Spectator Sports in Ancient Rome

Thomas Bowen

Ancient Civilizations

2016

Question: how would you describe the nature of recreation and public entertainment in Canada today? what factors shape these forms of recreation and entertainment? How much violence exists?

Spectator sports have been around for way longer than I can even fathom and many of the sports have evolved but many have also disappeared or stayed the same. In modern Canadian society the nature of our most popular sports are still quite violent and is shaped by one main factor that shape the sports we play today. The factor that shapes our sports is human nature. Taking a look at Canada’s most popular sport, hockey which is an extremely fast paced sport played on an unforgiving ice surface with equipment that makes you into a modern day gladiator. Hockey is a very aggressive game known for it’s unique combination of brut force and finesse. Human nature has shaped hockey into the game it is today because people enjoy watching and playing violent sports it is the feeling of putting yourself up against an opponent, winning and feeling the gratitude that you are better than them. No one understands the game like hockey hero Mario Lemieux, he once said “Hockey is a tough, physical game, and it always should be.” this is the kind of mentality that shapes violent sports and nobody wants to be the person to say this is too violent or this seems dangerous in fear of seeming weaker. A sport that has been growing extremely fast and has won the hearts of many Canadians is Ultimate Fighting, Ultimate Fighting is uber violent and competitive. Taking a look at the most popular fighters like Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor and how they became the most popular is interesting. Both of their initial fame came from being known to destroy their opponents in a matter of seconds and they both grew cocky until their eventually defeat that brings them back down to earth. This is much like the ancient Roman times where everyone would adore the undefeated hero. Violence is not always in the equation for extremely popular sporting events, for example last year when the Jose Bautista hit the game tying home run in game six the audience peaked at seven million, that is one in every five Canadians watching. The numbers are that insane because the Blue Jays became ‘Canada’s’ team and the whole nation got behind the team and felt connected to the team. This is like the Palio that we are going to be seeing where the different neighborhoods feel connected and passionate about their racer.

Question: what were the public recreations and entertainments of this period?

Outside of blood shed sport one of the most popular forums of entertainment was Pantomime-dancing, as the book The Classical World and Epic History of Greece and Rome by Robin Lane Fox states pantomime dancing is “a silent dancer, wearing silk, performed challenging roles while musicians and singers accompanied the rhythm and movement.” pg. 461 Other types of mime like entertainment were popular as well, like mime theater actors who did light comedic sketches. Some Mime-actors and actresses were really well received and even became mistress for high powered senators like Mark Antony while others were a bit too much and received a banishment from Rome, if you upset the wrong people. People really enjoyed the Greek culture and entertainment and the Panhellenic festival was born out of this enjoyment. The Panhellenic festival consists of four different games honoring different gods, there was the Olympic games (honoring Zeus), the Pythian games (honoring Apollo), the Nemean games (honoring Zeus and Heracles) and the Isthmian games (honoring Poseidon). These game were held in a for year cycle with Olympics in the first year, Nemean and Isthmian in second, Pythian in third and Nemean and Isthmian again in the fourth year. Later on in 86 Emperor Domitian founded the Capitoline games that did not just offer sports it offered music and poetry as well. Horse and chariot racing was also popular it’s original participants were wealthy Greeks, but the Romans quickly grew fond of horse racing and created their own their own adaptations involving seven laps in a counter clockwise direction. There was more intense sports, referred to as “blood sports” pg.464 these shows were violent and bloody there was everything from wild animals vs wild animals, even crazier, human vs wild animal, sea battles and just blatant blood bath battles between two teams. In one instance there was twenty-six shows killing off around 3500 animals and involving 10000 men pg.464. Overall there was something for everyone and you were not just stuck to gladiator duels.

Question: What do we know about the gladiatorial games?

Gladiators have become very popular in pop culture in past years with hit movies like Gladiator and countless video games that glorified gladiators and made them into the hit they are today. Gladiators were not viewed the same as they are today, gladiators were usually slaves, criminals and prisoners of war and being made a gladiator was most likely a death sentence, courts would actually