Among Ancient Romans, bestiarii (singular bestiarius) were those who went into combat with beasts, or were exposed to them. It is conventional [1] to distinguish two categories of bestiarii: the first were those condemned to death via the beasts (see damnatio ad bestias ) and the second were those who faced them voluntarily, for pay or glory (see venatio ). [2] The latter are sometimes erroneously called "gladiators"; to their contemporaries, however, the Latin term gladiator referred specifically to one who fought other men. The contemporary term for those who made a career out of participating in arena "hunts" was venatores .
As a means of torturous capital punishment, death by wild beasts was a punishment for enemies of the state, [3] a category which included those taken prisoner and slaves found guilty of a serious crime. These were sent to their deaths naked and unable to defend themselves against the beasts. Even if they succeeded in killing one, fresh animals were continually let loose on them, until the bestiarii were all dead. It is reported that it was seldom necessary for two beasts to be required to take down one man; on the contrary, one beast frequently dispatched several men. Cicero mentions a single lion which alone dispatched 200 bestiarii. [1]
Seneca relates that a German prisoner, rather than participate, killed himself by forcing a sponge used in the lavatory down his throat. [4] "What a brave fellow!", said Seneca, "He surely deserved to be allowed to choose his fate! How bravely he would have wielded a sword!". Another nodded as if asleep and, lowering his head, thrust it between the spokes of the cart wheel, breaking his neck. [5] Symmachus writes of twenty-nine Saxon prisoners strangling one another in their cells the night before they were to appear in the arena. [6]
Bestiarii, as reported by Seneca, [1] consisted of young men who, to become expert in managing their arms, fought sometimes against beasts, and sometimes against one another; and of bravos who, to show their courage and dexterity, exposed themselves to this dangerous combat. Augustus encouraged this practice in young men of the first rank; Nero exposed himself to it; and it was for killing beasts in the amphitheatre that Commodus acquired the title of the Roman Hercules. [1]
Vigenère adds two more types of bestiarii: [7] the first were those who made a trade of it, and fought for money. It appears that there were schools in Rome, in which people were trained to fight wild beasts (scholae bestiarum, or bestiariorum). [8] The second type was where several armed bestiarii were let loose at once against a number of beasts. [1]
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A gladiator was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their lives and their legal and social standing by appearing in the arena. Most were despised as slaves, schooled under harsh conditions, socially marginalized, and segregated even in death.
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Quintus Aurelius Symmachus signo Eusebius was a Roman statesman, orator, and man of letters. He held the offices of governor of proconsular Africa in 373, urban prefect of Rome in 384 and 385, and consul in 391. Symmachus sought to preserve the traditional religions of Rome at a time when the aristocracy was converting to Christianity, and led an unsuccessful delegation of protest against Emperor Gratian's order to remove the Altar of Victory from the curia, the principal meeting place of the Roman Senate in the Forum Romanum. Two years later he made a famous appeal to Gratian's successor, Valentinian II, in a dispatch that was rebutted by Ambrose, the bishop of Milan. Symmachus's career was temporarily derailed when he supported the short-lived usurper Magnus Maximus, but he was rehabilitated and three years later appointed consul. After the death of Theodosius I, he became an ally of Stilicho, the guardian of emperor Honorius. In collaboration with Stilicho he was able to restore some of the legislative powers of the Senate. Much of his writing has survived: nine books of letters; a collection of Relationes or official dispatches; and fragments of various orations.
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Venatio was a type of entertainment in Roman amphitheaters involving the hunting and killing of wild animals.
A retiarius was a Roman gladiator who fought with equipment styled on that of a fisherman: a weighted net, a three-pointed trident, and a dagger (pugio). The retiarius was lightly armoured, wearing an arm guard (manica) and a shoulder guard (galerus). Typically, his clothing consisted only of a loincloth (subligaculum) held in place by a wide belt, or of a short tunic with light padding. He wore no head protection or footwear.
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Damnatio ad bestias was a form of Roman capital punishment where the condemned person was killed by wild animals, usually lions or other big cats. This form of execution, which first appeared during the Roman Republic around the 2nd century BC, had been part of a wider class of blood sports called Bestiarii.
An essedarius was a type of gladiator in Ancient Rome who fought from a chariot. The word was used in Caesar's Gallic Wars to describe British charioteers, who were driven over the battlefield, throwing spears at the enemy, then dismounted to fight or launched themselves along the chariot yoke. There are few references to them in the literature. In Petronius' Satyricon, one fights to the accompaniment of a water-organ. Seneca remarks on the difficulty of recognising a dismounted essedarius; this has been taken to imply that their fighting from chariots was their most distinctive feature. Some, most, or all essedarii had drivers, and some chariot fighters may have been citizens; Suetonius describes Caligula's annoyance at tripping and falling, distracted by the applause of the crowd when a successful essedarius freed the slave who had driven him.
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The spectacles in ancient Rome were numerous, open to all citizens and generally free of charge; some of them were distinguished by the grandeur of the stagings and cruelty.