Chapters
Thanks to the ability to win votes this way, some made their career, while others went bankrupt. But as a political weapon, a good spectacle and a sumptuous feast were unbeatable. The rate was high. It was worth spending a fortune to gain a public office.
The advantages of organizing the games were also noticed by the emperors, who used it to lighten the public mood in the Empire and wanted to please the crowds. Some of them organized competitions because they loved them, like Commodus.
The Romans took a great passion for the Olympics. They were made at every opportunity. This is how a Roman historian Suetonius describes the games, organized by Julius Caesar:
He sponsored spectacles of various kinds: a gladiatorial contest, plays in all regions of the city, and performed by actors in every language, as well as circus performances, athletic contests, and a sea battle.
In a gladiatorial fight in the Forum, Furius Leptinius, a man of a praetorian family, and Quintus Calpenus, who had once been a senator and legal advocate, fought to the finish. The children of the princes of Asia and Bithynia performed a Pyrrhic dance. During the plays, the Roman knight Decimus Laberius performed in a mime he himself had written and, when he was given five hundred thousand sesterces and a golden ring, he left the stage and crossed the orchestra to take his seat in the fourteen rows. For the circus races, the area of the circus itself was extended at either end, with a broad canal surrounding the circuit. Here the noblest young men made displays with four-horse and two-horse chariots and by jumping between pairs of horses. Two squadrons, one of older and one of younger boys, performed the Troy game. Five days of animal fights were provided. For the final one, two battle lines were drawn up, with five hundred foot soldiers, twenty elephants, and three hundred knights assigned to each side. And so that there would be more space
for the encounter, the central barriers were removed and in their place two camps were set up, one facing the other. In a temporary stadium constructed in an area of the Campus Martius, athletes competed for three days. In the sea-battle, which took place on a lake excavated in the lesser Codeta, ships with two, three, and four banks of oars from the Tyrian and Egyptian fleets engaged, manned by a huge number of fighters. Drawn by all these spectacles, a vast number of people flooded into Rome from every region, so that many of the visitors had to lodge in tents put up in the streets or along the roads. And the crowds were so great on a number of occasions that many people were crushed to death, even including two senators.– Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars, The Deified Julius Caesar, 39
During the reign of Augustus, there were 65 days of shows in the year, and in the following centuries, there were more free rather than working. Nero put on chariot races over the bloody gladiatorial struggles, which he diversified with his own imagination, ordering to harness camels instead of horses. As a 20-year-old young man, in 59 CE, he organized games on the occasion of shaving his youthful beard. They were called Iuvenalia and their tradition lives to this day in the name of the student’s festival. For the Roman people, demanding bread and games (panem et circenses), sea battles imitating real events were also organized in the arena filled with water or in specially built pools.
The following types of shows were distinguished:
- Gladiatiorial fights – bloody struggles of people and animals. The tradition of gladiatorial fights comes from the Etruruscan custom of worshipping the dead through struggles instead of human sacrifices.
- Chariot races – two athletes were racing and trying to reach the post as soon as possible. There were four teams: red, white, green and blue. The spectator who came to the races was dressed in the colours of the favoured team. This entertainment was the most popular.
- Naumachia – staged naval battles are shown on specially created pools (sometimes in amphitheatres) or natural lakes. They usually depicted the victorious battles of Roman troops.
- Theatre – theatre of ancient Rome was a very diverse and interesting form of art. There were various festivals, street theatres, acrobatics and great performances of Plautus’ comedies or the tragedies of Seneca the Younger.
Gladiatorial fights
The Romans enjoyed watching fights, initially during the republic they were fights between the prisoners of war. The games so popular in Rome were organized not only by the rulers but also by candidates seeking office to win the support of the Roman people. During the empire, gladiatorial struggles developed. Perhaps gladiatorial fights were derived from the tradition of fighting at the grave of the deceased during the funeral ceremony. The people wanted the fights to be organized even on the occasion of the funeral of insignificant people. Records of organizing such events were to be found in people’s wills.
Special schools for gladiators were formed, which trained them to fight in the arenas. Gladiators came mainly from slaves, prisoners of war but also from poor free people, they were strong men practised in martial art. They were equipped with a sword and a shield, they often fought with wild animals. Their existence was very uncertain because there could always be a stronger gladiator who could deprive him of life. The audience watching the games decided about giving or taking the gladiator’s life.
During the Empire, the games were mainly organized by the emperor who rented the schools of gladiators. All victories and successes of the Empire were accompanied by the games. It is difficult to determine exactly where the huge popularity of gladiatorial struggles in Roman society came from. Perhaps in this way, the accumulated emotions were vented
In the beginning, the games were held on forums and with time they were moved to huge amphitheatres. Initially, they were built of wood, with time the stone amphitheatres began to be erected