morituri te salutant
hecateshound observed:
Gladiators? According to everything I've read, the loser was executed =in the arena= with the hammer by a slave dressed as Pluto. Not backstage. This would be to prevent 'cheating' - ie, the gladiator being slipped out alive and the body of a cheaper slave being substituted in his place. Everybody would have wanted to see the execution. We know from primary source evidence that 'Pluto' was present on the sand during the match to execute the severely wounded anyway.
I'm glad you said something. That's why I set that comment to the side because I was a little surprised to see the behind-the-scenes execution bit, myself.
I mean, hello. When they took the oath uri vinciri verberari ferroque necari (roughly: "I will endure to be burned, to be bound, to be beaten, and to be killed by the sword"), they were, you know, held to it.
There were basically three stages to a day of the games. The opening ceremonies, complete with the venationes and the bestiarii after the combatants were paraded around; the lunch-break with executions of folks deemed to have committed particularly spectacular crimes; and then the highlight of the afternoon, the hand-to-hand combat.
I presume you know about the whole index finger/thumb signals thing that decided whether a gladiator who has conceded the match was spared or executed. The thing is, if the editor (sponsor of the games) decided to execute the gladiator, the gladiator had to take the final blow in a ritualized fashion, without crying out or flinching.
Now, I buy that there probably was a strict set of guidelines that were indeed closely followed, as suggested in this new article. But last I heard, there was even a ritual for hauling off the bodies of dead gladiators. First, a guy dressed as Pluto/Charon would confirm that the gladiator was actually dead. After that, the body would be dragged by a slave with a hook through a gate called the Porta Libitinens. Libitina was the Roman goddess of corpses so, you know, back to a big hello? to these researchers.
Still, who knows? Maybe this became stylized and the final execution might have occurred off-stage in this particular region. But I'm still waiting to see a little more background on these new conclusions.
Any chance any of the passing scholars might have additional input?
ETA: This is the article that we're fussing over.
Gladiators? According to everything I've read, the loser was executed =in the arena= with the hammer by a slave dressed as Pluto. Not backstage. This would be to prevent 'cheating' - ie, the gladiator being slipped out alive and the body of a cheaper slave being substituted in his place. Everybody would have wanted to see the execution. We know from primary source evidence that 'Pluto' was present on the sand during the match to execute the severely wounded anyway.
I'm glad you said something. That's why I set that comment to the side because I was a little surprised to see the behind-the-scenes execution bit, myself.
I mean, hello. When they took the oath uri vinciri verberari ferroque necari (roughly: "I will endure to be burned, to be bound, to be beaten, and to be killed by the sword"), they were, you know, held to it.
There were basically three stages to a day of the games. The opening ceremonies, complete with the venationes and the bestiarii after the combatants were paraded around; the lunch-break with executions of folks deemed to have committed particularly spectacular crimes; and then the highlight of the afternoon, the hand-to-hand combat.
I presume you know about the whole index finger/thumb signals thing that decided whether a gladiator who has conceded the match was spared or executed. The thing is, if the editor (sponsor of the games) decided to execute the gladiator, the gladiator had to take the final blow in a ritualized fashion, without crying out or flinching.
Now, I buy that there probably was a strict set of guidelines that were indeed closely followed, as suggested in this new article. But last I heard, there was even a ritual for hauling off the bodies of dead gladiators. First, a guy dressed as Pluto/Charon would confirm that the gladiator was actually dead. After that, the body would be dragged by a slave with a hook through a gate called the Porta Libitinens. Libitina was the Roman goddess of corpses so, you know, back to a big hello? to these researchers.
Still, who knows? Maybe this became stylized and the final execution might have occurred off-stage in this particular region. But I'm still waiting to see a little more background on these new conclusions.
Any chance any of the passing scholars might have additional input?
ETA: This is the article that we're fussing over.