Tuesday, December 7, 2021

Christopher Ellet's Gladiators & Beast Hunts: Arena Sports of Ancient Rome


Epplett, Christopher. Gladiators & Beast Hunts: Arena Sports of Ancient Rome. South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Military, 2016.

Gladiators & Beast Hunts is one of my many impulse buys while searching through the Half-Price Books store. In it Christopher Epplett, an ancient history teacher who specializes in Ancient Rome’s sporting events, looks at the origins, purpose, and demise of gladiatorial combat and the venationes, the beast hunts. He decides to not cover the chariot races, more interested in the violent sports and why the Romans were so enamored by them. He also has a couple chapters focusing on how the games were supplied and held and how certain gladiators (and even some animals) achieved celebrity status. Gladiators & Beast Hunts is a fairly short book, more along the lines of an extended master’s thesis, and should make for a brisk yet highly informative read.

Epplett traces the origins of the gladiatorial games to Etruscan and early Roman funerary customs. When a wealthy man or woman died, the other rich spectators were treated to a gladiatorial duel. The Venatio (beast hunt) also originated as the sport of the elite. The animals in the games were slaughtered rather than captured. Over time these violent spectacles were introduced to the common Roman masses. By the later republic they became an essential part of Roman life.

Aside from satisfying the people’ craving for exciting, action packed fights and hunts, the spectacles served a major political purpose. Politicians in the Republican era could expect to boost their popularity by throwing vast amounts of their money at staging the games (munera). They imported thousands of animals for the venationes and made use of debtors and war captives to fill out rosters of gladiators. By the time of the empire, the emperors banned the ability of noblemen to stage muneras. This prevented any ambitious senator, general, or other major figure from challenging the emperor’s popularity and by extension power. The emperor was thus responsible for ensuring that the people got a regular dose of grand spectacles. The Roman army became an extension of the spectacles, capturing beasts from Rome’s far flung imperial territories for the venationes. The rare emperor who did not care much for the games, such as acclaimed philosopher ruler Marcus Aurelius, could draw criticisms from the masses thanks to their disinterest (though they still staged the games out of practicality). Local rulers and noblemen in other parts of the empire were able to stage their own games to solidify their smaller spheres of control. The games took up large quantities of Roman wealth to stage and required a highly exploitative imperial system to run.

The games also celebrated Roman power and virtues. The beast hunters symbolized Rome (or mankind’s) authority over nature. Gladiators exhibited courage as well as acceptance of death should it come. Carthaginian prisoners of war were executed in the arena in an attempt to assuage Roman fears after the disastrous defeat at Cannae. Criminals were executed in various gruesome ways by beasts to symbolize Roman justice (the few paragraphs on the execution of female criminals should be particularly squicky). Overall, the munera was a way of affirming Romans’ grand self-image, of showing that they were masters of the world.

Epplett challenges the idea that Christianity, with its concerns about violence, ended the spectacles. First of all Christians only criticized the gladiatorial games and sensational executions, as this involved the slaughter of human beings for fun. They had not yet grown the same concern for the animals and there is no record of any expressing distaste for the venationes. Even then the games only slowly died out and not out of moral concerns. Rome simply ran out of the money to continually stage the spectacles as it was rocked by a series of empire-ending crises. The cost of favorite exotic animals from Africa and Asia skyrocketed. Parts of the former Roman Empire, with easier access to animals, continued to stage spectacles into the early middle ages.

Gladiators & Beast Hunts is an informative and easy read and is good for anybody seeking to flesh out their knowledge on Ancient Rome. It should also hold lessons as to why audiences, even today, are attracted to violent spectacles, though today they are more fictionalized through film and television.

Rating: Recommend

 Epplett, Christopher. Gladiators & Beast Hunts: Arena Sports of Ancient Rome. South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Military, 2016.The book can be bought here.

Rating System

Must-Read: Definite read for history in general
Highly Recommend: Definite read within a certain subject
Recommend: Good for further information or into on a certain topic
Adequate: Useful if looking for further information certain topic
Pass: Awful, only useful for examining bad or ideologically-tainted history

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