The Private Life of the Romans Part 14

--339. Furnishing the Races.--There must have been a time, of course, when the races in the circus were open to all who wished to show their horses or their skill in driving them, but by the end of the Republic no persons of repute took part in the games, and the teams and drivers were furnished by racing syndicates (_factiones_), who practically controlled the market so far as concerned trained horses and trained men. With these syndicates the giver of the games contracted for the number of races that he wanted (ten or twelve a day in Caesar's time, later twice the number, and even more on special occasions), and they furnished everything needed. These syndicates were named from the colors worn by their drivers. We hear at first of two only, the red (_russata_) and the white (_albata_); two more were added, the blue (_veneta_) in the time of Augustus probably, and the green (_prasina_) soon after, and finally Domitian added the purple and the gold. The greatest rivalry existed between these organizations. They spent immense sums of money on their horses, importing them from Greece, Spain, and Mauritania, and even larger sums, perhaps, upon the drivers. They maintained training stables on as large a scale as any of which modern times can boast; a mosaic found in one of these establishments in Algeria names among the attendants jockeys, grooms, stable-boys, saddlers, doctors, trainers, coaches, and messengers, and shows the horses covered with blankets in their stalls. This rivalry spread throughout the city; each _factio_ had its partisans, and vast sums of money were lost and won as each _missus_ was finished. All the tricks of the ring were skillfully practiced; horses were hocused, drivers hired from rival syndicates or bribed, and even poisoned, we are told, when they were proof against money.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 148. RACING CHARIOT AND TEAM]

--340. The Teams.--The chariot used in the races was low and light, closed in front, open behind, with long axles and low wheels to lessen the risk of turning over. The driver seems to have stood well forward in the car, there being no standing place behind the axle, as shown in the cut (Fig. 148). The teams consisted of two horses (_bigae_), three (_trigae_), four (_quadrigae_), and in later times six (_seiuges_) or even seven (_septeiuges_), but the four-horse team was the most common and may be taken as the type. Two of the horses were yoked together, one on each side of the tongue, the others were attached to the car merely by traces. Of the four the horse to the extreme left was the most important, because the _meta_ lay always on the left and the highest skill of the driver was shown in turning it as closely as possible. The failure of the horse nearest it to respond promptly to the rein or the word might mean the wreck of the car (by going too close) or the loss of the inside track (by going too wide), and in either case the loss of the race. Inscriptions sometimes give the names of all the horses of the team, sometimes only the horse on the left is mentioned. Before the races began lists of the horses and drivers in each were published for the guidance of those who wished to stake their money, and while no time was kept the records of horses and men were followed as eagerly as now. From the nature of the course (--332) it is evident that strength and courage and above all lasting qualities were as essential as speed. The horses were almost always stallions (mares are very rarely mentioned), and were never raced under five years of age. Considering the length of the course and the great risk of accidents it is surprising how long the horses lasted.

It was not unusual for a horse to win a hundred races (such a horse was called _centenarius_), and one Diocles, himself a famous driver, owned a horse that had won two hundred (_ducenarius_).

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 149. DRESS OF AN AURIGA]

--341. The Drivers.--The drivers (_agitatores_, _aurigae_) were slaves or freedmen, some of whom had won their freedom by their skill and daring in the course. Only in the most corrupt days of the Empire did citizens of any social position take actual part in the races. The dress of the driver is shown in Fig. 149; especially to be noticed are the close fitting cap, the short tunic (always of the color of his _factio_), laced around the body with leathern thongs, the straps of leather around the thighs, the shoulder pads, and the heavy leather protectors for the legs. Our football players wear like defensive armor. The reins were knotted together and pa.s.sed around the driver's body. In his belt he carried a knife to cut the reins in case he should be thrown from the car, or to cut the traces if a horse should fall and become entangled in them. The races gave as many opportunities then as now for skillful driving, and required even more of strength and daring. What we should call "fouling" was encouraged.

The driver might turn his team against another, might upset the car of a rival if he could; having gained the inside track he might drive out of the straight course to keep a swifter team from pa.s.sing his. The rewards were proportionately great. The successful _auriga_, despised though his station, was the pet and pride of the race-mad crowd, and under the Empire at least he was courted and feted by high and low.

The pay of successful drivers was extravagant, the rival syndicates bidding against each other for the services of the most popular. Rich presents, too, were given them when they won their races, not only by their _factiones_, but also by outsiders who had backed them and profited by their skill.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 150. INSCRIPTION IN HONOR OF CRESCENS]

--342. Famous Aurigae.--The names of some of these victors have come down to us in inscriptions (--10) erected in their honor or to their memory by their friends. Among these may be mentioned Publius Aelius Gutta Calpurnia.n.u.s (--58) of the late Empire (1,127 victories), Caius Apuleius Diocles, a Spaniard (in twenty-four years 4,257 races, l,462 victories, winning the sum of 35,863,120 sesterces, about $1,800,000), Flavius Scorpus (2,048 victories at the age of twenty-seven), Marcus Aurelius Liber (3,000 victories), Pompeius Muscosus (3,559 victories).

To these may be added Crescens, an inscription[3] in honor of whom was found at Rome in 1878 and is shown in Fig. 150.

[Footnote 3: "Crescens, a driver of the blue syndicate, of the Moorish nation, twenty-two years of age. He won his first victory as a driver of a four-horse chariot in the consulship of Lucius Vipstanius Messalla on the birthday of the deified Nerva in the twenty-fourth race with these horses: Circius, Acceptor, Delicatus, and Cotynus.

From Messalla's consulship to the birthday of the deified Claudius in the consulship of Glabrio he was sent from the barriers six hundred and eighty-six times and was victorious forty-seven times. In races between chariots with one from each syndicate he won nineteen times, with two from each twenty-three times, with three from each five times. He held back purposely once, took first place at the start eight times, took it from others thirty-eight times. He won second place one hundred and thirty times, third place one hundred and eleven times. His winnings amounted to 1,558,346 sesterces (about $78,000)."]

--343. Other Shows of the Circus.--The circus was used less frequently for other exhibitions than chariot races. Of these may be mentioned the performances of the _desultores_, men who rode two horses and leaped from one to the other while going at full speed, and of trained horses who performed various tricks while standing on a sort of wheeled platform which gave a very unstable footing. There were also exhibitions of horsemanship by citizens of good standing, riding under leaders in squadrons, to show the evolutions of the cavalry. The _ludus Troiae_ was also performed by young men of the n.o.bility, a game that Vergil has described in the Fifth Aeneid. More to the taste of the crowd were the hunts (_venationes_), when wild beasts were turned loose in the circus to slaughter each other or be slaughtered by men trained for the purpose. We read of panthers, bears, bulls, lions, elephants, hippopotami, and even crocodiles (in artificial lakes made in the arena) exhibited during the Republic. In the circus, too, combats of gladiators sometimes took place, but these were more frequently in the amphitheater. One of the most brilliant spectacles must have been the procession (_pompa circensis_) which formally opened some of the public games. It started from the capitol and wound its way down to the Circus Maximus, entering by the _porta pompae_ (named from it, --330), and pa.s.sed entirely around the arena. At the head in a car rode the presiding magistrate, wearing the garb of a triumphant general and attended by a slave who held a wreath of gold over his head. Next came a crowd of notables on horseback and on foot, then the chariots and hors.e.m.e.n who were to take part in the games.

Then followed priests, arranged by their colleges, and bearers of incense and of the instruments used in sacrifices, and statues of deities on low cars drawn by mules, horses, or elephants, or else carried on litters (_fercula_) on the shoulders of men. Bands of musicians headed each division of the procession, a feeble reminiscence of which is seen in the parade through the streets that precedes the performance of the modern circus.

--344. Gladiatorial Combats.--Gladiatorial combats seem to have been known in Italy long before the founding of Rome. We hear of them first in Campania and Etruria. In Campania the wealthy and dissolute n.o.bles, we are told, made slaves fight to the death at their banquets and revels for the entertainment of their guests. In Etruria the combats go back in all probability to the offering of human sacrifices at the burial of distinguished men in accordance with the ancient belief that blood is acceptable to the dead. The victims were captives taken in war, and it became the custom gradually to give them a chance for their lives by supplying them with weapons and allowing them to fight each other at the grave, the victor being spared at least for the time. The Romans were slow to adopt the custom, the first exhibition being given in the year 264 B.C., almost five centuries after the founding of the city. That they derived it from Etruria rather than Campania is shown by the fact that the exhibitions were at funeral games, the earliest at those of Brutus Pera in 264 B.C., Marcus Aemilius Lepidus in 216 B.C., Marcus Valerius Lavinus in 200 B.C., and Publius Licinius in 183 B.C.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 151. A "SAMNITE"]

--345. For the first one hundred years after their introduction the exhibitions were infrequent as the dates just given show, those mentioned being all of which we have any knowledge during the period, but after this time they were given more and more frequently and always on a larger scale. During the Republic, however, they remained in theory at least private games (_munera_), not public games (_ludi_); that is, they were not celebrated on fixed days recurring annually, and the givers of the exhibitions had to find a pretext for them in the death of relatives or friends, and to defray the expenses from their own pockets. In fact we know of but one instance in which actual magistrates (the consuls Publius and Manlius, 105 B.C.) gave such exhibitions, and we know too little of the attendant circ.u.mstances to warrant us in a.s.suming that they acted in their official capacity. Even under the Empire the gladiators did not fight on the days of the regular public games. Augustus, however, provided funds for "extraordinary shows" under the direction of the praetors.

Under Domitian the aediles-elect were put in charge of these exhibitions which were given regularly in December, the only instance known of fixed dates for the _munera gladiatoria_. All others of which we read are to be considered the freewill offerings to the people of emperors, magistrates, or private citizens.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 152. WEAPONS OF GLADIATORS]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 153. WOUNDED GLADIATOR]

--346. Popularity of the Combats.--The Romans' love of excitement (--316) made the exhibitions immediately and immensely popular. At the first exhibition mentioned above, that in honor of Brutus Pera, three pairs of gladiators only were shown, but in the three that followed the number of pairs rose in order to twenty-two, twenty-five, and sixty. By the time of Sulla politicians had found in the _munera_ the most effective means to win the favor of the people, and vied with one another in the frequency of the shows and the number of the combatants. Besides this, the same politicians made these shows a pretext for surrounding themselves with bands of bravos and bullies, all called gladiators whether destined for the arena or not, with which they started riots in the streets, broke up public meetings, overawed the courts and even directed or prevented the elections.

Caesar's preparations for an exhibition when he was canva.s.sing for the aedileship (65 B.C.) caused such general fear that the senate pa.s.sed a law limiting the number of gladiators that a private citizen might employ, and he was allowed to exhibit only 320 pairs. The bands of Clodius and Milo made the city a slaughterhouse in 53 B.C., and order was not restored until late in the following year when Pompey as "sole consul" put an end to the battle of the bludgeons with the swords of his soldiers. During the Empire the number actually exhibited almost surpa.s.ses belief. Augustus gave eight _munera_, in which no less than ten thousand men fought, but these were distributed through the whole period of his reign. Trajan exhibited as many in four months only of the year 107 A.D., in celebration of his conquest of the Dacians. The first Gordian, emperor in 238 A.D., gave _munera_ monthly in the year of his aedileship, the number of pairs running from 150 to 500. These exhibitions did not cease until the fifteenth century of our era.

--347. Sources of Supply.--In the early Republic the gladiators were captives taken in war, naturally men practiced in the use of weapons (--161), who thought death by the sword a happier fate than the slavery that awaited them (--140). This always remained the chief source of supply, though it became inadequate as the demand increased. From the time of Sulla training-schools were established in which slaves with or without previous experience in war were fitted for the profession.

These were naturally slaves of the most intractable and desperate character (--170). From the time of Augustus criminals were sentenced to the arena (later "to the lions"), but only non-citizens, and these for the most heinous crimes, treason, murder, arson, and the like.

Finally in the late Empire the arena became the last desperate resort of the dissipated and prodigal, and these volunteers were numerous enough to be given as a cla.s.s the name _auctorati_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 154. HELMETS OF GLADIATORS]

--348. As the number of the exhibitions increased it became harder and harder to supply the gladiators demanded, for it must be remembered that there were exhibitions in many of the cities of the provinces and in the smaller towns of Italy as well as at Rome. The lines were, therefore, constantly crossed, and thousands died miserably in the arena whom only the most glaring injustice could number in the cla.s.ses mentioned above. In Cicero's time provincial governors were accused of sending unoffending provincials to be slaughtered in Rome and of forcing Roman citizens, obscure and friendless, of course, to fight in the provincial shows. Later it was common enough to send to the arena men sentenced for the pettiest offenses, when the supply of real criminals had run short, and to trump up charges against the innocent for the same purpose. The persecution of the Christians was largely due to the demand for more gladiators. So, too, the distinction was lost between actual prisoners of war and peaceful non-combatants; after the fall of Jerusalem all Jews over seventeen years of age were condemned by t.i.tus to work in the mines or fight in the arena. Wars on the border were waged for the sole purpose of taking men who could be made gladiators, and in default of men, children and women were sometimes made to fight.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 155. SCHOOL FOR GLADIATORS AT POMPEII]

--349. Schools for Gladiators.--The training-schools for gladiators (_ludi gladiatorii_) have been mentioned already. Cicero during his consulship speaks of one at Rome, and there were others before his time at Capua and Praeneste. Some of these were set up by wealthy n.o.bles for the purpose of preparing their own gladiators for _munera_ which they expected to give; others were the property of regular dealers in gladiators, who kept and trained them for hire. The business was almost as disreputable as that of the _lenones_ (--139).

During the Empire training-schools were maintained at public expense and under the direction of state officials not only in Rome, where there were four at least of these schools, but also in other cities of Italy where exhibitions were frequently given, and even in the provinces. The purpose of all the schools, public and private alike, was the same, to make the men trained in them as effective fighting machines as possible. The gladiators were in charge of competent training masters (_lanistae_); they were subject to the strictest discipline; their diet was carefully looked after, a special food (_sagina gladiatoria_) being provided for them; regular gymnastic exercises were prescribed, and lessons given in the use of the various weapons by recognized experts (_magistri_, _doctores_). In their fencing bouts wooden swords (_rudes_) were used. The gladiators a.s.sociated in a school were collectively called a _familia_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 156. PLAN OF SCHOOL FOR GLADIATORS]

--350. These schools had also to serve as barracks for the gladiators between engagements, that is, practically as houses of detention. It was from the school of Lentulus at Capua that Spartacus had escaped, and the Romans needed no second lesson of the sort. The general arrangement of these barracks may be understood from the ruins of one uncovered at Pompeii, though in this case the buildings had been originally planned for another purpose, and the rearrangement may not be ideal in all respects. A central court, or exercise ground (Figs.

155, 156) is surrounded by a wide colonnade, and this in turn by rows of buildings two stories in height, the general arrangement being not unlike that of the peristyle of a house (--202). The dimensions of the court are nearly 120 by 150 feet. The buildings are cut up into rooms, nearly all small (about twelve feet square), disconnected and opening upon the court, those in the first story being reached from the colonnade, those in the second from a gallery to which ran several stairways. These small rooms are supposed to be the sleeping-rooms of the gladiators, each accommodating two persons. There are seventy-one of them (marked _7_ on the plan), affording room for 142 men. The uses of the larger rooms are purely conjectural. The entrance is supposed to have been at _3_, with a room, _15_, for the watchman or sentinel.

At _9_ was an _exedra_, where the gladiators may have waited in full panoply for their turns in the exercise ground, _1_. The guard-room, _8_, is identified by the remains of stocks, in which the refractory were fastened for punishment or safe-keeping. They permitted the culprits to lie on their backs or sit in a very uncomfortable position. At _6_ was the armory or property room, if we may judge from articles found in it. Near it in the corner was a staircase leading to the gallery before the rooms of the second story. The large room, _16_, was the mess-room, with the kitchen, _12_, opening into it. The stairway, _13_, gives access to the rooms above kitchen and mess-room, possibly the apartments of the trainers and their helpers.

--351. Places of Exhibition.--During the Republic the combats of gladiators took place sometimes at the grave or in the circus, but regularly in the forum. None of these places was well adapted to the purpose, the grave the least of all. The circus had seats enough, but the _spina_ was in the way (--335) and the arena too vast to give all the spectators a satisfactory view of a struggle that was confined practically to a single spot. In the forum, on the other hand, the seats could be arranged very conveniently; they would run parallel with the sides, would be curved around the corners, and would inclose only sufficient s.p.a.ce to afford room for the combatants. The inconvenience here was due to the fact that the seats had to be erected before each performance and removed after it, a delay to business if they were constructed carefully and a menace to life if they were put up hastily. These considerations finally led the Romans, as they had led the Campanians half a century before, to provide permanent seats for the _munera_, arranged as they had been in the forum, but in a place where they would not interfere with public or private business. To these places for shows of gladiators came in the course of time to be exclusively applied the word _amphitheatrum_, which had been previously given in its correct general sense to any place, the circus for example, in which the seats ran all the way around, as opposed to the theater in which the rows of seats were broken by the stage.

--352. Amphitheaters at Rome.--Just when the first amphitheaters, in the special sense of the word, were erected at Rome can not be determined with certainty. The elder Pliny (79 A.D.) tells us that in the year 55 B.C. Caius Scribonius Curio built two wooden theaters back to back, the stages being, therefore, at opposite ends, and gave in them simultaneous theatrical performances in the morning. Then, while the spectators remained in their seats, the two theaters were turned by machinery and brought together face to face, the stages were removed, and in the s.p.a.ce they had occupied shows of gladiators were given in the afternoon before the united crowds. This story is all too evidently invented to account for the perfected amphitheater of Pliny's time, which he must have interpreted to mean "a double theater." We are also told that Caesar erected a wooden amphitheater in 46 B.C., but we have no detailed description of it, and no reason to think that it was anything more than a temporary affair. In the year 29 B.C., however, an amphitheater was built by Statilius Taurus, partially at least of stone, that lasted until the great conflagration in the reign of Nero (64 A.D.). Nero himself had previously erected one of wood in the Campus. Finally, just before the end of the first century of our era, was completed the _amphitheatrum Flavium_, later known as the _colosseum_ or _coliseum_, which was large enough and durable enough to make forever unnecessary the erection of other similar structures in the city.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 157. EXTERIOR OF AMPHITHEATER AT POMPEII]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 158. INTERIOR OF AMPHITHEATER AT POMPEII]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 159. SECTION OF AMPHITHEATER AT POMPEII]

--353. The Amphitheater at Pompeii.--The essential features of an amphitheater may be most easily understood from the ruins of the one at Pompeii, erected about 75 B.C., almost half a century before the first permanent structure of the sort at Rome (--352), and the earliest known to us from either literary or monumental sources. The exterior is shown in Fig. 157 (see also Overbeck, pp. 176-180; Mau-Kelsey, pp.

206-212) and a section in Fig. 159. It will be seen at once that the arena and most of the seats lie in a great hollow excavated for the purpose, thus making sufficient for the exterior a low wall of hardly more than ten to thirteen feet in height. Even this wall was necessary on only two sides, as the amphitheater was built in the southeast corner of the city and its south and east sides were bounded by the city walls. The shape is elliptical, the major axis being 444 feet, the minor 342. The arena occupies the middle s.p.a.ce. It was encircled by thirty-five rows of seats arranged in three divisions, the lowest (_infima_ or _ima cavea_) having five rows, the second (_media cavea_) twelve, and the highest (_summa cavea_) eighteen. A broad terrace ran around the amphitheater at the height of the topmost row of seats.

Access to this terrace was given from without by the double stairway on the west, shown in Fig. 157, and by single stairways next the city walls on the east and south (_10_ in Fig. 160). Between the terrace and the top seats was a gallery, or row of boxes, each about four feet square, probably for women. Beneath the boxes persons could pa.s.s from the terrace to the seats. The amphitheater had seating capacity for about 20,000 people.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 160. PLAN OF ARENA IN AMPHITHEATER AT POMPEII]

--354. The arena is shown in Fig. 158, its plan in Fig. 160. It was an ellipse with axes of 228 and 121 feet. Around it ran a wall a little more than six feet high, on a level with the top of which were the lowest seats. For the protection of the spectators when wild animals were shown, a grating of iron bars was put up on the top of the arena wall. Access to the arena and to the seats of the _cavea ima_ and the _cavea media_ was given by the two underground pa.s.sageways, _1_ and _2_ in Fig. 160, of which _2_ turns at right angles on account of the city wall on the south. From the arena ran also a third pa.s.sage, _5_, low and narrow, leading to the _porta Libitinensis_, through which the bodies of the dead were dragged with ropes and hooks. Near the mouths of these pa.s.sages were small chambers or dens, marked _4_, _4_, _6_, the purposes of which are not known. The floor of the arena was covered with sand, as in the circus (--332), but in this case to soak up the blood as well as to give a firm footing to the gladiators.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 161. BISELLIUM]

--355. Of the part of this amphitheater set aside for the spectators the _cavea ima_ only was supported upon artificial foundations. All the other seats were constructed in sections as means were obtained for the purpose, the people in the meantime finding places for themselves on the sloping banks as in the early theaters (--325). The _cavea ima_ was strictly not supplied with seats all the way around, a considerable section on the east and west sides being arranged with four low, broad ledges of stone, rising one above the other, on which the members of the city council could place the seats of honor (_bisellia_, Fig. 161) to which their rank ent.i.tled them. In the middle of the section on the east the lowest ledge is made of double width for some ten feet; this was the place set apart for the giver of the games and his friends. In the _cavea media_ and the _cavea summa_ the seats were of stone resting on the bank of earth. It is probable that all the places in the lowest section were reserved for people of distinction, that seats in the middle section were sold to the well-to-do, and that admission was free to the less desirable seats of the highest section.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 162. EXTERIOR OF THE COLISEUM]

--356. The Coliseum.--The Flavian amphitheater (--352) is the best known of all the buildings of ancient Rome, because to a larger extent than others it has survived to the present day. For our purpose it is not necessary to give its history or to describe its architecture; it will be sufficient to compare its essential parts with those of its modest prototype in Pompeii. The latter was built in the outskirts of the city, in a corner in fact of the city walls (--353); the coliseum lay almost in the center of Rome, the most generally accessible of all the public buildings. The interior of the Pompeian structure was reached through two pa.s.sages and by three stairways only, while eighty numbered entrances made it easy for the Roman mult.i.tudes to find their appropriate places in the coliseum. Much of the earlier amphitheater was underground; all of the corresponding parts of the coliseum were above the level of the street, the walls rising to a height of nearly 160 feet. This gave opportunity for the same architectural magnificence that had distinguished the Roman theater from that of the Greeks (--326). The general effect is shown in Fig. 162, an exterior view of the ruins as they exist to-day.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 163. INTERIOR OF COLISEUM]

--357. The interior is shown in Fig. 163. The form is an ellipse with axes of 620 and 513 feet, the building covering nearly six acres of ground. The arena is also an ellipse, its axes measuring 287 and 180 feet. The width of the s.p.a.ce appropriated for the spectators is, therefore, 166 feet all around the arena. It will be noticed, too, that subterranean chambers were constructed under the whole building, including the arena. These furnished room for the regiments of gladiators, the dens of wild beasts, the machinery for the transformation scenes that Gibbon has described in his twelfth chapter, and above all for the vast number of water and drainage pipes that made it possible to turn the arena into a lake at a moment's notice and as quickly to get rid of the water. The wall that surrounded the arena was fifteen feet high with the side faced with rollers and defended like the one at Pompeii with a grating or network of metal above it. The top of the wall was level with the floor of the lowest range of seats, called the _podium_ as in the circus (--337), and this had room for two or at the most three rows of marble thrones.

These were for the use of the emperor and the imperial family, the giver of the games, the magistrates, senators, Vestal virgins, amba.s.sadors of foreign states, and other persons of consequence.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 164. SECTION OF COLISEUM]

--358. The arrangement of the seats with the method of reaching them is shown in the sectional plan, Fig. 164. The seats were arranged in three tiers (_maeniana_, --337) one above the other, separated by broad pa.s.sageways and rising more steeply the farther they were from the arena, and were crowned by an open gallery. In the plan the _podium_ is marked A. Twelve feet above it begins the first _maenianum_, B, with fourteen rows of seats reserved for members of the equestrian order. Then came a broad _praecinctio_ (--327) and after it the second _maenianum_, C, intended for ordinary citizens. Back of this was a wall of considerable height and above it the third _maenianum_, D, supplied with rough wooden benches for the lowest cla.s.ses, foreigners, slaves, and the like. The row of pillars along the front of this section made the distant view all the worse. Above this was an open gallery, E, in which women found an unwelcome place. No other seats were open to them unless they were of sufficient distinction to claim a place upon the _podium_. At the very top of the outside wall was a terrace, F, in which were fixed masts to support the awnings that gave protection against the sun. The seating capacity of the coliseum is said to have been 80,000, and it had standing room for 20,000 more.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 165. RETIARIUS AND SECUTOR]

--359. Styles of Fighting.--Gladiators fought usually in pairs, man against man, but sometimes in ma.s.ses (_gregatim_, _catervatim_). In early times they were actually soldiers, captives taken in war (--347), and fought naturally with the weapons and equipment to which they were accustomed. When the professionally trained gladiators came in, they were given the old names, and were called Samnites, Thracians, etc., according to their arms and tactics. In much later times victories over distant peoples were celebrated with combats in which the weapons and methods of war of the conquered were shown to the people of Rome; thus, after the conquest of Britain _essedarii_ exhibited in the arena the tactics of chariot fighting which Caesar had described generations before in his Commentaries. It was natural enough, too, for the people to want to see different arms and different tactics tried against each other, and so the Samnite was matched against the Thracian, the heavy armed against the light armed. This became under the Empire the favorite style of combat. Finally when people had tired of the regular shows, novelties were introduced that seem to us grotesque; men fought blindfold (_andabatae_), armed with two swords (_dimachaeri_), with the la.s.so (_laqueatores_), with a heavy net (_retiarii_), and there were battles of dwarfs and of dwarfs with women. Of these the _retiarius_ became immensely popular. He carried a huge net in which he tried to entangle his opponent, always a _secutor_ (see below), despatching him with a dagger if the throw was successful. If unsuccessful he took to flight while preparing his net for another throw, of if he had lost his net tried to keep his opponent off with a heavy three-p.r.o.nged spear (_fuscina_), his only weapon beside the dagger (Fig. 165).

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 166. THRAEX]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURE 167. VOTIVE GALERUS]