, book reviews, and several posts about upstate New York Revolutionary War / American War of Independence historical sites I have visited ( https://history-for-fun-profit-and-insight.blogspot.com/search/label/American%20War%20of%20Independence ) as well as other historical and gaming projects. Please support this blog by following it, encouraging others to check it out, and letting me know you are following it too. I've got a lot of stuff I'd like to write about and share, but I could really use some encouragement and a sense that people are enjoying and appreciating what I am doing here. So please help out. Thanks.
And this week, I go back to a subject that has interested me since the beginning of this blog. Roman Gladiators ( see https://history-for-fun-profit-and-insight.blogspot.com/search/label/Gladiators for other articles on the subject.) I do some Roman Gladiator wargaming and have a writing project on the subject partially done and moving ahead slowly. It started as a brief wargamers guide to the subject, got too long, and may ultimately become a wargamers guide and a set of rules for the period. (For those who wonder, until I write my own, allegedly perfect set of rules, I am using a set called "Hoc Habet Hoc" which can be purchased here: https://www.wargamevault.com/product/297688/Habet-Hoc-Habet-Rules-for-Gladiatorial-Combat as a download or here http://scalecreep.com/product_info.php?products_id=2951 as a physical book, which is how I bought it. By the way, I don't get kickbacks or commissions from these links so if you do follow them to make a purchase please tell them I sent you and I am a nice guy who enjoys their products. I bought mine from Scale Creep and had no problems with the order.)
Which, FINALLY perhaps, brings me to the subject at hand. Months ago I wrote an article on the historical accuracy of the fight scenes in the TV show Spartacus. I promised a sequel, and FINALLY am getting around to writing it. If you haven't read it yet, it'd probably be a good idea to bring yourself up to speed by checking out the first half of this here: https://history-for-fun-profit-and-insight.blogspot.com/2019/05/starz-tv-spartacus-series-were-fight.html
As stated, Spartacus, from Stars TV, was a delightfully lurid show full of blood and nudity, unremitting violence, sexuality, and huge servings of adult content of all kinds, set in the days of old Rome that focused on the lives of gladiators, a gladiator ludi (school), and an uprising against oppression. While not for everyone, if you could stomach it, it was very entertaining and includes such things as the most emotionally satisfying decapitation scene I've ever been exposed to on the big or small screen.
For those who are lacking, here's an exposure to one of the fights from the show (while the clip comes from a French dubbed episode, the series was originally filmed in English)
Here's another, this one set in the training hall of the ludus, where the slaves are trained to become gladiators. Hence the wooden swords and lack of armor:
Again, it's probably not a bad idea to read the first half of this before proceeding, not 100% necessary, but recommended: https://history-for-fun-profit-and-insight.blogspot.com/2019/05/starz-tv-spartacus-series-were-fight.html
Previously I noted that aside from the ahistorical helmets with exposed faces (allowing the viewer to get a better sense of the emotions and drama taking place in the story), the actual arms, armor, and styles of gladiators are often surprisingly accurate historically speaking.
What is not historically accurate, however, is the intensity and lethality of the fighting.
Perhaps, surprisingly, most historical gladiator fights in the arena were not to the death. While, generally speaking, the historical gladiators were slaves and could be used as their owner saw fit, they were quite valuable, well trained, highly skilled, and difficult to replace slaves who if utilized properly could make their owner a great deal of money. It would make no sense, economically, for the owner of such a slave to risk his investment unnecessarily or recklessly.
Therefore, gladiator battles to the death were few and far between and seen as very special events.
According to Stephen Wisdom in the Osprey book on the subject, pages 58-59, and many authors on the subject, the actual rates of death were something as follows. Of 100 1st Century duels, only 19 of the 200 gladiators who participated in the fights died. That's about 9 to 1 odds of a gladiator surviving his bout. This changed over time and according to the same source, by the third century, the odds of a gladiator dying in a bout were about 1 in 4. Now, 1 in 4 odds of dying is quite high, but it is still far less than that show in the show Spartacus. (and for those wondering the show is set around the events of 73B.C, when the famed revolt took place.)
Roland Auguet spends time describing the career path and life path of gladiators in his book, Cruelty and Civilization, The Roman Games (1972, 1994, Routledge and Barnes and Noble publishers) on pages 178-183). He describes one 30 year old gladiator who had fought in the arena 34 times. Of these he had won 21 times, the fight was declared a draw or "stans missus" 9 times, and he had lost 4 times but had his life spared. He also concludes that most gladiators only fought about twice a year during the peak of their professional career and says they should be thought of as entertainers less than fighting machines.
Thomas Wiedemann on page 119-124 in Emperors and Gladiators gives detailed information on the numbers of fights some gladiators participated in. It's interesting and informative. but such a sampling does not give a complete picture, although it most certainly provides a sense that some gladiators lived a surprisingly long life with many fights.
Nossov's Gladiators -Rome's Bloody Spectacle is probably the single best book I've found on the subject and since it is published by Osprey, it focuses on exactly the sort of detail that wargamers wish. In this work, on pages 150-151, Nossov offers interesting information on mortality rates among gladiators. He also cites the work of George Ville but says that by the 2nd and 3rd century fights to the death were increasingly the norm. Of course, this is centuries after Spartacus. He also points out that more successful gladiators were more popular gladiators and the more popular a gladiator was, the more likely the mob and the editor of the games were to spare him if he lost. Nossov considers this a factor when mentioning that some champions fought "60, 80, 88, 107, 125, and even 150" fights.
FYI, many of these authors cite Ville, George. La gladiature en Occident des origines a la mort de Domitien ( Ecole française de Rome (1981) ). I have not read this work. It is over 500 pages and in French, a language I've never studied and have only a limited, passing knowledge of.
If the subject of mortality among gladiators is of interest to you, Nossov includes this in his footnotes: Kanz and Grossschmidt, Head Injuries of Roman Gladiators, Forensic Science International, Vol. 160, No 2 (2006) pp 207-16. It's another work that I have not read, at least not at the time of this writing but may hunt down and read some day.
In the academic work, Rules of engagement, by M.J. Carter, published in The Classical Journal, Vol. 102, No. 2 (Dec-Jan 2006/2007) pp 97-114, the author writes of funeral epitaphs of Roman gladiators. He offers the possibility that gladiators, who were highly trained highly valuable slaves, may have been trained in techniques to defeat an opponent WITHOUT killing or seriously wounding their opponent. He also offers an unexpected series of examples of funeral epitaphs where gladiators proudly stated in their funeral epitaphs how few people they had killed and how many lives they had saved. He argues that the professionalism of a gladiator often included not killing his peers unless forced to and that if a gladiator broke this "code," he would find himself a target for other gladiators who not only might wish to avenge the death of a friend at his hand, but also remove an unnecessary danger in their workplace. In other words, gladiators who tried to unnecessarily kill other gladiators were not much liked by professional gladiators who were already working in a dangerous job.
Therefore, as entertaining as the show Spartacus is, it is safe to say that its lurid depictions of gruesome, gory fights to the death with blood splashing all over the arena sands and the TV screen, are sensationalized and not historically accurate.
Recommended books on Types of Gladiator and their
Arms, Armor, and Fighting Styles
Arms, Armor, and Fighting Styles
These three books all have good details on the types of gladiators and how they fought. My personal favorite is Nossov's Gladiator, Rome's Bloody Spectacle and I can't recommend it highly enough if the subject interests you. The Gladiators and Caesars book is also quite good, but be forewarned only one chapter of this book focuses specifically on gladiators. The others tend to discuss things like chariot racing or animal fighting or other arena and coliseum type events.
Mentioned in this blog post.
This is an unusual yet well done book that contains interesting but largely hypothetical descriptions on how to train and fight in a realistic manner that may be similar to how the Roman gladiators fought. It's currently being sold by two different publishers so it's available on Amazon from two different sources. After Paladin went bankrupt, the rights reverted to the author and it was soon re-released.
Finally, a pair of books on the history of the Spartacus revolt. I've read both of these (I've read everything I've linked to on this page. In some cases, you can even find my reviews on Amazon for the products.) and I definitely prefer Strauss's The Spartacus War over the Osprey book. I have however included the link to the Osprey book as many people (myself included) just like Osprey books and they don't take up much space on the shelf.
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