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up the blood and keep gladiators from slipping. In Latin, the word for
sand is harena, which gives rise to the term “arena.” Around the oval was
a raised wall to prevent wild beasts or violent combatants from reaching
the spectators. The seating was arranged in ascending tiers according to an
elaborate hierarchy of social and political status; the more important you
were, the closer to the action you sat. Underneath the arena was a gloomy
labyrinth of walls and passages containing cages for beasts and gladiators,
storage space for weapons, and pulley mechanisms for the more elaborate
spectacles.
The first permanent stone amphitheater in Rome was begun by the
emperor Vespasian around ad 75 and dedicated by his son, Titus, in
ad 80, with an extended series of lavish games lasting one hundred days.
The Flavian Amphitheater, as it was officially called, was built on the site
of Nero’s palace, the Domus Aurea, or “Golden House,” and came to
be known as the Colosseum after a colossal statue that stood nearby. As
the principal urban arena at Rome, the Colosseum was “designed to be
the most prestigious locale for blood games of power and politics” (Futrell,
1997, 156). The Colosseum held around fifty thousand spectators, who
could enter and exit the amphitheater in a matter of minutes through
eighty arched passages called vomitoria. In the stands, the Roman crowd
was utterly enraptured by the gory yet glamorous games, which by then
held very little religious meaning and were devoted entirely to the thrill of
bloody spectacle.
Gladiators occupied an ambiguous position in Roman society, both
privileged as superstars and despised as the lowest scum (Barton, 11–46).
They were idolized for their virility and skill, sought after by star-struck
groupies and aristocratic ladies for their supposed sexual expertise, yet
reviled as slaves and common entertainers. Gladiators were typically recruited
for their physical appearance and abilities from the ranks of criminals,
slaves, and prisoners of war, those who carried the ultimate social
stigma of infamia, or “disgrace.” Such individuals, many of them non-
Roman, no longer possessed the rights of citizens, and had no choice but
to accede to a life in the arena. However, some freeborn men willingly
chose the profession; they were called auctorati, or “volunteers.” By swearing
the gladiator’s oath of allegiance, they agreed to be treated as slaves
and suffer infamia for a specific period of time (Malam, 38–9). Yet the
rewards of this dangerous career may have been attractive, including the
opportunity for fame, fortune, and sexual liaisons with multiple or highstatus
partners. A graffito in Pompeii calls the gladiator Celadus suspirium
puellarum, “the sigh of the girls.” Gladiators were identified with a cohesive
GLADIATOR (2000) 219