Gladiators

Cultural mirror of the Roman Empire: Gladiators

In most of the societies sport games have a precious place for people because they are seen as a way of amusement. The favorite sport game may differ from society to society according to their life styles and characteristics. For example, the most popular game in U.S.A is American football, which may prove us the violence in American people; where as the most popular game in Turkey is soccer, which may prove us the fanatic side of Turkish people. Although it may not be seen as a sport game today, the most popular game in Roman Empire was the gladiatorial games and it was treated as a sport game in ancient times. The interest shown to these games by the Roman citizens may tell us something about their cultural belongings such as violence and warfare. In my paper, I will basically discuss different parts of the gladiatorial games such as; advantages of being a gladiator, the reason for the popularity of the games, how the emperors used the games as a way of propaganda, objections to these games by the writers of the ancient times, emergence of female gladiators, the sponsorship of the games, metaphorical meaning of a gladiator, volunteer gladiators and some other interesting aspects of the gladiators and gladiatorial games.

First of all, to understand the relationship between the gladiatorial games and Roman culture; we have to know who the gladiators were, what they were doing in the arena and why people were coming to watch these violent games. The most common source for gladiators was the captured soldiers of the enemies who were the prisoners of war. Slaves who were bought to become a gladiator were a good source as well. Also the criminals of the empire were used as gladiators. Beside all of these sources, interesting enough, normal citizens could become gladiators by their own will. (Roman Civilization, the gladiator). The gladiators were usually fighting with each other and in most of the cases; which is a tragedy, they were forced to kill their own friends to live and to satisfy their masters, the spectators and of course; the emperor. "They were fighting with the man whom they were sharing their drink" (Barton, 1989, p.17). The spectators were the citizens who attended the games to be satisfied and in expectation of having a fine day. They were coming to Rome from the different regions of Italy as well as from foreign countries (Baker, 2000, p.156). They were, actually, the hidden deciders of the death or the survival of the gladiators. It is generally thought that the spectators let the gladiator live when they put their thumbs up and decide the death by putting their thumbs down but it is still unknown, which sign really meant which decision (Post, 1892, p.214).

After these brief descriptions about the permanent members of the gladiatorial games, it's time to get deeper. At this point of the discussion, it's logical to wonder the real meaning of gladiators for Roman citizens. The most important cultural value for Roman people was to kill and die well. As being an ancient empire and a premodern society, Romans faced high mortality rates. A twenty years old Roman citizen would probably think that he would not be able to live until he is thirty so, his goal would probably be to die in an honorable way, as his cultural belongings and his society offers him to do so. Obviously, this was what the gladiators were exactly doing in the battlefields (Roman Civilization, the gladiator). They were killing to survive and finally reach their freedom or dying in an honorable way. They were admired because of their bravery and willingness to die (Dunkle, 2002). The gladiators were used, as metaphors for such words like: power, honor, fierce, unstoppable or irresistible. For example, in the 2nd BC Terence used the expression "with the spirit of the gladiator" meaning "without hope or fear" in his writing named "Phormia". Even after six centuries, the metaphor for gladiators didn't change and it still had the same meaning (Barton, 1989, p.4).

As we all can predict, the emergence of the gladiatorial games was derived from the subconscious feelings of violence and warfare that the Roman people had. These games were seen as a tool for amusement by most of the Romans. Roman citizens would attend the games to prove that they were a part of the successful warrior state, Roman Empire. Warfare was actually a need for them. It is interesting enough that the attendance to the gladiatorial games have extremely increased during the first two centuries AD when there was peace all over the empire and there was no opportunity to have a real warfare. At these times, gladiatorial games were just what Roman people needed. They were satisfying their needs by watching gladiators killing each other. It was also known that the gladiatorial games were used as a symbol of authority, representing the military power and used as a warning to other states even not to think of challenging the empire (Baker, 2000, p.39)

As we have told, gladiators were derived from different sources such as prisoners of war, slaves and criminals. It is interesting enough to know that free citizens were allowed to become gladiators. They should take an oath in which they accept such rules including the probability of being branded, chained or suffer although they didn't want to. This means that they left all the beneficial social offerings of being a free citizen of The Roman Empire and was reduced to the status of a slave (Roman civilization, the gladiator). Then, how could a free Roman citizen volunteer to be a gladiator? It is obvious that this may sound unattractive to us, but to realize that Roman people were living in ancient times in such a violent culture and notice a few advantages of being a gladiator should help us. First of all, the volunteer would have a new meaning for his life. He would feel the atmosphere of the arena not as a spectator but as a gladiator, he would have the excitement of the arena much deeper than he had before being a volunteer (Baker, 2000, p.44). After being a gladiator, he would have the chance to be honored similar to a soldier fought in real warfare. He would fight not more than three times a year, and if he could be successful enough, he could have his freedom again, as well as his prestige and honor. He would probably gain a public popularity like the way athletes have in our present day. The choice of being a volunteer may also be explained by economical factors. It is known that the gladiators got special diets including three meals a day and they had good medical care thinking of the ancient times (Roman civilization, the gladiator). Furthermore, the gladiators who succeeded in proving their power and retired as a free man, would receive an amount of