by Nick Morris
“And good fortune to you,” said Clodian returning the smile. “Until we meet again…this side or the other.”
The captain barked the command, “Last call for the Laconian…board now or swim!”
The three journey-men made their way onto the deck.
The wind billowed out the ship’s sail and the Laconian slipped away from the quayside.
Picking up speed it glided forward.
From the ship’s stern Clodian and his two companions waved to the diminishing figures stood on the harbour’s edge. Clodian looked beyond, staring up at the great mountain. He wondered when he’d see the familiar giant again?
He smiled. Perhaps never, he mused, not if what Malleolus says about the women of Greece is true.
Still smiling, he walked unsteadily in the direction of the ship’s prow, towards the opening horizon and a new life.
Chapter 40
CLOSURE
Despite his general good health he‘d caught a bad cold and been laid up in bed for two days.
His bladder had woken him in the middle of the night as usual and he cursed as he attempted to rise from the bed. Vulso pushed himself up painfully, feeling stiffness in every joint. His head ached as though a cascade of drums were pounding in his brain.
He stood by the bed, testing his balance.
“There are whispers in the market that plague has entered Herculaneum,” Sequana, his young slave, spoke from the bed, her voice anxious, “and that it creeps closer every day.”
With effort he turned to the slim shadow outlined on the bed. Unusually for him he’d become quite attached to the young thing. Perhaps because she’d been a virgin when he’d bedded her?
“Do not fear, I have decided for the sake of my health to visit the villa I keep in the hills. There, I can recover and be free of any pestilence. I should be on my feet tomorrow and will depart then.”
“Might I come with you?” queried the worried voice from the bed.
“Yes, that would please me,” said Vulso. “But no more talk or I’ll piss myself.”
Words of gratitude trailed behind him as he shuffled onto the insula’s second floor landing, towards a clay pot situated at the end of the corridor.
Something moved in the shadows ahead of him, and he stopped. It was a rat. A large black creature, so confident in its domain that it held its ground. He took another step forward and it turned about, pausing to look over its shoulder with beady eyes, whiskers trembling a little.
Vulso headed for the clay pot.
He let out a long sigh as he relieved himself. He was in the process of placing his member back in his loin-cloth when a noise from his room brought him about. It was the muffled sound of a struggle followed by throaty cry cut short. He stood still, his fear rooting him to the floor.
A tall figure emerged silently from his room.
The figure walked confidently towards him, making no noise. The intruder wore a dark cloak with the hood pulled forwards. Only his mouth and chin were visible when he came to a halt barely two steps away.
Vulso thought that he’d emptied his bladder, but he could feel the hot seepage in his loin-cloth as his fear mounted.
“Who are you? And what do you want?” Vulso managed to force out the words, crossing his arms across his bare upper body in a feeble gesture of self-protection.
“I wish to discuss the matter of purchasing a young virgin.” The words were spoken calmly, clearly. “No Gauls of course, and she must have some education and breeding.”
Amongst the swirl of his thoughts, stark realization took form in Vulso’s brain.
His eyes caught the movement of the figure’s hands. He glimpsed a length of rope pulled tight between two sinewy fists, and then his bowels emptied.
Historical Afterword
‘From funeral ritual to entertainment.’
The Roman public’s perspective on death and brutality in the arena was part of a very different value system to the one that we’d accept today. In a world where the subjugation of other lands was an acceptable fact of life, the Romans were well versed in the field of conquering and ruling others. Those people who did not embrace Roman culture were perceived as barbarians and inferior, and Rome believed that using force against them was totally acceptable. At the same time, a martial culture was highly venerated, and to sacrifice one’s life for mother Rome was regarded as a great service and honour.
Not surprisingly, such bellicose values permeated down into various aspects of Roman society, including ‘entertainment’. Gladiators were in the main criminals or captives of war; the outfits they donned being modelled on the foreign warriors Rome had defeated. This allowed for little compassion for the arena warriors, who symbolically represented the enemies threatening the Roman state and the Pax Romana. Similarly, to the pagan Roman mind, the slaying of the wild beasts by the venatores (beast-fighters) represented the power of Rome over the chaotic forces of nature. In the spectators’ eyes a gladiator could demonstrate that he had courage and devotion to duty by ‘dying well’ for his superiors.
An average Roman citizen’s life was a relatively short one, and during their brief time in the sun, many were not averse to sampling entertainment in all its forms; no matter how aberrant we perceive it as today. Most gladiators lived to less than 30, at a time when fifty per cent of all Romans died, from all causes, before 25.
Many scholars maintain that the first fights between warriors were staged at the funerals of Roman noblemen in Campania in the mid-fourth century B.C. Campania was the fertile region surrounding the Gulf Of Cumae (now the Bay of Naples) on Italy’s south-western coast (Mt. Vesuvius and Pompeii were major land-marks in Campania).
As the public demand for attendance at the combats grew, the small-scale, largely informal combats meant to honour the dead gave way to public displays increasingly viewed as entertainment. In fact, in the second and first centuries B.C., gladiatorial contests along with other violent kinds of public shows emerged as Rome’s most popular form of entertainment. In addition to gladiator contests there were the wild beast hunts, the execution of criminals by the most horrific means that could be devised, and the bloody combat sport of boxing.
From this time on the public’s hunger for the games grew, and the gladiator shows got ever larger and more exotic. In 65 B.C. the renowned Julius Caesar himself became the first Roman leader to stage large scale munera (meaning the spectacles provided by the ruling elite for the Roman public) as entertainment, a shrewd move designed to increase his popularity and prestige with the Roman masses. It’s recorded that in this one games, Caesar matched 320 pairs of gladiators.
In 44 B.C., just before Caesar’s assassination, the first state funded munera was held. This opened the flood-gates, and thereafter the Roman people were hooked on gladiators. The first emperor. Augustus, recognised the potential for exploiting this public obsession to the state’s advantage. He and his successors made control and promotion of the munera an imperial monopoly. The state learned that gladiatorial bouts, wild beast shows and other spectacles, when sponsored and controlled by government, could actually be effective tools for keeping public order. In the early imperial years, when elections no longer determined leadership – because the emperors controlled the government – the emperors used the games to foster or increase their personal popularity.
So throughout the Roman Empire great amphitheatres appeared.
The state also sponsored large-scale distribution of bread and others food-stuffs to the public via the munera. Senators, generals, as well as emperors came to spend huge sums of money subsidizing the spectacles, and the policy of appeasing the masses through both free food and brutal entertainment became known as panem et circuses, or “bread and circuses,” (a circus was a long race–track used for chariot races, but the term was used in in a more generic sense to mean public games in general). Therefore, in the span of three or four centuries minor single combats originally intended to appease the dead evolved into major spectacles
steeped in blood that appeased the living masses.
There is, of course, a proportion of every nation that would be attracted to the extreme cruelty that was displayed at of the games. As the Roman mob gradually lost all interest in finding work (the work carried out by a huge slave population), serving in the legions or taking any civic responsibility, the games became increasingly more brutal and lewd. There were some Roman leaders who tried to limit this deadly trend. Marcus Aurelius passed a law that gladiators had to fight with blunted weapons. However, the popular opposition was such that he not only had to rescind the law but was forced to increase the number of games threefold, to 230 a year. His annual bill for gladiators alone was over one and a half million pounds.
Curiously, Roman philosophers were almost unanimous in their approval of the games. Cicero said, “It does the people good to see even slaves fight bravely. The games harden a warrior people to sights of carnage and prepares them for battle.” Tacitus couldn’t fathom why Tiberius didn’t like the fights, and quotes the emperor’s habit of turning his eyes away from scenes of slaughter as sign of weakness in his character. Pliny speaks of the games favourably and so do many other serious Roman thinkers.
So, throughout the Roman Empire great amphitheatres appeared, many hardly less impressive than the ones in Rome itself: at Verona, Pompeii, Cagliari, Pozzuoli, Rimini and Capua in Italy, El Djem, Oudna and Carthage in Tunisia, Alexandria in Egypt, Seville and Tarragona in Spain, Durres in Albania, Trier and Xanten in Germany, Devnya in Hungary, Pula in Croatia, at Caesarea and Bet She’an in Israel, Corinth in Greece, Antioch and Ephesus in Turkey, at Arles and Nimes in France and on as smaller scale Chester, Colchester, Silchester, St Albans and Caerleon in Britain, and many more.
Many of these amphitheatres remain, and I’ve been fortunate to have sat in the stands of a selection of them with a sandwich and cold beer, speculating about which gate the animals were released from, where the inner barrier ran, and how they got the great cats into the arena? It’s an interesting way to spend an hour or two for the Romanites among us.
With the emergence and consequent growth of Christianity, Church fathers were to express serious concerns about the damage that might be sustained to the Christian soul by watching gladiatorial combats. Of these, Augustine (later to be canonised) was particularly vocal. Born in A.D. 354 in Numidia (now Algeria),he was regarded as the greatest of the Latin Fathers and one of the most highly respected Western Doctors of the Church. A prolific writer, his best known work is the Confessionals (C.400) autobiography dealing with his early life and conversion to Christianity. It is in his work that he describes the perversion of morality he witnessed in Alypius, one of his fellow students of law at Carthage in the 360s, after Augustine had been cajoled into attending a gladiator show with him:
‘When he saw the blood, it was as though he had drunk a deep draught of savage passion. Instead of turning away, he fixed his eyes upon the scene and drank in all its frenzy, unaware of what he was doing.
‘He revelled in the wickedness of the fighting and was drunk with the fascination of bloodshed.’
According to Augustine, things did eventually turn out right for Alypius, because he ultimately put his trust in God. But the story of Augustine’s pupil illustrates the lure of the gladiator shows, even to people we least expect to be receptive to it.
In pagan Roman eyes, the gladiator (in spite of the adulation he received from the Roman public) was infamis, occupying the very lowest level of society; and yet, by the nature of his profession was offered the chance of regaining his manly worth by displaying skill and bravery in the arena. The salvation thus offered by gladiatorial combat was unacceptable to Christianity, since it was not offered by God, but by the Roman people.
Some surviving writings reveal that as late as the middle of the sixth century A.D., fifty years after the last Roman emperor had been driven from his throne, the Colosseum still drew large crowds to watch the beast hunts. These games were well attended because Rome was still a large and vital city, and for a while much of Italy remained prosperous under the capable Germanic leader, Theodoric the Ostrogoth.
However, shortly after Theodoric’s death in 526 A.D., the city of Rome rapidly declined. Lacking the administration and services that the Roman government, and to a lesser degree, Theodoric had provided, it fell increasingly into disrepair, and its population dwindled to a fraction of what it had been in its heyday. The large and complex governmental apparatus needed to pay for and stage the games, the games, as well as maintaining the massive facilities that housed them had gone.
By the end of the sixth century, grass had begun to grow in the stands of the Colosseum and other amphitheatres, where for centuries audiences had cheered the arena warriors, and with a chant, a waved handkerchief and gesture of their thumbs had decreed life or death.
Glossary of Terms
Aureus (pl. Aureii) Rome’s largest gold coin, worth twenty five denarii.
Bustuarius (pl. Bustuarii) A term for ancient gladiators, sometimes used derisively, meaning funeral fighters. From the time when gladiators fought at bustum – funeral ceremonies.
Denarius (pl. Denarii) After seeing Greek coins in central Italy, the Romans opened their first mint around 290 BC. The Roman denarius was a widely used silver coin and would have been marked with the Emperor’s head. During the reign of Emperor Tiberius a legionary would have earned about 230 denarii a year.
Cavea The tiered semi-circular seating space in the Roman theatre and amphitheatre, traditionally organized in three horizontal sections corresponding to the social standing of the spectators.
Cupid The Roman god of erotic love and desire.
Doctore The title given to a gladiator trainer.
Domina Roman name for mistress of house.
Falerian A relatively more expensive wine of high alcohol content – as high as 30% – grown in the Campania region of Roman Italy. It differed in colour on maturity from amber to dark brown.
Ferryman Named Etruria, the ferryman was the Roman god who delivered souls to the underworld. The equivalent of the Greek Charon.
First Hour The Roman day was divided into twelve hours. The hora prima – the first hour, began at sunrise. The last – the horaduo decima – ended at sunset.
Fortuna The Roman goddess of fortune and luck.
Gladius The short sword used by the Roman Legionary and particular styles of gladiator. Adopted from the conquered tribes of Spain, it ranged from eighteen to twenty inches in length. Primarily a thrusting weapon, it could also be used for cutting and slashing. It was the sword that gave gladiators their name.
Insula (pl. insulae) The area in Roman cities covered by six to eight apartment blocks grouped around a central courtyard. The poorer classes lived in three storey tenements blocks, while the wealthier citizens lived in a one-storey domus.
Ludus A training school for gladiators.
Mars Ultor Roman god of war, and the Roman Legions’ most prominent military god.
Mercuries Arena attendants dressed in the symbolic garb of Mercury (the Roman messenger god who accompanied the dead to the afterlife). A Mercury would utilize a heated iron to ensure that a fallen gladiator was in fact dead. If not, a fellow attendant dressed as Charon – the Roman god of the dead – would finish the gladiator off with a swift blow to the head, using a wooden mallet supplied for this purpose. Dead gladiators were dragged from the arena utilizing a sharp hook driven through the heel.
Mithras Mithras was a young virile god who was worshipped in the Roman Empire from the 1st to the 4th centuries A.D. The cult of Mithras spread from the east and was very popular with Roman soldiers.
Parentalia The popular Roman festival of this name paid respect to dead parents.
Procurator An Imperial Procurator was an important administrator responsible for overseeing the gladiator barracks within a province.
Pugile Roman boxer. Boxing (pugilatus) was very popular with the Roman public, and was deliberately made more bruta
l during the imperial period. The gloves’ (caestus) leather knuckleduster was to be replaced by metal spikes or a metal jagged edge that protruded towards the opponent. Fights would often end in death because of the severe injuries inflicted.
Pugio A broad-bladed dagger that was the sidearm of the Roman legionary. It was the weapon of choice used by the assassins of Julius Caesar.
Quadran (pl. quadrans) A Roman bronze coin of low value.
Quaestor (pl. quaestores) A Roman magistrate/government official.
Retiarius (pl. retiarii) Type of gladiator who was armed with a trident, a weighted net and small dagger. His left arm was protected by a leather sleeve and shoulder guard. He was regularly matched against the secutor.
Rudis A wooden sword that was the symbol of freedom given to successful gladiators on retirement from the arena. Not to be mistaken for the lusoriaarna – the wooden training sword used by gladiators.
Salus The Roman god of health and fitness.
Secutor (pl. Secutores) Type of gladiator whose equipment consisted of a smooth, conical helmet with small eye-holes, a large rectangular shield, a greave on his left leg, a protective sleeve on his right arm and the gladius sword. The secutor was created especially for combat against the retiarius.
Sesterce (pl. Sesterces) An ancient Roman coin made of silver and worth a quarter of a denarius.
Spatha The spatha, or long sword, was the weapon of the Roman cavalry units. Longer than the gladius, it gave the reach and cutting power needed from horseback. In the third and fourth centuries A.D. it gradually replaced the gladius as the Roman infantry sword.