The age of the gladiators: savagery & spectacle in Ancient Rome

by Rupert Matthews

Book Overview

The great spectacles of ancient Rome have become proverbial for their cruelty, bloodlust & glory. In the Arena, the games were savage & brutal. Gladiators fought each other to the death, wild animals... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1841931853
• ISBN13: 9781841931852
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Capella
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Fascinating look at the orgins and reasons for the great games of the Roman Empire

It is fortunate that it is unlikely that there will ever be spectacles similar to what took place in Rome when it was an empire. To describe what took place in the arena by using the word savagery is an understatement. Men fought and died horrible deaths for nothing more than the amusement of the crowd. I found it very interesting to learn that the origin of the games and gladiatorial contests was based on a funeral. When a man of stature died, a munus was held to honor him. Like nearly everything that was a part of their culture, the Romans borrowed the idea of human sacrifice from the Etruscans. When a great warrior died, the Etruscans honored his accomplishments by killing captured prisoners of war. The Romans adopted this practice and made it into the greatest of spectacles. It was also interesting to learn that a priamry reason for the games was to keep the "mob" happy. Rome was a huge city of approximately one million people and many of them were unproductive, although collectively they possessed a great deal of political power through their votes. Roman politicians kept their hold on power by literally providing "bread and circuses" to the masses, who responded by keeping their benefactors in power. It is amazing to think that one of the forms of glue binding the Roman Empire together were the regular games that kept the people entertained. Human social mores come in many forms, this is one that worked at the time but is thankfully a thing of the past.

Fine introduction to the Roman world and oh yeah... gladiators too

It's worth it for the reader of my review to also read the review below mine from Michael. His review is fair and touches on some good points about the book. However, I give this book a little more credit (maybe a lot more since I give it 5 stars). I, too, discovered this book in Barnes and Noble at a decent bargain bin price around $6. I knew nothing about gladiators (having seen Spartacus or Gladiator still doesn't mean you know anything ;)), but I did have some general understanding of the basic Roman history. Well, when I started reading it, I found the author's writing style and his succinct chapters very pleasing. The chapters are short and to the point: Origin of the Games, Spartacus, Training the Gladiators, Varieties of Killer, Naval Battles, Wild Animal Hunts, Executions, The Colosseum... etc etc; chapters that focus on one aspect of the Roman games and everything that correlates with it. There is no meandering or pedantic scholarly side-steps into boring history. The book is small, too, so its 236 pages are more like reading 100, but that doesn't negate its impact as an educating book; think of the book as quality over quantity. Regarding the information on the gladiatorial games, I found this book immensely informative. I knew nothing about the gladiator styles, the murmillo and secutors, or the perversely creative ways of executing prisoners (you won't believe it; throwing Christians to the lions was just the beginning). Even more so, I had no idea just how many people AND animals were killed; thousands and thousands and thousands over years and years. When you read that actual animal species became extinct from all the imports of animals and slaughters in the arena, suddenly it seems not even the history of nature, with all the slain wildlife can even compete with Rome's insatiable lust for dead animals. PETA would go insane and kill themselves from the statistics. This is just one very enlightening highlight in this book and there's plenty more to be had. However, this book does not focus entirely on gladiators; it's not really meant to be that thorough of a project. It's more of an introduction to Roman entertainment in general. It does detail the Roman Triumphs (equivalent of our military parades), the Bread Doles and even touches on some of the debauched parties held by Caligula and Nero. By the end of the book, the gladiators are in the background and no longer under the spotlight. Depending on how fast you read the book, this may leave you wanting more about the gladiators. However, if you read fast, you'll still retain what you know about gladiators and not miss them when the last half of the book focuses on other things. But this is not a negative point to me. The book ends quite nicely with chapters touching on Cleopatra, the barbarians encroaching on Rome, and then the final fall. From the start of the book you feel like you're reading about an amazing race of people that we will never see again. And at the end, as Mi