Rome’s public games, which included gladiatorial combats, the slaughter of wild animals, staged naval battles, and chariot races, constitute one of the most famous aspects of ancient Roman culture. Of these types of games, all but the gladiatorial fights were called ludi. Originally they were connected with various religious festivals (in which people sacrificed to the gods and followed up with feasts and sometimes sporting contests or exhibitions), but by the late Republic they had become more secular in nature.

Though chariot races and fights to the death between gladiators existed in the Monarchy and early Republic, they were small in scale and staged infrequently (as well as privately funded in the case of gladiatorial combats). Not until the late Republic and early Empire did these and other spectacles become large-scale institutions sponsored solely by the government. As late as the early first century B.C., many leading Romans frowned on the idea of staging big public shows on a regular basis, blaming such entertainments as promoting public laziness. The Romans already observed many public holidays (at least fifty-seven by the mid-first century B.C., a number that continued to grow). Because most work was suspended on these days, large numbers of poor urban Romans were idle for significant periods of time. Many senators and other leaders harbored the paranoid fear that the so-called mob, hungry and having too little to occupy its time, might protest, riot, or even rebel. Especially dangerous, in this view, was allowing large numbers of commoners to congregate in one place, which might lead to civil disturbances and the erosion of state authority; consequently the Senate long refused to approve the construction of large, permanent theaters and amphitheaters.

As public games became increasingly popular, these fears proved groundless. Roman leaders found, in fact, that public spectacles, controlled by aristocrats and/or the state, could actually be potent tools for maintaining public order. So they made these games part of a twofold policy. First, the government sponsored regular large-scale distributions of bread and other foodstuffs to the poor. By the late first century A.D., as many as 150,000 urban Romans received such handouts at hundreds of distribution centers located across the capital city. Senators, military generals, and emperors also spent huge sums subsidizing public festivals, shows, and games. This policy of appeasing the masses through both free food and entertainment eventually became known as “bread and circuses” (panem et circenses) in reference to a famous sarcastic remark by the satirist Juvenal. “There’s only two things that concern the masses,” he said, “bread and games” (Tenth Satire 79-80).

Next to the chariot races (ludi circenses), the most popular of these games were the gladiatorial combats (munera) and wild animal fights staged in amphitheaters like Rome’s famous Colosseum. The number of holidays on which munera were held each year is unclear. Such games were very expensive to produce and likely took place only on special occasions and therefore on an irregular basis. The Romans borrowed the custom of the munera from the Etruscans. The Etruscans believed that when an important man died, his spirit required a blood sacrifice to survive in the afterlife (hence the literal translation of munera, “offerings” or “obligations” to the dead); so outside these individuals’ tombs they staged rituals in which warriors fought to the death. In Rome, the munera were at first relatively small, private affairs funded and staged by aristocrats. Over time, however, both they and the general populace came to view these games more as entertainment than funeral ritual and demand grew for making gladiator bouts part of the public games. Julius Caesar was the first leader to stage large-scale public munera, presenting 320 pairs of gladiators in 65 B.C.

It was Caesar who also provided a bridge from the older system of training and managing gladiators to the one that prevailed in the Empire. Before his time, a well-to-do individual who wanted to put on a gladiatorial show went to a professional supplier called a lanista, who procured and trained the fighters. Desiring to give the state more control over these fights, Caesar built a gladiator school run by senators and other prestigious Romans. Following his lead, his adopted son, Augustus, and the other early emperors soon made staging the munera virtually an imperial monopoly. State control and promotion of the games was a crucial factor in the rapid transformation of their “bread and circuses” policy into an ingrained institution.

The gladiators who fought in these games were mostly prisoners, slaves, and criminals who trained long and hard in schools like the one Caesar built, although a few such fighters were paid volunteers. Some of the latter involved themselves to solve financial difficulties, for the winers received generous prize money. Other volunteers were motivated by the physical challenge and appeal of danger, or the prospect of becoming popular idols and sex symbols who could have their pick of pretty young girls.

There were various types and categories of gladiator. Among the four main types that had evolved by the early Empire was the heavily armed Samnite, later called a hoplomachus or secutor. He carried a sword or a lance, a scutum (the rectangular shield used by Roman legionary soldiers), a metal helmet, and protective armor on his right arm and left leg. The Thracian was less elaborately armed: He wielded a curved short sword, the sica, and a small round shield, the parma. A third kind of gladiator, the murmillo, or “fishman” (after the fish-shaped crest on his helmet) was apparently similar to a Samnite, but less heavily armed. A murmillo customarily fought still another kind of warrior, the retiarius, or “net-man,” who wore no armor at all. A retiarius attempted to ensnare his opponent in his net (or used the net to trip the other man) and then to stab him with a long, razor-sharp trident (a three-pronged spear).

In addition to the pairings of these main gladiator types, there were a number of special and off-beat types and pairings. These included equites, who fought on horseback using lances, swords, and lassoes; the essedarii, who confronted each other on chariots; and perhaps the most bizarre of the lot, the andabatae, who grappled while blindfolded by massive helmets with no eye-holes. Women gladiators came into vogue under the emperors Nero and Domitian in the late first century A.D. And evidence shows that Domitian sometimes pitted female fighters against male dwarves, as well as against one another.

On the eagerly anticipated day when munera were scheduled at the Colosseum or another amphitheater, the gladiators first entered the arena in a colorful parade known as a pompa. Then they proceeded to draw lots, which decided the pairings, and an official inspected their weapons to make sure they were sound and well sharpened. Finally, the gladiators soberly raised their weapons toward the highest-ranking official present (usually either the emperor or munerarius, the magistrate in charge of the spectacle) and recited the phrase, “Morituri te salutamus,” “We who are about to die salute you!” After that, the first contest began. Having no rules or referees, the combat was invariably desperate and often savage. It often ended with the death of one of the contestants, but some matches were declared a draw. Another outcome was possible when one gladiator went down wounded. He was allowed to raise one finger, a sign of appeal for mercy, after which the emperor or munerarius decided his fate, usually in accordance with the crowd’s wishes. The traditional consensus among modern historians has been that if the spectators desired a fighter spared, they signaled that desire with a “thumbs-up” gesture; if their choice was death, they indicated it with a “thumbs-down.” This may indeed have been the case. However, several experts have offered other intriguing possibilities, such as a thumbs-down (along with the waving of handkerchiefs) as the signal for the victor to drop his sword and spare the loser; and the pressing of the thumb toward the chest (symbolizing a sword through the heart) to call for death.

Ferocious fights between humans and beasts and between beasts and beasts constituted another large-scale arena attraction. Generally termed venationes, or “hunts,” they were originally minor spectacles presented mainly in early morning before the bulk of spectators had arrived. By the early Empire, however, the hunts had become popular enough to warrant staging them in late afternoon, when more people attended arena shows. The government imported animals from the far reaches of its realm, and often beyond, including tigers, leopards, lions, bulls, elephants, ostriches, and crocodiles. Often they engaged in mortal combat with a “hunter” (venator; the term bestiarius, or “beast man,” may have referred to a lower-status hunter), who wielded a spear, sword, club, bow and arrow, or some other weapon. The gruesome toll of animals butchered in this manner must have been enormous. The record of nine thousand beasts slaughtered during the one hundred days of the emperor Titus’s inauguration of the Colosseum in A.D. 80 was surpassed in 107 when the emperor Trajan presented immense spectacles lasting 123 days. At least eleven thousand animals were killed in these games. Yet in what now seems a strange and grotesque juxtaposition of pitiless slaughter and charming frivolity, a hunt (venatio) usually concluded with some comic relief in the form of trained animal acts like those in today’s circuses.

Meanwhile, interspersed with the periodic slaughter of nearly helpless animals were shows featuring the massacre of completely helpless humans. While various kinds of petty criminals might be sentenced to the gladiator schools, many more serious offenders were condemned to outright execution in the arena. This was certainly not sport by any modern definition of the word; yet as an ever-present component of the general spectacle that the Romans viewed as games, it cannot be ignored. The munerarius took charge of the condemned men, guaranteeing that each would be killed within a year. Usually at around noon, before the formal gladiatorial bouts began, guards herded the unarmed criminals up onto the arena floor, where some were quickly hacked down by a troop of fully armed gladiators. Others were crucified, and still others tied to stakes, on which they were mangled and

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devoured by half-starved lions, bears, and other beasts.

Criminals (along with war prisoners) also died in staged naval battles known as naumachia. In the roles of sailors and soldiers in rival fleets, they fought to the death in full-size ships, usually on lakes or in special basins (also called naumachia) dug to accommodate these spectacles. Often, the men were outfitted to represent the participants of famous historical naval battles. Caesar staged a naumachia in 46 B.C. And Augustus held one of the most impressive on record in 2 B.C., later bragging:

I presented to the people an exhibition of a naval battle across the Tiber [River] where a grove of the Caesars now is, having had the site excavated 1,800 feet in length and 1,200 feet in width. In this exhibition thirty beaked ships [i.e., equipped with rams], triremes [ships with three banks of oars] or biremes [with two banks], and in addition a great number of smaller vessels engaged in combat. On board these fleets, exclusive of rowers, there were about 3,000 combatants. (Res gestae 23)

Successful gladiators and arena hunters often became very popular with the crowds and had fan followings. But their popularity rarely compared to that of some of the more winning Roman charioteers, who were on a par with today’s most famous sports heroes and movie stars. Some charioteers also became wealthy, though most of them began as slaves or poor commoners. Although the owners of the horses received the purse money, they gave their drivers monetary rewards, and successful charioteers eventually gained their freedom (if they started out as slaves) and began receiving hefty percentages of the purse. Thus, it was not uncommon for the more popular drivers to become rich men. The inscription on a monument erected by one charioteer, Calpurnianus, tells how he won 1,127 victories, including several that paid him forty thousand sesterces (about forty times the annual wage of an average Roman soldier) or more. Another popular charioteer, Crescens, began racing at age thirteen and died at age twenty-four, earning over 1.5 million sesterces in his short but glorious career.

The chariots driven by these men were of various types, the most common being four-horse versions called quadrigae. Two-horse versions were called bigae. Less frequently seen, although not rare, were races for chariots with three (trigae), six (seiuges), eight (octoiuges), and even ten (decemiuges) horses. Another race staged only occasionally was the pedibus ad quadrigam, in which two men stood in the chariot; when the vehicle crossed the finish line, one of them jumped out and sprinted once around the course. There were also desultorii, who probably entertained the crowds in the intervals between the chariot races. More an acrobat than a rider, a desultor stood on the backs of two horses that were reined together and performed various jumps and tricks.

Supporting the charioteers were various rival racing organizations, or factions (factiones), one of the more important social, as well as economic, aspects of the races. Afactio was a private stable run by a businessman, a dominus factionis, who hired out his horses, equipment, and drivers (many of whom were slaves and therefore his property) to the government magistrate who financed and supervised the races. In a way, the domini factionum corresponded to modern owners of professional football and other sports teams. They grew rich from collecting not only their rental fees, but also the often considerable prize money for winning races.

Each faction was identified by the color of the tunics its drivers wore. The four traditional colors—the Whites, Reds, Blues, and Greens—were ancient, dating perhaps from the days of the kings. But there were no factions in that early period. The probable

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development was first, that the drivers wearing these colors became fan favorites, prompting the perpetuation of loyal fan support for the colors; that over time the rivalry between the four colors became fierce; and later, when actual racing organizations emerged in the early first century A.D., that each fan following came to identify itself with a faction and vice versa. Some scholars suggest that the first two formal stables were the Reds and Whites, followed by the Blues and Greens.

Both the differences and connections between the racing stables and their fans are further complicated by the common misidentification of the term factiones with racing partisans. Besides its regular fan following from the general population, each color/faction had a hard-core group of devotees—the partisans. Relatively few in number (perhaps fewer than a thousand for each color in each major city), they formed clubs; sat and loudly cheered together in the circus; also likely socialized together; and sometimes received the financial support of wealthy individuals seeking to bolster the images of their favorite colors. But the partisans usually had no formal connections with the stables and owners themselves. Whether given by partisans or ordinary fans, public allegiance for the factions was often intense and sometimes even fanatical. Later, in the sixth century, rivalry between the Blues and Greens became so fanatical in Constantinople that their supporters sometimes attacked and killed one another. When the emperor Justinian tried to stem the violence by arresting several faction leaders, it touched off a riot that almost destroyed the city.

An exhibition of chariot racing began with a pompa, which in many ways resembled the triumph of a Roman general. When the parade ended and it was time for the first race to commence, four drivers (each usually, though not always, representing one of the four traditional colors) underwent a lottery to determine their starting positions. Then the race began. The charioteers had to complete seven full laps (about two and a half miles), during which time they desperately and ruthlessly vied for every possible advantage. Each attempted to maneuver into the inside lane, against the racetrack’s central spine (the euripus), since the distance of a lap in this position was somewhat shorter than in the outer lanes. Drivers tried to sabotage one another by breaking a rival’s wheels or axles or by other nefarious means. The most spectacular result of such on-track warfare was the “shipwreck” (naufragium), in which a chariot and its horses crashed into a mass of twisted debris and broken bones. Such suspense, danger, violence, blood spilling, and death were what kept the crowds coming; indeed, these were the principal themes and common features in all of Rome’s public games. See circuses ; drama ; theaters and amphitheaters (all Chapter 6).