Spartacus TV Show Fight Scenes --How realistic were they? Part Two

Greetings! Welcome back. I'm starting to get a bit of the hang of blogging, and hope to do more consistent and regular posting over the next few months. In return, it would be nice if you, the reader, could consider following the blog, leaving comments, sharing posts, or even going so far as to purchase the items I have linked to in the posts. In other words, do what you can please to make me feel like my efforts here are being noticed and rewarded so that I find myself eagerly continuing. Over the next few months, I hope to put up posts about the Dead Rabbits / Gangs of New York miniature gaming project ( https://history-for-fun-profit-and-insight.blogspot.com/search/label/Gangs%20of%20New%20York )  , the Chop Sockey! Kung Fu Miniature Wargame Rules project ( https://history-for-fun-profit-and-insight.blogspot.com/search/label/Kung%20Fu%20gaming ), posts about historical sites I saw on my recent trip to Asia (https://history-for-fun-profit-and-insight.blogspot.com/search/label/Asia )
 , 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

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. 

      

StarZ TV Spartacus series, were the fight scenes accurate? Part One - Arms and Armor.

I've recently begun rewatching the TV series Spartacus, a show that ran for four seasons on the Starz Cable TV network. (It's a rumored there may be a fifth one some day. We can only hope.) While one of the most lurid and visceral television spectacles, I've ever been exposed to, the show is exciting, entertaining, and addictive, just be careful who you watch it with. The high levels of  sexual content and nudity, as well as violence and blood splashing gore, is higher than in any television show I've ever seen.

As long time readers of this blog (or you intelligent people who actually take the time to look at old posts) know, over the last few years, I've done a lot of research into the Roman gladiators and done some wargaming and figure modelling for the period. (In fact, one of my motives for rewatching was trying to find ways to add backstory and better characterization to my historical miniature games based on Roman gladiators.)

For those wondering, Spartacus was an actual historical figure. There was indeed a gladiator who fought under that name, who led a gladiator uprising that became a major slave revolt and troubled the Romans for years until he and all his followers were put down. The series is a cinematic retelling of this historical event, and while much of the details remain unknown, and there are few first hand period sources to tell the story, the series creators freely admit they took great liberties with the actual history. For more details on the actual history, I've included links to a few well chosen books, all books that I've actually read, below and if you purchase them by following these links, you'll also help support this blog.

For now, we're focusing on the gladiatorial fight scenes in the arena and their historical accuracy, nothing else.

A key fight scene from Spartacus: Gods of the Arena. 

While the second season filmed, this six episode mini-series is actually a prequel to the events that occur in season one. The titular character Spartacus never appears, but we get to see more of the villainous ludus owners, a ludus being a gladiator school or troupe, who own and train and fight the gladiators, and learn more about what it was like to be part of this establishment and owned and forced to fight in the arena against one's will. 

I hope to write a few blog posts on the degree of accuracy of the fight scenes in this series, but for now:  

1. General accuracy of the arms and armor and fighting styles: 

Much to my pleasant surprise, this is actually quite high. If you watch this show, the portrayal of the gladiators and their equipment is quite accurate, particularly since many cinematic depictions of gladiators are completely off.

The gladiators fought in certain distinctive ways using distinctive styles of armor and weaponry. During the latter part of the gladiatorial period, while there were local variations and locally known styles of fighters, the types allowed in the arena was largely proscribed by law.

For instance, in the scene below we witness two fighters. One of them is wearing heavy armor and carrying a straight, short sword -the Roman gladius- and carrying a large shield similar to what a legionnaire of the time would wear. This type was called a "mymillio" and the characters in the series refer to the fighters garbed and equipped in this way by that name.

The other carries two swords and is clearly intended to portray a "dimarchus," a gladiator who fight with two swords or one sword and a dagger.

To my mind there's nothing grossly wrong with the depiction of the Myrmillio. in the scene above. If I quibble, pontificate, and wax pedantic, then I must point out, for instance, that while his helmet does look like the helmet of a myrmillio, the perfect helmet for a myrmillio would look exactly this BUT with the addition of a fish, yes, a sculpted fish, added to the crest of the helmet. (This made more sense, from the Roman perspective, when you remember that a Myrmillio was often matched against a Retarius, the net and trident man. Therefore, ipso facto, par for the corso, ergoto, you would have a fisherman --the net and trident fighter-- fighting an opponent with a fish on his helmet. See! It makes perfect sense. Fisherman VS Fish. Understand that, learn some Latin and you'll soon be right up there, seeing the world from the traditional Roman perspective.)

And in a perfect world, the Myrmillio would also wear one greave, a piece of armor for his shin. Interestingly enough, most Myrmillio only had one greave, and it was on the right shin on the side opposite the heavy shield. While Roman soldiers wore them in pairs, gladiators often did not, and many of the carefully defined classes of gladiators wore just one with it being carefully prescribed as to which side of the body they wore it. If you look carefully this gladiator, this Myrmillio, has no leg armor, but you have to watch real carefully and be looking for this detail to even notice.

As for the character, Gannicus, the man with the two swords in the above clip, he is fighting in the style of a dimarchi. This is also a historically recognized style of gladiator, but one not as common as the myrmillio.

Here, I have a bigger quibble, a more glaring complaint. Historically the fighter really should be wearing a face concealing helmet, something much closer to that worn by the myrmillio in the clip.

Face concealing helmets were an important part of the dress of most gladiators. Not only did they protect the face, but they also concealed it, dehumanizing the wearer to his or her opponent. Gladiators were often paired off to fight with other members of their own ludus (school or troupe). And they had no choice in the matter,

Not only did they tend to fight harder when they couldn't see the face of their opponent, often a friend or colleague, but the concealing helmets often concealed their fear and anxiety about the match. Therefore face concealing helmets were a pretty standard part of most gladiators gear.

Interestingly enough, the retarius, the net and trident fighter, was one of the few types that did not normally wear a face concealing helmet.

A gladiator game I held at the Council of the Five Nations, a local adventure and historical game convention. I've since expanded the arena and built stands. If you blow up the picture you can see a pair of retarii, fighting a pair of secutors while a Myrmillo and a referee watch.

By contrast the only known period depiction of a dimarchi, a sculptural bas relief, shows him wearing a face concealing helmet and holding two swords, one of which is curved,

Yet throughout the Spartacus series characters tend to fight without helmets, Why? If you watch the scene, it's obvious. Gannicus is a handsome, well built man with an expressive face and a roguish grin.  If you watch, you can clearly see that he's quite comfortable in his role as star gladiator, enjoying the fight, the adulation of the crowds, and even the thrill of the kill. And if his face were concealed? Well, you'd get none of this. Characterization and story telling benefits in this case from the removal of the helmet.

If you watch the series, other types of gladiators are reasonably well portrayed --aside, of course, from that matter with the face concealing helmets. The characters usually seem to have a helmet where you can see their face or at least enough to get a sense of their emotions, or else, perhaps even more foolishly, they somehow manage to lose or pull off their helmets in the heat of battle.

Still the gladiators portrayed in the Starz TV series Spartacus do tend to fall within recognized historical types and be reasonably well portrayed.

The retarius are there, although interesting some do have helmets. The thracians with the curved swords. The hoplomachii with their long spear and small shields and faux Greek style helmets. The secutors, a type of gladiator that was equipped similar to the myrmillio but had a smoother, rounder, helmet so that it would be less likely to be snared in the net, All these can be seen, and are depicted with reasonable yet less than 100% accuracy, in the show.

Recommended books on Types of Gladiator and their 
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.

  

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. 

      

Finally, if you wish to support this blog, please consider buying any of the following books, all written by yours truly. People who've read them, tell me they've enjoyed them. 

     

Ancient Rome - What was the arena and what were “the games”?

PREFACE --I'm a writer, That means I write stuff. Please check out my newest release, a short story collection called "Put Your Favorite Picture Here" at https://www.amazon.com -However, that's not my only work. This post is an excerpt from my current project, a guide for wargamers to Roman Gladiators. Taking a tip from Cory Dotorow, I've decided to share this work in progress chapter by chapter on my blog.

If you wish to support this blog, well, at the moment there's no Patreon button, but feel free to show your enthusiasm and support by browsing the blog, checking out the other posts, sending links to friends and sharing through social media, and leaving comments and asking questions or starting discussions. Thanks.

Ancient Rome-What was the arena and what were “the games”?

The “Roman Games” consisted of several kinds of events. In this section, we will look at the events and discuss what they were as well as look at their potential for gaming. 

1.                   Gladiatorial Combats

Of course, one of the most common and popular events at the Roman Games were Gladiatorial Combats. These consisted of staged fights between individuals or small (perhaps less than ten at the most to give an estimate) groups of fighters. These fights were staged and scheduled. The fighters, although usually not volunteers, could be considered professionals in that they were trained, drilled, and kept in shape for the purpose of appearing in events such as these.

The fighters were classified into different types. Each type was equipped in a certain way to fight and trained to fight in a certain style that fit their armor and weaponry as well as the mythology and background behind the type of fighter they were supposed to be portraying. These different types will be discussed in a later chapter. Suffice it to say that there were customs and traditions and expectations surrounding the gladiator battles of this time.  There were referees and other workers expected to maintain these traditions and ensure that the fights were done in the proper manner.

Although these combats were forced, and thus morally questionable at best, from our safe perspective two thousand years later, give or take a few centuries, there is a lot of potential for small scale historical gaming. Games featuring conflicts between individual gladiators or small groups of gladiators can make good games. Campaigns that follow the ups and downs of an individual or perhaps a gladiatorial “ludi” can also be interesting. (A ludi is a school or troupe of gladiators usually under the ownership of a particular individual,)

This book will focus on such gladiatorial combats and providing the information needed to game them in a  satisfying and reasonably historically correct manner.

2.                   Animal shows

The ancient Romans loved animal shows. As the empire expanded they went to great expense and effort to bring large quantities of exotic animals to Rome in order to parade them before the Roman citizenry. Animals used ranged from ostriches to elephants; hippos and lions also being favorites.

Once the animals were exhibited, however, it was customary to kill them in front of the crowd for the amusement of the spectators.  [1] Sometimes this was done by letting the animals kill and then eat each other. Other times it was done by letting hunters or others shoot them with bows.  The result was a gory spectacle.

 It takes a bit of a stretch to see how these could make good games, but it is possible. Perhaps one could have a game where animals fight each other or archers compete to see who can kill the most animals? It would be an unusual but not impossible game.  

3.                   Venatio

The Venatio were sort of a mixture of gladiatorial contests and animal shows.

Animals were put in the arena and then trained animal fighters called venatores would enter and fight them.   The venatores were trained to do this. Like the gladiators (who fought humans only) many venatores were slaves or people who otherwise were forced to do this.

It should be mentioned that venatores and gladiators were separate categories and people generally did not belong to both or cross back and forth. (Although many gladiator game rules encourage them to do so, for better or worse. If it makes you happy and harms no one, we’re not going to make any effort to stop you. Just please understand that it is not historically correct according to current understanding. )   

The animals were generally dangerous animals that were able to fight back against the venatores, thus ensuring an exciting show for the spectators.

For better or worse, however, this was not always the case.

On one occasion, the Emperor Commodus entered the arena himself and killed a large number of ostriches and other large necked birds in an effort to display his prowess to the crowds. The crowds reportedly cheered although as it would have been dangerous for them not to, they seem to have cheered under duress.

This booklet will only discuss venatio in a superficial manner.

4.                   Chariot races

The Romans loved chariot races, and they were a major part of activity in the arena as well as spectator sports throughout the Roman Empire. 

Although Roman chariot races make a wonderful subject for exciting games, we will not deal with them here. There are, however, several good games that cover Roman chariot races. Not only that, but some Roman gladiator rules include rules for chariots and in some cases extend them to chariot races.

5.                   Mock land battles

Gladiatorial combat involved individual or small groups of highly trained fighters.

By contrast, the Romans occasionally held much larger battles, consisting of small virtual armies and have them fight for the entertainment of the crowds. Like the gladiator fights, the combatants were usually slaves and not willing participants. When compared to the the gladiator contests however, these fights were  much more bloody and the risk of death much higher.

Although a slave, a gladiator was a highly trained, highly specialized, and well fed slave, with the capacity to earn its owner great wealth and prestige and thus highly valuable. Although he, or in some cases, she, might not have much value as a human being, they did have a high value as a commodity and thus a gladiator’s life would not be thrown away casually. Therefore most gladiatorial battles did not end in death for the fighters. (Exact casualty rates will be discussed later.)

By contrast, the fighters in the large scale battles were also slaves but were not trained and did not have as high a monetary value. Therefore, as they possessed less value, it did not matter so much if they died.  So for that reason these battles were not just larger, but also had a high rate of fatalities.

Of course, these could make interesting wargames, particularly as a variant on the more common ancient miniatures battle. A good set of medium size battle rules would be required. However, as the size of the battles and rules required are very different from those of the better known, more common gladiatorial battles these mock land battles will not be discussed in much depth here either.

6.                   Naumachea

Not only did the Romans have mock land battles in which large numbers of slaves were forced to fight one another to the death, but they also had mock naval battles using real ships on artificial lakes, again for the amusement of spectators.  These, too, resulted in large numbers of deaths and casualties.

Again, these could make interesting games. However, as the rules for small scale naval battles are very different from those for small scale gladiatorial battles, they will not be covered except in a cursory manner here.

Romans did not like to see themselves defeated so the battles they recreated rarely involved Rome itself. (Nossov 2009, 41-43) (Junkelmann 2000, 74) (Auget 1994, 1972, 68-71)

7.                   Noxii

The Roman legal system tended to be both brutal and public. For many reasons, including showing that justice was swift and harsh and that the bad would be punished it was considered appropriate for condemned people to be killed in front of a crowd of enthused spectators.  There were several ways in which such condemned people were executed. These included being bound to stakes then fed to or mauled by animals, bound to stakes, then lit on fire (sometimes after being covered with enough pitch and such so that they would be able to function as a torch and light the arena) or put in the arena free, and then mauled and eaten by animals.

The victims of such executions, the people condemned to die, were called “Noxii.”

I cannot imagine that such events would make a good game, and therefore will not discuss them much here. 

Along similar lines, the Emperor Claudius, one of several emperors known for decadent and elaborate spectacles, arranged one in which the sack of a British town or city was simulated for the entertainment of the crowd with he taking the role of commanding general of the sacking army in the event. (Auget 1994, 1972, 70-71)

8.                   Mythological dramas held in the amphitheater (were these the executions?)

In some cases, the Romans put extra time and effort into these executions in order to provide a better spectacle and more entertainment for the audience. Sometimes these executions would take the form of a drama, often from legend or myth, with a condemned person taking the central role. For instance, many know the tale of Icarus, the man who built wings and flew only to fly too close the sun, have the wax on his wings melt, the wings collapse, and then fall to earth and die unable to fly anymore.

The Romans might act this out in the arena in front of a crowd. They might get a pulley system and a rope, take a condemned prisoner, then put wings on him, hoist him up and swing him around for the amusement of the crowd while the audience “oohs” and “aahs” and cheers. All the while someone would narrate the story of Icarus, and then, at the key point where the wings falls off and Icarus plummets to his death, the arena workers would release the rope from which the condemned man hung, causing him to fall to his death.

Gaming possibilities? Not many, and therefore this subject also will not be covered much here.

9.                   Ordinary, by modern standards, performers

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that ordinary dramatic performers would perform in the arena.

These would include dramatic troupes that would perform theatrical presentations such as dramas and comedies. Trained animal acts would also perform. There were a wide variety of such performers.

For better or worse, however, it’s difficult to imagine them as subject of a wargame and therefore they will not be dealt with much further here.

---

[1] Someone once commented that one of the keys to understanding ancient and medieval history is to realize that many adult type decisions, including “what do we do with the animals at the animal show, once the show is over?” were being made by teenagers or even adolescents.

Work in Progress -Gladiators in the Roman Arena -Who were the Gladiators?

PREFACE --I'm a writer, That means I write stuff. Please check out my newest release, a short story collection called "Put Your Favorite Picture Here" at https://www.amazon.com -However, that's not my only work. This post is an excerpt from my current project, a guide for wargamers to Roman Gladiators.


                                        From Albacon 2018, me running a game of Hoc, Habet, Hoc

Most Gladiators were unwilling participants forced to fight against their will. In fact, originally, they were slaves, prisoners of war, and condemned prisoners.

Although historians and other social scientists debate the motivations and appeal of the Roman Games, they generally agree that the Roman Games were a bloody spectacle where the authorities publicly displayed their dominance over criminal elements within the empire, foreign enemies, and the threatening aspects of nature represented in the form of wild and savage animals.

It’s for this reason that those who fought and died in the arena were slaves, prisoners of war, and criminals, condemned men. On occasion these were noteworthy condemned men, for instance, Caligula, one of Rome’s most decadent and insane emperors, occasionally ordered nobles who had offended him or someone else he considered important to fight in the arena but they were still condemned men. (Nossov, p. 147)

Although some gladiators voluntarily took to the life of being a professional fighter who killed and risked death, maiming, or wounding for the amusement of others, this was rare.   

To fight in the arena was unpleasant and dangerous. Not only could gladiators be killed, injured, or maimed, they also could be called upon to fight and kill people they trained with, lived with, and were friends with. Not only that, but in Roman culture, people who entertained others were looked down upon. As the gladiators fought for their lives, drunken spectators would laugh and jeer at them. It was not uncommon for gladiators to attempt suicide rather than face the arena, and although steps were taken to prevent this, nevertheless, some succeeded at ending their own lives. (Nossov, p. 151)

Many gladiators resented their lot. Today, most people have heard of Spartacus’s revolt. Spartacus, a prisoner of war, was forced into being a gladiator. He and his fellow gladiators eventually found a way to take over their ludi (gladiator troupe), escape, and then stage a revolt of gladiators and other slaves. This was a desperate act with little likelihood of real long-term success. Although they had  several successes in battle against the Roman authorities and army, ultimately their revolt was put down and the bulk of the surviving participants executed. A fuller accounting of these vents is included in a later chapter of this work.

One detail of the revolt that is of particular interest here is that on at least one occasion when Spartacus and his troops captured Roman soldiers, they forced them, in turn, to fight as gladiators for the amusement of he and his troops, something that horrified the Roman authorities when they heard of it. To these gladiators turned rebels, this turnabout and punishment of their aggressors, gives an insight into how they really felt about their lot.   

Sometimes the organizers of games did not just want slaves for the arena but wanted particular kinds of slaves in order to present a unique or particularly themed event. Dwarves and women were sometimes sought as a variation on the standard battle between two men. Although Blacks were not uncommon in the arena, there was one game where all the participants were Black, a unique twist on the standard event, much appreciated perhaps by the crowds.

Still, as stated above, not all gladiators were forced into this role. Some were volunteers.  As time went on and the games became more popular and interest in not just gladiatorial events but specific gladiators grew, and some gladiators became popular and admired by the spectators, ordinary Romans often dreamed of emulating them.  In time, volunteer gladiators, called “auctorati,” became increasingly common. Some had debts they had accrued and needed to pay off.  Others sought thrills or glory. Aside from thrill seeking or wishing the glory, although glory mixed with disgust, that eventually came from being a gladiator, motivations could vary. Some were people who had spent their inheritance and now needed funds.  (Wisdom, p. 13) As kidnapping was a real problem in the Roman empire, others took to the arena to win sufficient cash to ransom a friend or relative who was being held captive. (Wisdom, p. 16)  (Nossov, p. 146, 147-148)

 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Auget. 1994, 1972. Cruelty and Civilization --The Roman Games. New York: Barnes and Noble Books.

Fields, Nic. 2009. Spartacus and the Slave War, 73-71 BC -A Gladiator Rebels Against Rome. Oxford, UK : Osprey Publishing .

Junkelmann, Marcus. 2000. "Familia Gladiatoria -The Heroes of the Amphitheatre." In Gladiators and Caesars the Power of Spectacle in Ancient Rome, by Kohne Ewigleben. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Kohne, Eckart and Ewigleben, ?? 2000. Gladiators and Caesars --The Power of Spectacle in Ancient Rome. Berkeley, California: University of California Press.

Nossov, Konstantin. 2009. Gladiators --Rome's Bloody Spectacles. Oxford UK: Osprey.

Strauss, Barry. 2009. The Spartacus War. New York, N.Y. : Simon & Schuster Paperbacks .

Wisdom, Stephen. 2001. Gladiators 100BC -AD 200. Oxford: Osprey.

Roman gladiator gaming at Council of Five Nations 2016

Historical miniature gaming has been a hobby of mine since college or earlier. A few years ago, I became interesting in Roman gladiator conflicts and other arena events as a focus for wargaming. I soon painted up some figures, created a model arena, and found a set of rules and ran a few games. One of these was at a local convention called The Council of the Five Nations. These are photos of that game.

I used a set of rules called Red Sand, Blue Sky from a company called Two Hour Wargames. Although I have since moved on to a different set of rules for the period, Hoc, Habet, Hoc from Flagship Games, I had several interesting games with this set of rules although ultimately I found them a bit too mechanical and limited for my tastes. In these rules each turn requires that the players determine initiative and then each gladiator engages in a sequence of actions. To mark which player moved his figure when, a sequence that shifted each turn and depended on the characters' abilities as well as a random dice roll, poker chips with numbers were used.

The players conduct their moves.

Here you can see part of the game, four gladiators, two heavily armored Myrmillo and two lightly armored Retarii armed with a net and trident pair off for battle. This was a historically authentic match.

You can see here that the order of play is determined and marked with the numbered Poker Chips.

A Myrmillo manuevers to attack a retarius from the flank.

The Retarius has thrown his net and missed. It lies nex to a heavily armored Myrmillo making recovery of the net difficult. Can the lightly armored gladiator survive the match?

I've run the game again in 2017 and will be running it again this year in 2018 using a new set of rules (Hoc, Habet, Hoc) and also having upgraded and improved my arena. I look forward to showing more photos of the result.

Updates on the Roman Arena Model --Building Stands for Spectators

This blog has been a bit too quiet lately, perhaps making people wonder where I am. Much of the history / blogging/ wargaming / miniature modelling time has been devoted to this, working on adding to my representation of a Roman arena for miniature wargaming of Roman gladiatorial battles.

As some can see, the actual arena was constructed some time ago and I decided to add stands to it and hope to do so before the local wargaming convention, the Council of the Five Nations, where I am scheduled to run a game using the Hoc Habet Hoc rules. 

Here's a few photos of the project under construction. 

While the model is quite large, 40" (101.6cm) in diameter, with three levels of stands, compared to the actual, historical arenas, it would be quite small. Therefore, it's safe to say it's a representational model, designed to give the feel and general look of a Roman Arena, quite suitable for gaming, but not an actual reproduction of one, and probably would not be suitable for a museum exhibit. 

As you can see in the above picture, the arena itself was already built (a project I should describe in a future post perhaps) and the "only" thing needed was to "just" add stands. I began cutting foam card and soon had two large half circles with a 20" (a little over 50cm) radius. 

Then I added three levels of stands, each curved on the outerside of the large circle, but being 8" ( a little over 20cm), 5"  ( a little under 13cm), and 2 1/2" (a little over 6 cm) deep. 

Next came adding wooden spacers to separate the levels of the stand. These were quickly cut from long square pieces of wood and made slightly shorter than the depth of each layer of the stand. 

The pieces were then attached to the wooden spacers with a heavy duty stapler and lots of carpenter glue. 

Here's a photo of the project as it currently looks.

A photo of the arena itself from a gaming session.

Historical Miniature Wargaming --Preparing for a Game

Historical Miniature Gaming and Keys to Good Gaming 

Preparation for the Game

An important part of any historical miniature game is preparation. Experienced gamers know this. (So you guys just enjoy the pictures please. Maybe the less experienced will learn something or get some ideas.) Let me suggest the following as common things to consider when preparing for a historical miniature game.

A large multi-player game of Bolt Action that involved
many players recreating a portion of the World War Two
D-Day Normandy landings. This game took place at the
Schenectady Wargamers monthly game-a-thon.

1. Historical research. 

Historical games are best appreciated by people who know enough history to put things in context. Of  course, imagination is part of these things too, but knowing at least a little of the history of what's being simulated can go a long way to increase appreciation of the game. 

Some games are recreations of actual historical battles but most are imaginary or hypothetical battles set during a particular period of history.

2. Collect and paint some miniatures

A Scottish Highland force from the 1745 Uprising. Figures are Old Glory 25mm painted by Doug Bradt.

To play most miniature games, miniatures are generally required. Of course, some people substitute things like tokens, cardboard counters, clothes-pins, coins, buttons, or whatever seems to be at hand, but I for one, just don't get it. Without miniatures why not just play boardgames?  

And then there are those people who buy expensive figures and put them on the gaming table  without painting them. I for one, don't get it. It's like those people who drink fine wine from paper cups.

No! No! No! If you're going to play historical miniatures games, then it's best to get some historical miniatures and paint them. (Some people hire others to paint them. Enh . . . I'm not sure what I think about that. It's kind of like cheating maybe in my opinion, but, then again, what do I really know?

3. Select and learn rules

A French and Indian Wargame

Of course, to play a game, you need to have some idea of what the rules are. Or do you?

If a historical wargame is using a set of rules that produce a historically accurate result, and you are reasonably familiar with the history and the tactics and troop types of the period being gamed, and there are people present who are feeling friendly and tolerant of new players and who know the rules well, often you can sort of play along when your turn comes by telling the other players what your troops or units of troops intend to do, and then guide them along as they do what their historical counterparts would have done.

Of course, if you don't know the historical tactics and types of units, strange things can happen. I recall once playing a World War Two skirmish game using a set of rules called Fireball Forward. This was a pick-up game played one afternoon at a Boston area store called The Hobby Bunker in Malden, Massachusetts, so new players were welcome. I was not terribly familiar with either the rules or tank tactics of the period and to make it even worse, the terrain was the hedgerows of Normandy, home to some very fierce fighting during the Second World War. ( The Normandy hedgerows were among the most unusal and challenging terrain of word war two. For an interesting PDF on the subject you can click here.  It is intended for American school children taking history classes.)  Not only that the game was set at night and the rules provided for this by giving all the players limited ability to find each other's units.

I figured that it woul dbe a good idea to send some of my tanks forward at high speed to scout out the situation and find the enemy. Unfortunately what I learned is that people who were inside a world war two tank travelling at high speed at night can not see or hear much of the world outside the tank. The result was that I learned nothing and soon got ambushed and lost the tanks. Oh well. Not good, but probably a mistake more than one naive, inexperienced American takn commander of the time made as well. (Again, consider reading the above linked PDF on the subject.) .

A quick game without scenery. This was just to try out some ideas for a set of rules I am writing to simulate Kung Fu movie action. The figures come from a variety of manufactures, Hasslefree martial artists, Obelisk Tong gangsters, Wargames Foundry Taiping War figures and Frontier Boxer Rebellion figures. 

4. Acquire scenery 

This is another area where some people skimp. On the other hand, good scenery can make or break a good gaming experience. Model trees, model houses, terrain, and other pieces of scenery are an important part of the hobby. 

  

Probably the most elaborate piece of scenery I own. a home-built gaming model of a Roman Gladiatorial arena. The photos are of a game using Habet, Hoc, Habet rules simulating four condemned men (miniatures from Crusader Miniatures) fighting a lion (I'm having time remembering who made this. If someone recognizes it please let me know.