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Bakalarska_prace_-_Lukas_Kratochvil

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Masarykova univerzita

Filozofická fakulta

Katedra Archeologie a muzeologie

Klasická archeologie

Lukáš Kratochvíl

GLADIÁTOR TRÁK A JEHO ARMATURA OD

ARCHEOLOGICÉ EVIDENCE PO

REKONSTRUKCI

Vedoucí práce: Dr. Elisabetta Maria Gagetti, Ph.D.

2012

Prohlašuji, že jsem diplomovou práci vypracoval samostatně s využitím uvedených pramenů a literatury.

………………………………………

Podpis autora práce

2

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Elisabetta Gagetti for her valuable advice, her time and encouragement that she provided me during work on this thesis. I would also like to express great thanks to my girlfriend Lenka Hadašová for her language correction and psychological support, which was inestimable during forming of this work and my studies.

3

 

Content

 

1. Introduction ..........................................................................................................................

5

2. Gladiators..............................................................................................................................

6

2.1

Brief history of the games ................................................................................................

6

2.2

Structure of the games ......................................................................................................

8

2.3

The classes of gladiators.................................................................................................

10

2.4

Thraex .............................................................................................................................

12

2.5

Similarities and differences: the hoplomachus ...............................................................

14

3. The Finds.............................................................................................................................

16

3.1

Galea (“Helmet”) ...........................................................................................................

16

3.2

Ocreae (“Greaves”) .......................................................................................................

25

3.3

Manica (“Arm-guard”) ...................................................................................................

37

3.4

Weapons .........................................................................................................................

38

3.5

Parmula (“Shield”).........................................................................................................

39

4 . The Iconographic Sources ................................................................................................

40

4.1

Relieves ..........................................................................................................................

41

4.2

Mosaic ............................................................................................................................

46

4.4

Decorative items .............................................................................................................

53

5. The elements of the armature in the light of reenactment .............................................

55

5.1

Reenactment: an experimental approach ........................................................................

55

5.2

Reenactors ......................................................................................................................

57

5.3

Reconstruction ................................................................................................................

58

5.4

Manica ............................................................................................................................

58

5.5

Ocreae ............................................................................................................................

60

5.6

Sica .................................................................................................................................

62

5.7

Parmula ..........................................................................................................................

64

5.8. Galea .............................................................................................................................

66

6. Conclusion...........................................................................................................................

70

7. Summary .............................................................................................................................

71

7. Bibliography .......................................................................................................................

73

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1. Introduction

There is a lack of modern literature dealing with particular a type only of gladiator. The present work has the wish to contribute to a better knowledge of the armatura of the gladiator type thraex. Two are the main ways: the first, to summarize the principal finds of equipment and the iconographical sources; the second, the experimental reconstruction of replicas of the equipment and armature of the gladiator type thraex from the 1st century AD onwards.

The most meaningful sources used for such reconstructions are the finds from the gladiatorial barracks at Pompeii. The purpose of this experiment is to enlarge our acquaintance especially about the structural elements of representative gladiatorial material from archeological contexts.

Another aim of the present work, then, is to answer the question which qualities and functions could original finds show in the time they were used. Scholarly studies are usually focused on setting the artifact into its context, on its implication and function more than on the way in which it was created. Projects devoted to the classification and function of gladiatorial equipment are rarely focused on its construction methods, the analysis of the realization of fixed and moving joints and other production processes. Even complex archeological studies on this theme usually lack the documentation about the structure of the items and the details of joints, which instead provides the best information about the techniques and the ways of construction of such artifacts.

The active interest about reenacting of this period is one of the main reasons for writing this work and there is a separate chapter dedicated to it1. The reconstruction of the armature of the gladiator type thraex is part of a project dealing with the reconstruction of gladiatorial armatures of the 1st and 2nd century AD2. The bronze parts of the reconstructed armature were created by Mr. Martin Junek3, who is at the top of world-class armory crafters.

1Chapter 5.

2The project is brought on by the team of professional reenactors “Familia Gladiatoria Tavrvs”.

3Armoury Maral company (for a brief overview of reconstructions of non-gladiatorial armatures belonging to different periods, but made with the same traditional techniques, see: www.maral.cz

5

His experience in bronze working enabled this experiment. The reconstruction of the thraex’s equipment was based on my own photographic documentation of originals4. In other cases it was necessary to start from the pictorial appendix of finished projects. The reconstruction of the bronze parts of an armature is a difficult and expensive procedure. The demand of time influenced the creating process of last part – the thraex’s helmet type Pompeii H12 − which is not yet finished. Anyway, the major part of the armature elements is ready and could be used in this work.

2. Gladiators

2.1 Brief history of the games

The origin of the gladiatorial games in Rome is commonly connected with the year 264 BC, when two sons of the deceased D. Junius Brutus Pera brought out three pairs of gladiators at the funeral games to honour their dead father. Human sacrifices were already known in Rome before this date, but this was the first known occasion in the city when a gladiatorial combat was staged at a funeral.

The blood of warriors spilled on the funeral pyre should propitiate the gods of the Underworld or put them into a good mood. This performance was called munus5. It was very typical in ancient Mediterranean cultures to spill blood on the deceased relative’s grave6. In the course of time the character of munera changed. The higher the deceased’s social rank was, the more expensive performance was expected. These funeral rituals were very popular with the audience, which considered the gladiatorial fight as an exciting and extraordinary amusement.

During the second century BC the gladiatorial show spread throughout Italy and its religious purpose was transformed into a means of political power. With time, the number of fighters engaged in gladiatorial fights raised. Noble families vied in the number of committed fighters so much that in many munera hundreds of gladiators performed.

Fifty years after the first mention about gladiatorial fights, in 216 BC, “After the death of M. Aemilius Lepidus, who had been augur and twice consul, his three sons, Lucius,

4Mainly greaves and helmets from the Musée du Louvre, which are on permanent exhibition.

5Plural: munera. Its meaning is “gift of living towards dead”.

6Nossov 2009, p. 12.

6

Marcus, and Quintus, celebrated funeral games in his honor for three days and exhibited twenty-two pairs of gladiators in the Forum7.

In 174 BC Titus Quintus Flaminius presented seventy-four gladiators, which was unprecedented number until that time. The funerary games lasted four days, three of which were consecrated to gladiatorial fights8. On this occasion a wooden amphitheatre was built in the forum boarium.

In 29 BC, Titus Statilius Taurus built in the Campus Martius the first stone amphitheatre in Rome.

Forty years later, in AD 70, partly on the place of Nero’s Domus Aurea − in the area of an artificial lake − Vespasian started the construction of the Amphitheatrum Flavium, wellknown from the 9th century AD onwards as “Colosseum”, from the colossal statue of Nero himself, later transformed into a statue of Sol, rising close to the building. It was finished by Titus in AD 80. The Colosseum could take in up to 50,000 viewers. The inaugural ceremony lasted 100 days and the number of wounded or dead gladiators was unprecedentedly high. Together with the Circus Maximus the Colosseum became the most famous amusement place throughout the Empire.

Under the reign of Trajan there were held the greatest games of ever. In 107 BC the Emperor delivered 120-day games in honour of his victory over the Dacians. In these games took part 10,000 gladiators and 11,000 animals were killed. During the next five years Trajan delivered other three games: the third lasted 117 days and 4,941 pairs of gladiators met. Altogether, between AD 107 and AD 113, almost 20,500 gladiators appeared in the Roman arena.

In AD 180-192 even Emperor Commodus entered the arena and reached allegedly 1,100 victories. However, the historian Sextus Aurelius Victor (4th century AD) states that his opponents were armed with lead weapons9. He entered arena as a secutor gladiator

The end of gladiatorial games is directly connected with Christianity. In AD 313 Christianity was accepted as rightful religion by the Edict of Milan and in AD 325 had Constantine the Great (the first Roman Emperor who adopted the Christian faith) declared in

7Livy 23.30.15 (after: http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/ah/Livy/Livy23.html; last access 5.06.2012).

8Livy 41.28.11.

9De Caesaribus, 17.4.

7

Beirut an edict, which condemned “spilling of the blood in public” and ordered the law courts to send culprits into jail or to mines instead of into the arena. Nevertheless, this edict was accepted only in the eastern provinces of the Empire. On Italian territory Constantine ignored his own decree and granted to priests in Umbria and Etruria the right to deliver gladiatorial games. So, the games continued but not at the same extent as before.

In AD 375 Emperor Constantius II stopped the recruitment of Roman soldiers as volunteers for gladiatorial training and fighting in the arena. Eight years later, Emperor Valentinian I issued a second edict which prohibited the sending of criminals into arenas. In AD 399 Emperor Honorius shut the remaining gladiatorial schools down.

However, the era of gladiatorial games was ended by a dramatic incident. On January 1st AD 404 a Christian monk, Telemachus, rushed into the arena in pursuit of stop another bloodshed and to separate the fighters. The furious crowd stoned him to death. Emperor Honorius made capital of this case and closed arenas10.

2.2Structure of the games

Gladiatorial games had taken inherently their position in Roman society. The holding of munera went through a few radical changes during seven centuries: their generally applied structure was created soon after their origin. After they became more than a funeral ceremony, the course of munera received a strictly followed pattern.

Gladiatorial fights were put into programme in the afternoon and they were the highlight of the performance. In the morning, there were the so-called venationes11 or “beast hunting”, which reflected the passion for hunting of the Romans and also should symbolize the human domination over animals. Venationes were played out in the Circus Maximus in the period of the Roman republic and, occasionally, also later. During the Empire, venationes were moved into arenas and closely connected with the munera. Hunters chasing wild beasts with weapons were called venatores, and their lower class was called bestiarii12. Venationes, in addition to hunting, included the exhibition of exotic animals and their amusing performances, animal fights, bullfight and also the execution of criminals by wild beasts.

10Nossov 2009, p. 25.

11More generally, any kind of spectacle with animals in the amphitheatre or circus was called venatio.

12They had no weapons and served as “beaters” of animals..

8

The space of time between morning venationes and afternoon gladiatorial performances was filled designated for executions of the so-called noxii13. These condemned persons were massacred in many various ways. Such criminals were thrown unarmed to the beasts or had some weapons and were forced to kill each other. In one of the execution ways also gladiators played a part. They were sent in lesser numbers against numerically superior − but poorly armed − noxii, who had no chance against professionally trained fighters. For this purpose were gladiators armed with bizarre weapons14.

The beginning of the gladiatorial show was called pompa. This ceremonial parade had a political character and its main aim was making visible the editor himself (organizer and

“sponsor”) of the games. The organizer of the games was followed by lictors and musicians, and these were followed by men carrying a ferculum15. At the end of the parade walked the gladiators themselves. A group of assistants carried the helmets, shields and weapons of gladiators. On the occasion of the parade, audience could see revealed the faces of the gladiators (otherwise protected by the helmets). Before the beginning of the performance there was the prolusio16 which should warm up the audience before the real fights. After this the gladiatorial fights begun.

A special kind of games was naumachia17. It was an unusual and astronomically expensive form of reproducing sea battles, which owing to its costs belonged to the privilege of the emperors and was not held as often as gladiatorial games. The first naumachiae were produced by Caius Julius Caesar, who in the first century BC launched colossal gladiatorial games and theatrical performances. Thanks to their scale, naumachiae were not usually held in arenas but on artificial water dams or lakes nearby Rome. Although, there were some cases in which naumchiae were realized right in an arena. Such arenas were specially designed for these occasions, and could be flooded. In these battles were attended thousands of convicted criminals who staged famous sea battles in history. These criminals fought for death and gladiators were involved only extraordinarily.

13Usually condemned to the death in the arena for capital crimes.

14Wilson S.2001, p. 32.

15Portable platform bearing the statues of Hercules, Nemesis, Mars, Nike or other gods or important persons.

16“Prologue” with gladiators (lusorii) fighting against each other with harmless − probably wooden − weapons (arma lusoria).

17“Sea battle”.

9

Venationes and naumachiae are an inseparable part of history of gladiatorial games, but their issue, because of the amplitude of the topic, is suitable for an individual study. In the present work will not be paid attention to them anymore.

2.3The classes of gladiators

(According to Nossov 2009, p. 44 – 79)

It is very easy to observe which type of gladiator was coming into the arena according to the period. Their equipment, armature and fashion were subordinated to period and popularity. Generally, gladiators were classified according to their armatures into three categories: light armoured, medium armoured and heavy armoured.

The most ancient types of gladiators are gallus, samnis and veles. The gallus appeared in the arena at the beginning of the Republic and disappeared in the middle of the first century BC. It is very likely that the term gallus comes from the resemblance with Celts (Gauls). The first mention of the samnis is in 308 BC. The term is derived from the Samnites, people defeated by the Romans at the beginning of the third century BC. Finally, almost nothing is known about the veles. Probably, he was armed as the light infantrymen of the Roman Republic: with javelins, sword and shield. In the second century BC came into the arena the venatores (“beast hunters”).

Next, during the first century BC came thraex18, hoplomachus19, murmillo, , secutor, essedarius and riders equites. In this period is classified also scissor. This type of gladiator soon disappeared and reappeared again in the second and third century AD under the name of arbelas. Heavy armoured gladiator garbed in chain or scale male. He was fighting with sword or dagger and with special type of weapon with crescent-sickle blade. His adversary was retiarius, arbelas or dimachaerus. From the arena he disappeared in third century BC.

Murmillo was a heavy armoured gladiator armed with sword gladius and using a large shield scutum. He was usual adversary of thraex and hoplomachus. Secutor was heavy armoured gladiator equipped same way as a murmillo except helmet which is closed plain with small holes for the eyes created for fighting against a retiarius, who was his only adversary. Together with murmillo remain in the arena to the end of the games. Essedarius, the term means “charioteer”. He was armed by sword and round large shield. He disappeared from the

18Chapter 2.4.

19Chapter 2.5.

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