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Gladiators in the Theatre

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

E. J. Jory
E. J. Jory
Affiliation:
University of Western Australia
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Extract

While restating the correct interpretation of the prologue to the Hecyra of Terence in CQ 32 (1982), 134 F. H. Sandbach has this to say: ‘Possibly the widespread view which the translators and I reject has been encouraged by disbelief that the theatre could be used for gladiatorial combat. It is true that there is no reliable evidence for such use at Rome, for Donatus' statement “hoc abhorret a nostra consuetudine uerumtamen apud antiquos gladiatores in theatro spectabantur” may be no more than inference from Terence's text.’ There is, in fact, a certain amount of evidence for gladiatorial combats in the theatres at Rome, that is at venues where ludi scaenici were performed, which it is difficult to regard as unreliable and which is consistent with what we know of the relationship between the theatre and gladiatorial games.

Type
Shorter Notes
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 36 , Issue 2 , December 1986 , pp. 537 - 539
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1986

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References

1 Livy, , Epit. 16Google Scholar; Valerius Maximus 2.4.7. For ludi scaenici as funeral games see Livy 41.28.11 and Taylor, L. R. ‘The Opportunities for Dramatic Performances in the time of Plautus and Terence’, TAPA 68 (1937), 299Google Scholar.

2 Polybius 6.53.

3 Livy 23.30.15.

4 Livy 31.50.4. The forum was used for gladiatorial shows for the next 200 years: Plut. Gaius Gracchus 12; Suetonius, , Julius 39.1Google Scholar; Dio 43.23.3; Suetonius, , Augustus 43, etc.Google Scholar See Schneider, K. E., R. E. Suppl. iii, 760–2Google Scholar.

5 Livy 39.46.2–3. Compare the similar ceremonies in honour of Flamininus in 174 b.c., Livy 41.28.11.

6 Hanson, J., Roman Theatre Temples 13ffGoogle Scholar.

7 Plutarch, , Gaius Gracchus 12Google Scholar; Cicero, , pro Sestio 124Google Scholar; cf. Dio 43.22.3 (46 b.c.).

8 Cicero, , Philippics 9.16Google Scholar, ‘circumque earn statuam locum ludis gladiatoribusque liberos posterosque eius quoquo versus pedes quinque habere quod is ob rem publicam mortem obierit’. For the phrase ludis gladiatoribusque cf. pro Sestio 106. For a possible parallel at Urso see n. 12 below.

9 Panegyric in Theod. 284.15 Hartel, 85 p. 213.25 Vogel ‘Rutilium et Manlium conperimus gladiatorium conflictum magistrante populis prouidentia contulisse, ut inter theatrales caueas plebs diuturna pace possessa quid in acie gereretur agnosceret.’ Cf. Valerius Maximus 2.3.2 ‘Armorum tractandorum meditatio a P. Rutilio consule Cn. Malli collega militibus est tradita: is enim nullius ante se imperatoris exemplum secutus ex ludo C. Aureli Scauri doctoribus gladiatorum arcessitis uitandi atque inferendi ictus subtiliorem rationem legionibus ingenerauit uirtutemque arti et rursus artem uirtuti miscuit, ut ilia impetu huius fortior, haec illius scientia cautior fieret.’ Buecheler, F. argues that the two statements are independent ‘Die staatliche Anerkennung des Gladiatorenspiels’, RhM 38 (1883), 476–9Google Scholar while Ville, G. argues that the Ennodius passage is derived from Valerius Maximus, ‘Les jeux de gladiateurs dans l'Empire Chrétien’, MEFR 72 (1960), 305–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 Dio 54.2.

11 Dio 54.28.

12 FIRA 1.182.LXX, ‘Il viri…in suo mag(istratu) munus ludosue scaenicos Iovi Iunoni Minervae deis deabusq(ue) quadnduom m(aiore) p(arte) diei, quot eius fieri poteret, arbitratu decurionum faciunto…’. cf. LXXI. ‘Aediles…munus ludos scaenicos…et unum diem in circo aut in foro Veneri faciunto.’

13 Pliny, , N.H. 36.24. 116–20Google Scholar; Nicolaus 81, 92, 94, 98, cf. 49; Appian, , B.C. 2.118Google Scholar; Dio 44.16. See also Horsfall, N., ‘The Ides of March: Some New Problems’, Greece and Rome 21 (1974), 195–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Contra Horsfall (p. 195 n. 3) Cicero, , ad fam. 7.1.3Google Scholar. does not prove that gladiatorial combats took place in the theatre to celebrate its opening. Contempseris indicates that Marius had shown his distaste for gladiators on an earlier occasion, while neither Dio 39.38 nor Plutarch, , Pompey 52Google Scholar, mentions gladiators, either in the theatre or in the Circus.