A bustuarius (plural: bustuarii) was a kind of gladiator in Ancient Rome, who fought about the funeral pyre (Latin : bustum) of the deceased at a Roman funeral. [1] [2] [3]
Bustuarii were considered of even lower status than other gladiators whose fights were exhibited in public gladiatorial games. [4] Bustuarii are mentioned by Cicero in his Against Piso speech, criticizing Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus before the Senate and comparing Publius Clodius Pulcher to a bustuarius gladiator. [5] [6] [7] Tertullian, alleges in his treatise attacking ancient Roman religion in favour of Christianity – On Spectacles – that the origin of gladiatorial games was these funerary rituals. [8] [9] The word could also refer to a gravedigger or cremation attendant. [1] [2] [3]
At first, the practice was to sacrifice captives on the tomb, or at the bustum of warriors: instances of which are in Homer – at the funeral of Patroclus – and in Greek tragedy. Their blood was supposed to appease the di inferi or the manes, gods and spirits of the underworld, and render them propitious to the remains of the deceased. In later ages, this custom appeared too barbarous; and in lieu of these victims, they appointed gladiators to fight, whose blood, it was supposed, might have the same effect.
Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar and Academic Skeptic who played an important role in the politics of the late Roman Republic and upheld optimate principles during the crisis that led to the establishment of the Roman Empire. His extensive writings include treatises on rhetoric, philosophy and politics, and he is considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the Roman equestrian order, and served as consul in 63 BC.
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.
The Catiline or Catilinarian Orations are a set of speeches to the Roman Senate given in 63 BC by Marcus Tullius Cicero, one of the year's consuls, accusing a senator, Lucius Sergius Catilina (Catiline), of leading a plot to overthrow the Roman Senate. Most accounts of the events come from Cicero himself. Some modern historians, and ancient sources such as Sallust, suggest that Catiline was a more complex character than Cicero's writings declare, and that Cicero was heavily influenced by a desire to establish a lasting reputation as a great Roman patriot and statesman. This is one of the best-documented events surviving from the ancient world, and has set the stage for classic political struggles pitting state security against civil liberties.
Clodia, nicknamed Quadrantaria, and occasionally referred to in scholarship as Clodia Metelli, was one of three known daughters of the ancient Roman patrician Appius Claudius Pulcher.
Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus was a Roman senator and the father-in-law of Julius Caesar through his daughter Calpurnia. He was reportedly a follower of a school of Epicureanism that had been modified to befit politicians, as Epicureanism itself favoured withdrawal from politics. Piso was consul in the year 58 BC with Aulus Gabinius as his colleague.
Lucius Cornelius Balbus was born in Gades early in the first century BC. Lucius Cornelius Balbus was a wealthy Roman politician and businessman of Hispanian origin who played a significant role in the emergence of the Principate at Rome. He was a prominent supporter of Julius Caesar and a close advisor to the emperor Augustus.
Roman funerary practices include the Ancient Romans' religious rituals concerning funerals, cremations, and burials. They were part of time-hallowed tradition, the unwritten code from which Romans derived their social norms.
The Via Sacra was the main street of ancient Rome, leading from the top of the Capitoline Hill, through some of the most important religious sites of the Forum, to the Colosseum.
Labici or Labicum or Lavicum was an ancient city of Latium, in what is now central Italy, lying in the territory of the modern Monte Compatri, about 20 km SE from Rome, on the northern slopes of the Alban Hills. Exact location of the original city is however disputed.
Julia was the daughter of Roman dictator Julius Caesar by his first or second wife Cornelia, and his only child from his marriages. Julia became the fourth wife of Pompey the Great and was renowned for her beauty and virtue.
Tullia, sometimes referred to affectionately as Tulliola, was the first child and only daughter of Roman orator and politician Marcus Tullius Cicero, by his first marriage to Terentia. Her younger brother, Marcus Tullius Cicero Minor, born in 65 BC, was consul in 30 BC.
The Porta Esquilina was a gate in the Servian Wall, of which the Arch of Gallienus is extant today. Tradition dates it back to the 6th century BC, when the Servian Wall was said to have been built by the Roman king Servius Tullius. However modern scholarship and evidence from archaeology indicate a date in the fourth century BC. The archway of the gate was rededicated in 262 as the Arch of Gallienus.
Sextus Roscius was a Roman citizen farmer from Ameria during the latter days of the Roman Republic. In 80 BC, he was tried in Rome for patricide, and was successfully defended by the 27-year old Cicero in the extant Pro Roscio Amerino, Cicero's first major litigation. The case involved some risk for Cicero, since he accused Lucius Cornelius Chrysogonus, a freedman of Sulla, dictator of Rome the previous year of the trial, of corruption and involvement in the crime.
Brogitarus was king of Galatia in Asia Minor between 63 BC and 50 BC, reigning concurrently with his father-in-law Deiotarus Philoromaeus, who was also tetrarch of the Tolistobogii. By Deiotarus' daughter Adobogiona, Brogitarus was the father of Amyntas, tetrarch of the Trocmi and king of Galatia.
The writings of Marcus Tullius Cicero constitute one of the most famous bodies of historical and philosophical work in all of classical antiquity. Cicero, a Roman statesman, lawyer, political theorist, philosopher, and Roman constitutionalist, lived in 106–43 BC. He was a Roman senator and consul (chief-magistrate) who played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. A contemporary of famous Roman politicians such as Julius Caesar and Pompey, Cicero is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.
The gens Caeparia was a Roman family during the late Republic. It is best known from two individuals: Marcus Caeparius of Tarracina, one of the conspirators of Catiline, who was supposed to induce the people of rural Apulia to revolt, in 63 BC; and another Marcus Caeparius, mentioned by Cicero in 46 BC.
The gens Fulcinia was a minor plebeian family at ancient Rome. The first of this name to appear in history is Gaius Fulcinius, one of the ambassadors to Fidenae in 438 BC. After this, no Fulcinius is mentioned until the time of Cicero. Several Fulcinii are known from the first century BC, although it is not clear whether or how they were related to the ambassador.
The gens Pupia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Members of this gens are mentioned as early as 409 BC, when Publius Pupius was one of the first plebeian quaestors, but over the course of centuries they achieved little of significance, and rarely held any of the higher offices of the Roman state.
Cicero clearly implies that a gladiator bustuarius, that is to say one employed in munera funeraticia, was in a definitely lower class than those employed in the munera Publica.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Chambers, Ephraim, ed. (1728). Cyclopædia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (1st ed.). James and John Knapton, et al.Missing or empty |title= (help)
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