by all accounts, a huge fan of the gladiatorial sport. And there's no way he, or anyone else in Rome for that matter, would miss this match.
1:10 Speaker 04 Suddenly, the crowd erupts into cheers. A hulking man walks out onto the sands of the arena. His enormous muscled arms clutch a short sword and a large rectangular shield to cover his bare torso. A glistening bronze helmet obscures his face, but every single person in the arena knows his name: Flamma.
1:33 Speaker 04 This battle-hardened warrior is the undisputed gladiatorial champion of the world, the Muhammad Ali of his time. Very few gladiators survive ten matches. This is Flamma's 34th time in the arena.
1:48 Speaker 04 But that's not all that makes him unique. Flamma is a slave.
1:53 Speaker 04 Most gladiators are slaves, forced to fight for public amusement, hoping that one day they'll be given their freedom. But Flamma... Flamma has been offered his freedom four times, and each time, he's turned it down. At 30 years old, he lives to fight. He dreams of one day meeting a glorious end in his beloved arena.
2:18 Speaker 04 Today is that day.
2:25 Speaker 04 My name is Paul McGann, and welcome to Short History of, the show that transports you back in time to witness history's most incredible moments and remarkable people. In this episode, we'll take a trip to ancient Rome and its empire. Prepare to enter the arena. This is A Short History of the Gladiators.
3:02 Speaker 04 Flamma's opponent emerges from the other side of the ring, accompanied by loud cheers from the crowd. In his right hand, he brandishes a trident. In his left hand, a net. He wears no helmet, carries no shield. This fighter sacrifices protection for speed.
3:23 Speaker 04 Flamma knows he must move fast before the weight of his own armor gets the best of him. He attempts to corner his opponent, making quick stabbing motions with his sword. The crowd goes wild, chanting his name. But then the opponent throws his net. Usually, Flamma has no trouble dodging this tactic, but today is different. Today, he gets caught. Desperate, he tries to cut through with his sword. But his helmet obscures his view. His opponent raises his trident into the air before ramming it straight through Flamma's neck.
4:03 Speaker 04 People in the crowd scream. Some of his admirers begin to sob. Even Emperor Hadrian is visibly shaken. Medics enter the ring and gently pick up Flamma's lifeless body.
4:17 Speaker 04 Criminal gladiators who die in combat are dragged out of the arena with hooks. But superstars, like him, are paraded out and given a proper funeral.
4:29 Speaker 04 His friend and frequent opponent, Delicatus, purchases a proper tombstone for his burial. Today, nearly 2,000 years on from his death, that tombstone still stands in Sicily. It's a constant reminder of one of the greatest sportsmen the world has ever known, and a window into the long-forgotten world of gladiators.
4:54 Speaker 04 The origins of gladiators are less glamorous than you might imagine.
4:59 Speaker 04 Long before the hordes of roaring fans and dramatic battles to the death in the Colosseum, gladiatorial combat serves a very different purpose: it's a funeral rite. In Rome, it begins in the early Republican period, between the 5th and 3rd centuries BCE.
5:17 Speaker 04 The first recorded gladiator match occurs at the funeral of Roman politician and aristocrat, Junius Brutus Pera, when his sons arrange for three pairs of gladiators to fight at his grave. Today, the intended meaning of this gesture remains unknown. Some scholars believe the spilling of blood functioned as a sacrifice to the dead. In the centuries that follow, however, the gladiatorial tradition morphs into something else. It moves beyond its funerary roots and slowly becomes a public spectacle, a blood sport that Romans simply can't get enough of, and a powerful political tool that leaders use to curry public favor.
6:01 Speaker 04 Dr. Neville Morley is a historian and author of The Roman Empire: Roots of Imperialism.
6:08 Speaker 03 It's only in the middle of the first century BCE that you start getting a detachment of gladiators from this funeral context. So, for example, in sixty five Julius Caesar holds gladiatorial combat in honour of his dead father, so you've still got the sort of funeral connection, but his father had died twenty years previously. So it's not actually part of the funeral celebrations. Essentially, it's an excuse, it's a pretext. Caesar can put on these games, still paying lip service to the Roman tradition that this is part of the funeral celebration.
6:53 Speaker 03 But clearly by this point, that's not what this is really about. The games are more and more associated with ambitious politicians. You know, this is a way of showing off to the people, it's a way of giving something to the people. You're putting the sort of traditions of your family front and centre. You're kind of reminding everybody, aren't we really great? You should vote for me. Haven't I given you these amazing games? You should vote for me.
7:25 Speaker 04 Politicians across Rome vie for attention by throwing ever more complex and elaborate games, and the gladiators themselves become local celebrities. Soon during their lifetime, a gladiator can aspire to fame, public adoration, riches, and the affections of women from all social classes. Their portraits are often graffitied onto the walls of the city. Bronze effigies of them are sold at markets by local traders.
7:52 Speaker 03 They're entertainers, you know, they're doing a job for the vulgar masses. The Roman elite attitude is really this sort of thing is rather beneath them. They're in the same category as actors and prostitutes. Where we hear about sort of the fame of gladiators is much more tombstones, which do go into detail about the number of victories they had and so forth, and graffiti. So you do see, say in Pompeii, people writing on the walls about gladiators. And sometimes that's essentially, you know, talking about the betting odds. Sometimes it is a sort of, you know, an expression of so and so is absolutely fantastic.
8:34 Speaker 03 That gives us the impression that these people are kind of celebrities. They are known, or at least, you know, the most famous of them are known. But it's one of the points where we can see something of the life of the mass of the Roman population. And at any rate, the impression we get is they can be very keen on gladiators.
8:56 Speaker 04 Despite their popularity, gladiators largely come from the lower echelons of the Roman social order. Some of the earliest are prisoners of war. In a nod to their heritage, while fighting in the ring, they wear their own culture's traditional armour and deploy their homeland's unique style of combat. But as the demand for gladiator matches grows, Rome begins sourcing fighters from other parts of society. Criminals are sometimes sentenced to fight in the arena. A punishment some might view as preferable to the alternative. Typically condemned lawbreakers are publicly executed by burning, crucifixion, or eaten alive by wild animals.
9:39 Speaker 04 At least, as a gladiator, they have some chance of survival. The same can be said for slaves. During the height of the gladiators' popularity, runaway slaves, or those who displeased their masters, can be sold to gladiator schools for money. The nature of life in the Roman slave class varies wildly. Some slaves can become respected members of society as doctors, teachers, and senators' aides. But the life of the typical slave is miserable. They are classified as property and can be beaten, tortured, and sexually assaulted at will. Many die from starvation and exhaustion. The punishment for disobedience is often crucifixion.
10:23 Speaker 04 And becoming a gladiator surely beats that.
10:26 Speaker 03 If you are a gladiator, whether you've been enslaved, whether you're a criminal, there is the distant prospect that if you survive long enough, if you're successful enough, you might actually win your freedom. So we know of gladiators who, I think it's, you know, if you've served five years without getting killed, then you can retire. Successful gladiators might be given their freedom earlier. So we do know of people who say managed three years and because of their success, you can actually get time off for good behaviour. So you've got that as a possibility.
11:08 Speaker 03 If you're successful, we hear of gladiators who are showered with gifts, who have groups of admirers. That side of things, you could say, okay, it's better than being stuck down the mines where you're probably never going to get out. It's maybe better than being on a chain gang somewhere in the remote countryside where your prospects of ever getting freedom are probably zero. On the other hand, it's always worth keeping in mind, this is a punishment. Being sent to the gladiator school is not any sort of reward. This is something you do with criminals.
11:45 Speaker 04 Indeed, the lives of even the most adored gladiators are filled with hardship. In spite of their fame and their seemingly glamorous lifestyles, they're forced to train, often against their will, in gladiatorial colleges throughout Rome. The oath that they're obliged to swear speaks to the torments they'll face during their time in the arena. "I will endure to be burned, to be bound, to be beaten, and to be killed by the sword." Daily life is difficult, monotonous, and more often than not painful. In the morning, gladiators are released from their cells and brought to the school's practice arena.
12:25 Speaker 04 They're given wooden weapons and begin a long session of arduous training. Professional instructors, typically former gladiators who earned their own freedom, teach them how to fight in the style to which they've been assigned. You see, not all gladiators fight in the same way or use the same weapons. There are many different classes of fighters that are pitted against one another.
12:49 Speaker 03 There's something like 20 different types of gladiator we know of from different sources, and it's partly, you know, literary descriptions or graffiti again, it's partly images. And the assumption is, again, it's kind of competition, that gladiatorial combat starts being more interesting when you have a match-up of different kinds of equipment. So the standard gladiatorial combat is not two people with exactly the same weapons and armour, but it's two people with completely different weapons and armour. Is it an advantage to have a longer weapon or a shorter weapon? How does this balance out? It probably makes
13:34 Speaker 03 the betting more unpredictable, more interesting. It becomes, of course, a way of making your games different, that you can say, aha, a type of gladiator never before seen.
13:46 Speaker 05 This November on the Noiser Podcast Network. On Real Dictators, the story of Rafael Trujillo concludes with an epic shootout scene, plucked straight from a mafia movie. On Short History of, join us as we unthor Utzi the Iceman, Europe's oldest known natural human mummy, and step back into the swinging 60s. On Real Survival Stories, on Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest mountain, a chilling tale plays out in the mist. And after a volcanic eruption in New Zealand, a helicopter pilot scrambles to respond. In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes' Short Stories, the tale of hidden treasure and murder continues in
14:27 Speaker 05 the Sign of Four. Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus.
14:38 Speaker 05 This November on the Noiser Podcast Network. On Real Dictators, the story of Rafael Trujillo concludes with an epic shootout scene, plucked straight from a mafia movie. On Short History of, join us as we unthor Utzi the Iceman, Europe's oldest-known natural-human mummy, and step back into the swinging 60s. On Real Survival Stories, on Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest mountain, a chilling tale plays out in the mist. And after a volcanic eruption in New Zealand, a helicopter pilot scrambles to respond. In Jane Austen stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes' short stories, the tale of hidden treasure and murder continues in The Sign of Four.
15:21 Speaker 05 Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus. And for our American listeners, a special offer on Noiser's debut book, A Short History of Ancient Rome. Head to bookshop.org and use the code NONFIC26 for 15% off. Valid for US customers November 1st to 30th. That's bookshop.org and use the code N-O-N-F-I-C-26.
15:52 Speaker 04 For example, one of the most famous types of gladiator is the mamilo, which literally means fishman. He wears a large bronze helmet adorned with a fish fin at the top and feathers on the side. In his left arm, he carries a long, straight sword. In his right, he holds a large shield which protects him from his neck to just below his knee. This shield can be a major asset in a battle, but it's also very cumbersome, weighing between 13 and 25 pounds. As a result, mamilos move more slowly, relying on protection rather than speed. To make the fight interesting, they are pitted against faster-moving gladiator types that carry smaller shields and lighter weapons.
16:36 Speaker 04 The mamilo's sworn enemy in the arena is the thryax. The thryax gladiators appear around the same time as the mamilo in the first century BCE. They take their name from the recently conquered territory of Thrace, in what today is Bulgaria. In fact, the earliest gladiators of this type are captured Thracian warriors. They carry a short, curved dagger called a sika and a small rectangular or square shield.
17:07 Speaker 04 Both the Thraeax and the Mamilo are wildly popular gladiator types. Each has a loyal fanbase that swear by their fighter's superiority. It's reported that the Emperor Domitian, a fan of the Mamilo gladiator class, has a man thrown to the dogs just for speaking favorably of a Thraeax. By the first century AD, the retiarius, or netman, has appeared. This fighter carries a long fisherman's trident, a dagger and a net, and wears no armour. He is almost always paired with a secular gladiator. One of the most famous secutors of all time is Flamme. Then there are rarer types of fighter, like the lakearius, who uses a lasso to take down his opponents,
17:52 Speaker 04 or the sagittarius, armed with a bow and arrow. After training in their school's arena, the gladiators are fed and watered, and if necessary, receive medical attention from one of the institution's doctors. Some schools even provide masseurs, much like those used by modern-day professional athletes. Gladiators have enormous value in ancient Rome. They can be sold to other schools or rented out for matches for large sums of money. So it's important to keep them in peak physical condition. The man in charge of making sure that his school has the best, most profitable gladiators is called a lanista. The lanista runs his school as a business.
18:35 Speaker 04 He's in charge of acquiring gladiators, managing their training, and selling them or renting them for shows. At times, lanistas can be sadistic and tyrannical, ruling over the enslaved men with an iron fist. Take for example, Lenchelas Batiatus. The lanista of the Capua School in south-central Italy. Batiatus is described by Plutarch as a cruel man who pushes the gladiators he trained too far. One of these men will become the most famous gladiator of all time. A fearsome warrior who has become the symbol of rebellion the world over: Spartacus.
19:19 Speaker 03 Spartacus is the gladiator who rebels, or at least he's the gladiator who rebels successfully and spectacularly. We can imagine that some gladiators might have managed to break out and escape on occasion, but we don't really hear about that. Spartacus, quite simply, leads a revolt. And we know very little about him. We know he's a foreigner. He had, at least according to some of the accounts, served as a Roman auxiliary, so he actually had some sort of military background. For whatever reason, he ends up in the gladiator school, and for whatever reason, he leads a revolt.
20:02 Speaker 04 It's the year 73 BCE. For months, whispers of rebellion and escape have spread amongst the enslaved gladiators at the Capua School. Whispers started by the Thracian warrior Spartacus.
20:17 Speaker 04 Spartacus is not the biggest or strongest man at the gladiatorial college, but he is one of the most intelligent. According to his wife, a Thracian prophetess who is enslaved with him, he is destined for greatness. When he was brought to Rome to be sold as a slave some years earlier, it's said he awoke one day with a snake coiled around his head. His wife declares that this is a sign from the gods, that he holds within him a tremendous and fearsome power that will one day bring him to an unfortunate end. Both of her predictions will prove to be true. And today is the day that Spartacus's heroic yet doomed journey begins.
21:00 Speaker 04 Spartacus has rallied some 200 gladiators to escape the clutches of their cruel lanista, Batiatus. But somehow, information concerning their plan has been betrayed to the officials at the Capua School. The majority of the rebels drop out of the revolt right at the last minute, leaving just 72 men to fight through the school's trained guards. But those remaining would rather risk death than spend another moment enslaved.
21:28 Speaker 04 With no weapons, Spartacus and his men storm the school's kitchen, seizing knives and skewers. These may sound like meager arms for an escape, but remember, these men are supreme fighters. They are forced to train and combat every day of their lives. They manage to fight their way past the guards. Once outside, by sheer luck, they catch sight of a passing cart filled with gladiatorial weapons. The very symbols of their enslavement might now help them win their freedom. Armed with swords and shields, they make their way up Mount Vesuvius, pillaging towns for supplies and recruiting slaves along the way. In the days and weeks to come, they begin amassing a small army.
22:13 Speaker 04 You might wonder how this is possible, within the military superpower that is the Roman Republic. At the beginning of the revolt, the Roman forces do not really respond to Spartacus's growing forces. At the time, they are fighting in Spain, Southeast Europe, and Crete. And, in all honesty, they don't see the growing slave army as a real threat. They underestimate them. This is a huge mistake.
22:42 Speaker 03 So this starts in central Italy, in Capua, and quite simply, it kind of snowballs. So the fact that he's built a small army opposed to the Roman state becomes an attraction to other people. So it's almost, you know, if you are enslaved and you don't like it, you're no longer thinking, "Well, if I try and escape, I will be hunted down. I'll be loose in a hostile society with no friends." You can think, "If I can escape, I can make it. I can go and join Spartacus's army." So it's almost the possibility of solidarity does then persuade large numbers of slaves to escape and break out and go and join him.
23:26 Speaker 03 And as I say, it does seem to be not just slaves, but a fair proportion of the free population. Because according to our sources, he actually builds an army of seventy thousand, a hundred thousand, you know, a very, very large force indeed.
23:45 Speaker 03 And he then successfully defeats various Roman commanders, which is profoundly embarrassing. It's not that the Romans never lose, but they shouldn't lose to what they regard as a rabble of ex-slaves and disgraced people. But he succeeds.
24:03 Speaker 04 By the end of seventy-two BCE, Spartacus's forces have, according to some reports, swelled to include one hundred and twenty thousand soldiers. They are now a massive force for Rome to contend with, but Spartacus's legions are becoming hard for the leader to control.
24:22 Speaker 04 Spartacus and his army decide to head north to the Alps, where they can escape and finally be free.
24:29 Speaker 04 But by now, the slave army is drunk on power. Many of them want to continue pillaging and amassing riches. So instead of fleeing back to their homelands, they turn around and head south. This decision will prove to be their downfall.
24:45 Speaker 04 By this point, Marcus Lachinus Crassus has taken control of the Roman forces. He leads eight Roman legions in pursuit of the slave army, eventually trapping them in the toe of Italy.
24:58 Speaker 03 Spartacus then heads back south again. There's the suggestion that he planned to cross over to Sicily, that he was going to lead at least some of his followers over into Sicily, and that would be a practical plan to take over Sicily and then hold it against the Romans. Whereas, you know, as long as you are heading up and down Italy, the Romans sooner or later can get an army together and defeat you. You haven't got anywhere that you can really sort of consolidate and defend. Whereas if he had made it across to Sicily, you might imagine him setting himself up as, you know, king of a new kingdom.
25:39 Speaker 04 To get to Sicily, however, Spartacus needs good sailors and even better boats.
25:46 Speaker 04 He turns to a group of pirates who frequent the Strait of Messina, which is now the only thing that sits between Spartacus's army and the possibility of a new island kingdom. Though they're criminals, these pirates possess rapid boats and vast navigational knowledge. At this point, Spartacus needs to act quickly, so he pays the pirates to take him and his men across the strait. The pirates, however, do not hold up their end of the bargain. They flee with the money, leaving Spartacus and his men stranded in mainland Italy. They try to assemble makeshift rafts to make the crossing, but to no avail.
26:26 Speaker 04 This is the beginning of the end of the famed Gladiators' Rebellion, which will become known as the Third Servant War.
26:36 Speaker 04 Spartacus's army is now left with no choice but to head north to try to break through Crassus's lines. Along the way, thousands of his men are slaughtered. His army shrinks to just thirty thousand rebels.
26:49 Speaker 04 The slave army's final stand takes place in April 71 BCE. According to some sources, Spartacus is nearly able to kill Crassus himself before being cut down by centurions. His body is never found, and his rebel army is routed. Some soldiers flee, but six thousand are taken captive and crucified on the Appian Way, a road which stretches the three hundred and fifty miles between Capua, where the rebellion began, all the way to the city of Rome. This gruesome display serves as a reminder of the empire's power. It's a warning to all slaves, including gladiators, that resistance is futile.
27:39 Speaker 05 This November, on the Noiser Podcast Network. On Real Dictators, the story of Rafael Trujillo concludes with an epic shootout scene, plucked straight from a mafia movie. On Short History of, join us as we unthor Utsi the Iceman, Europe's oldest known natural human mummy, and step back into the swinging 60s. On Real Survival Stories, on Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest mountain, a chilling tale plays out in the mist. And after a volcanic eruption in New Zealand, a helicopter pilot scrambles to respond. In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes' Short Stories, the tale of hidden treasure and murder continues in The Sign of Four.
28:22 Speaker 05 Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus. And for our American listeners, a special offer on Noiser's debut book, A Short History of Ancient Rome. Head to bookshop.org and use the code NONFIC26 for 15% off. Valid for US customers November 1st to 30th. That's bookshop.org and use the code N-O-N-F-I-C-26.
28:53 Speaker 05 This November, on the Noiser Podcast Network. On Real Dictators, the story of Rafael Trujillo concludes with an epic shootout scene, plucked straight from a mafia movie. On Short History of, join us as we unthor Utsi the Iceman, Europe's oldest known natural human mummy, and step back into the swinging 60s. On Real Survival Stories, on Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest mountain, a chilling tale plays out in the mist. And after a volcanic eruption in New Zealand, a helicopter pilot scrambles to respond. In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes' Short Stories, the tale of hidden treasure and murder continues in The Sign of Four.
29:36 Speaker 05 Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus.
29:45 Speaker 04 Spartacus' rebellion does nothing to quell the popularity of gladiator games, it must be said. In fact, demand for the sport continues to skyrocket, with permanent stone amphitheaters cropping up across the Italian peninsula. By the first century AD, gladiators are in such high demand that even free Roman citizens begin volunteering to fight in the arena. In doing so, they are choosing to risk a violent death. For them, it seems that's a risk worth taking.
30:16 Speaker 03 It's really bizarre. Generally, we would assume that it's simply it's a way of making a living when maybe you can't. So essentially, there are some freelance gladiators, so to speak. So there are Romans who go into this as a profession, who find a trainer, if not a manager, and who will then get hired for gladiatorial combat. So you know, when someone is putting on a big show for a funeral or whatever, it's clear that there are people who are in charge of organising things. You could say an easy way of getting your cast of gladiators is you just go to one of the gladiator schools and say,
31:01 Speaker 03 "Right, I want twenty gladiators for a week next Tuesday." But presumably, there is the possibility of independent gladiators applying, answering an advert. Maybe sometimes the gladiator school says, "Sorry, I've only got fifteen. You've got to make up the numbers somehow." And I mean, the guess would be that these people don't have to do it, but maybe it's a way of making a living. For some people, the idea that you would put your life on the line in that way might actually be an attraction. I suppose particularly as, you know, back in the Republic, if you were an ambitious, over-adrenalised, young Roman aristocrat, then you've got the opportunity to go into the army
31:46 Speaker 03 and go and sort of slaughter Gauls for your thrills. Under the principate, there's rather less of that sort of opportunity. It's almost, you know, you've lost the excitement of the expanding empire. You've lost the opportunity to head out onto the frontier. You get your kicks by going into the arena. But I mean, this is very much speculation.
32:08 Speaker 04 Around the same time, the gladiatrix, or female gladiator, begins appearing in the arena. Some of these women are volunteers, lured perhaps by the promise of fame, or simply the prospect of making an independent income. Not much is known about the ways in which these warrior women fight. However, it appears that while many gladiatrix bouts were serious battles, others were designed to provide comic relief. For example, Emperor Domitian held a game in which a gladiatrix fought several dwarves.
32:40 Speaker 04 Perhaps the most scandalous instance of women taking part in gladiatorial bouts comes during the reign of the tyrannical Emperor Nero in the mid-first century AD. For his amusement, he forces upper-class ladies to perform as gladiators or beast hunters. He laughs from his podium as the untrained women try desperately to survive on the sands of the arena.
33:04 Speaker 04 But the strangest volunteer to ever enter the gladiatorial arena is Emperor Commodus. Commodus is a deeply unpopular emperor who rules Rome until his assassination in 192 AD. You might recognize him from the movie Gladiator. During his reign, Commodus becomes a megalomaniac and refers to himself as Hercules reborn. To prove his god-like strength, he chooses to fight in staged gladiatorial bouts.
33:36 Speaker 03 Commodus is another of these bad emperors where we've given a very powerful image of why he's an evil tyrant, which we can't necessarily believe much if any of it. But Commodus is portrayed as fighting in the arena against opponents whom he was bound to beat. So wounded soldiers, or indeed random people taken out of the crowd. There's a line about Commodus in the writer Herodian, which says, "He won all of his gladiatorial contests, because they all submitted to him, and he only wounded them."
34:18 Speaker 03 So in other words, he won because he was emperor, not because of his skill or anything like that. But of course, the impression he wanted to give was, "Look at me, I am the greatest, no one can beat me." Commodus is completely ignoring all of the unwritten rules about how an emperor should behave. He's degrading himself by going into the arena, and he's not even doing it properly. He's setting himself up as this great swordsman or whatever, but actually, no one's going to dare wound him. Because actually, if you did fight properly, you would be definitely dead.
34:57 Speaker 04 The gladiatorial sport reaches unprecedented heights with the construction of the Colosseum in Rome. Inaugurated in AD, this 50,000-seat megastructure uses the latest technology to make the gladiatorial games truly awe-inspiring spectacles.
35:14 Speaker 03 You've got all sorts of elaborate mechanisms for winching animals up to the surface from underneath the stage. There's a whole complex of places you'd have kept animals, places you'd have kept different sorts of equipment. You can start putting on almost theatrical spectacles as part of the show. And there is always this competition as to who can stage the most dramatic, elaborate, memorable, huge, expensive, whatever. Every person who puts on the games is competing with everyone else.
35:52 Speaker 04 Gladiator games are often all-day events at the Colosseum. Picture the scene: 50,000 spectators packed into the amphitheater seats. Suddenly, music in the air. The crowd grows excited. The parade which inaugurates each match is about to begin. The emperor enters the arena to wild cheers and applause. He's led up to the imperial podium. Then out come the superstars of their day. The gladiators, all decked out in their armour, stride across the sands.
36:28 Speaker 04 Next to the venatoris, or beast hunters, followed by the criminals, who will be publicly executed for the crowd's amusement in the afternoon. Once the procession is finished, the animal show begins. Wild and strange beasts from all over the empire unleashed onto the sands. Sometimes they fight one another. A lion will battle a tiger. A bear will go up against a fearsome rhino. A leopard's claws might clash with a wild boar's tusks. They will also be hunted by the venatoris, who use bows, spears, and whips on their quarry. The animal shows end around midday, at which point, the public executions begin. The condemned criminals and prisoners of war
37:13 Speaker 04 are burned alive, crucified, or executed by the gladiators. At times, the killing is far more creative.
37:23 Speaker 03 It's not a matter of just bring the criminals out into the centre of the arena and execute them. It's precisely where, you know, we have this idea of Christians being thrown to the lions. So you put the prisoners in the arena with a bunch of hungry lions or other animals, and expect them to get eaten. Because of course, you have not given the prisoners anything to defend themselves with. Or you can have spectacular forms of execution. And it's, it's one of the reasons the Romans are deeply disturbing people, is the ingenuity they would put into thinking, how can we kill people in a spectacular, entertaining, original manner?
38:06 Speaker 04 Finally comes the moment that everyone has been waiting for: the gladiatorial combats.
38:13 Speaker 04 This portion of the day is organised into different events. The first involves two combatants fighting each other with non-lethal weapons, thus demonstrating their skills to the crowd. Then the gladiators practise with the weapons they will use when the actual fighting starts. Once these warm-ups are finished, the real battles begin. Usually they involve just two gladiators from different classes. But sometimes, at larger events, teams take on each other. They will fight until a victor is proclaimed. Occasionally breaks are given if both of the gladiators become exhausted or the battle goes on for too long.
38:56 Speaker 04 Every gladiatorial bout is overseen by two judges, an umpire and his assistant. They make sure that none of the rules are broken. The umpire can strike a gladiator with a stick if a rule is broken, or, as is sometimes the case, the gladiator refuses to put on a show. If the rules are broken repeatedly, then the gladiators are whipped, or even burned with red-hot pokers. Contrary to popular belief, not all matches end in death. They're extremely perilous, but slightly less deadly than you might assume. The first gladiator combats are designed to end with the loser dying. But as the sport grows in popularity, this practice is adapted, to ensure that the supply
39:41 Speaker 04 of gladiators never grows too low. Historian George Veale estimates that a gladiator had about a 20% chance of dying during a match.
39:52 Speaker 04 Sometimes if both gladiators have fought well for an extended period, the match can be declared a draw. A gladiator can also surrender if they are exhausted or have sustained significant injuries. In this case, the fighter raises a finger, prompting the umpire to stop the match.
40:10 Speaker 04 However, if a gladiator is thrown to the ground or loses his weapon, he will find himself at the mercy of his opponent. His fate is now in the hands of the jeering, bloodthirsty crowd. Evidence suggests that typically the crowd will plead with the emperor to spare his life, especially if the fighter is a fan favorite. But sometimes, if he has not performed to their satisfaction, the crowd will turn on him. This is the moment of truth that every gladiator dreads: the thumbs up or thumbs down.
40:45 Speaker 04 Listening to the boos and insults from the masses, he must look to the emperor, staring down at him from the podium. The emperor holds his thumb out in the middle, listening to the reactions from the crowd. After some hesitation, he dramatically thrusts it downwards.
41:04 Speaker 04 Now the defeated gladiator must face his death with honor. He places his hands on the blood-soaked sands in front of him, and awaits the final blow from his opponent.
41:17 Speaker 04 As his body is carried away, the winner receives his reward. Usually a palm branch, occasionally money. If this gladiator has won a great number of victories, he will be given a wooden sword or rudis, which symbolizes his freedom. Finally, the victor runs a lap around the arena while the crowd roars in approval.
41:39 Speaker 05 This November, on the Noiser Podcast Network. On Real Dictators, the story of Rafael Trujillo concludes with an epic shootout scene, plucked straight from a mafia movie. On Short History of, join us as we unthor Utzi the Iceman, Europe's oldest known natural human mummy, and step back into the swinging 60s. On Real Survival Stories, on Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest mountain, a chilling tale plays out in the mist. And after a volcanic eruption in New Zealand, a helicopter pilot scrambles to respond. In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes' Short Stories, the tale of hidden treasure and murder continues in The Sign of Fall.
42:22 Speaker 05 Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus. This November, on the Noiser Podcast Network. On Real Dictators, the story of Rafael Trujillo concludes with an epic shootout scene, plucked straight from a mafia movie. On Short History of, join us as we unthor Utzi the Iceman, Europe's oldest known natural human mummy, and step back into the swinging 60s. On Real Survival Stories, on Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest mountain, a chilling tale plays out in the mist. And after a volcanic eruption in New Zealand, a helicopter pilot scrambles to respond.
43:03 Speaker 05 In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes' Short Stories, the tale of hidden treasure and murder continues in The Sign of Fall. Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus. And for our American listeners, a special offer on Noiser's debut book, A Short History of Ancient Rome. Head to bookshop.org and use the code NONFIC26 for 15% off. Valid for US customers November 1st to 30th. That's bookshop.org and use the code N-O-N-F-I-C-26.
43:46 Speaker 04 Questions remain to this day as to why the Roman people chose to entertain themselves by watching such horrific displays of violence.
43:54 Speaker 03 For some people, it's a sign of the, what, the innate baseness of humans, that, you know, actually, human beings, given the opportunity, would take pleasure in seeing people violently hurting and killing one another for pleasure. So that's kind of the negative view of human nature, is that actually this is just sort of in the same category as people going along to watch public executions, or people watching bear baiting or something like that, that, you know, violence is titillating, and actually, human-on-human violence is even more titillating. But then there are other theories, which make it more specifically about the Romans. So why do the Romans go for this, certainly on a much greater scale than anyone else
44:39 Speaker 03 does? And there is a suggestion then that this is kind of bound up with empire, that almost what we are getting in the arena is the symbolic depiction of Roman superiority, that, you know, as far as the Romans are concerned, they have the power of life or death over all of the inhabitants of their empire. This just puts it all on display. Or that, yeah, there is something about the Roman psyche, um, the extent to which they do seem to be a particularly violent people, they do seem to have some particularly toxic ideas of masculinity, that, you know, this is what drives it.
45:23 Speaker 03 And the simple answer is, we don't know. They do this. And it's, it's one of these things, you know, there are multiple factors. It's driven by Roman politics and competition between different members of the Roman elite. But that's because there's a popular demand for this, that this is something which people want to see.
45:44 Speaker 04 Whatever the reason, the games begin to dwindle in popularity. New forms of entertainment begin to overshadow gladiatorial bouts. Christianity becomes Rome's official religion with the rise of Constantine the Great. Attending the games is increasingly frowned upon.
46:02 Speaker 03 The games become less popular, really over the course of the fourth century, but it never seems to be for kind of humanitarian reasons. It's not that people suddenly think, "Oh, actually, it's a terribly bad thing to have people killing one another for our entertainment." The main thing is just they become expensive, or rather, they've always been expensive and there's now less money around for putting them on. I mean, there is a certain amount of, I suppose you could say, ethical discussion, but almost all of it focuses on why the games are bad for the spectator,
46:41 Speaker 03 with the idea that it kind of causes the spirit to gain pleasure from watching such things. That, you know, what is wrong with gladiatorial games is that people are becoming excessively excited. They are feeling bad emotions. The idea that the ethical problem is the violence itself, even Christian writers don't really worry about that. It's almost that's taken for granted, but if you are a Christian, you should not be taking pleasure from this sort of thing. The Emperor Constantine, who is of course the first emperor to make Christianity completely legal and present himself as a Christian, he passes a law in 325 which forbids the games,
47:26 Speaker 03 or certainly forbids punishing criminals by sending them to the gladiatorial schools. So he says all criminals should be sent to the mines. But we've got plenty of evidence that the games carry on for another century or so, and it does seem that it's simply, it is the cost and maybe just a kind of fashion, that more and more the emphasis is instead on chariot racing in particular and other sorts of spectacles. Gladiators combat, people seem to be less bothered about it.
48:02 Speaker 04 Over time, the gladiators disappear. After the Western Roman Empire begins to collapse in the late 4th century AD, the Colosseum falls into disrepair. It crumbles, due to a combination of earthquakes and neglect. Mere shadows of the gladiators’ time in the arena remain: frescoes, mentions in historical texts, graffiti scribbled on the walls of Pompeii, decrepit tombstones throughout Italy that impart their tales. But across the world, similar blood sports endure to this day. Bullfights, that look a lot like the beast hunts of the Colosseum are still held in amphitheaters in Spain.
48:46 Speaker 04 And in boxing and mixed martial arts, it’s clear there is still an enormous public appetite to watch men and women engage in violent battles.
48:57 Speaker 04 Above all, the gladiators have endured as cultural figures portrayed in film, television, and literature.
49:05 Speaker 04 It seems that even thousands of years later, the call of the arena endures.
49:14 Speaker 04 In the next episode of Short History of, we’ll bring you a short history of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
49:22 Speaker 06 One would have to say it is the closest that the world has ever come to nuclear destruction. So many slight instances where a decision made the other way, in the flick of an instant, might have set off a war. That’s too close. We’re talking about a bomb that is unimaginable. It was so large that some people thought it might even set the Earth’s atmosphere on fire.
49:46 Speaker 04 That’s next time, on Short History of.
49:55 Speaker 05 This November, on the Noiser Podcast Network. On Real Dictators, the story of Rafael Trujillo concludes with an epic shootout scene, plucked straight from a mafia movie. On Short History of, join us as we unthor Utzi the Iceman, Europe's oldest-known natural-human mummy, and step back into the swinging 60s. On Real Survival Stories, on Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest mountain, a chilling tale plays out in the mist. And after a volcanic eruption in New Zealand, a helicopter pilot scrambles to respond. In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes' Short Stories, the tale of hidden treasure and murder continues in The Sign of Fall.
50:38 Speaker 05 Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus. And for our American listeners, a special offer on Noiser's debut book, A Short History of Ancient Rome. Head to bookshop.org and use the code NONFIC26 for 15% off. Valid for US customers November 1st to 30th. That's bookshop.org and use the code N-O-N-F-I-C-26.
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