They weren’t all slaves and they didn’t all look like “gym guys” either.

Roman sources collect multiple anecdotes – of doubtful credibility – about the adventures in the arena of Commodus, “the gladiator emperor”: It is said that he killed all kinds of animals with his bow – a hundred lions with a hundred arrows -, that he fought 735 times and that people applauded him like a godalthough once, believing that he was being mocked, he had the spectators massacred. He chose the armor of first aidcarrying the shield in the right hand and the (wooden) sword in the left, as well as a smooth helmet with few openings for the eyes, as shown in the spectacular illustration which precedes this article.

What will catch the attention of many is the pose of the gladiator that Commodus has just defeated: a retiarius with his characteristic trident and his net already on the ground who, rendered and on his knees, raises finger in defeat. The referees would then have stopped the fight and the decisive moment would arrive in the life of the loser: the public and, ultimately, the organizer of the games, had to decide between death or mercy.

However, even if the gesture of the thumbs up or down was popularized in cinema and fiction to pardon or condemn the gladiator – the origin of this image is found in an 1872 painting by the French painter Jean-Léon Gérôme – it is unknown how this decision manifested itself. Two ancient sources bring together the expressions police verse And converted from fontwhat do they mean “with the thumb extended towards a certain place”but without specifying the precise address. Researchers have proposed that this finger could become a kind of sword that the victor would point towards his fallen rival if he were to be killed or that he would sheathe in his clenched fist as a symbol of forgiveness. Other hypotheses propose that the popular will was manifested by the waving of handkerchiefs or napkins or by the cries of mitte (forgive him) or iugula (spit it out).

The story of thumbs down is still a myth, one of many lies that surround the history of Roman gladiators and are entertainingly addressed in an excellent popular book by Fernando Lillo And María Engracia Muñoz-Santosleading specialists in the field. With the title of Gladiators. Courage in the face of death (Desperta Ferro), retrace a complete journey through the lives of these fighters, from their recruitment to their fall in the arena or their liberation thanks to their triumphs.

The power of films like Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick, 1960) established erroneous ideas in the popular imagination, such as that all gladiators were slaves. In the ludusthe schools where they were trained before jumping into lecture halls have spread throughout the country. Roman Empirethere were prisoners of war, convicts – some had no other choice to escape their punishment and died decapitated by a sword (ad ludum) or disarmed and devoured on the sand between the claws of an animal (advertising beasts)—and slaves, but also free men who were temporarily interned to solve a financial problem, like a young aristocrat who needed an income to pay for his father’s funeral.

Lillo, a doctor in classical philology from the University of Salamanca, and Muñoz-Santos, a doctor in classical archeology from the University of Valencia, conscientiously combine information from written sources with archaeological data to answer thorny questions. For example, they are not categorical when it comes to ensuring the existence of female gladiators: it would seem that there were women fighting in the arenabut it is not known what equipment they had, we do not know where they trained, nor have we found a grave or clear epigraphic inscription that speaks of any of them.

Combat Rules

The curious Roman morality considered gladiators infamous, but at the same time they were famous and admired, and even the little ones played with figurines that idealized them or drew their fights, as revealed on the walls of the houses of Pompeii. The fighters, once recruited, They adopted a “battle” name and they were assigned to a specialty (armor).

The most famous were the small Thracian shield (Parma), curved short sword (sica) and hemispherical helmet with a large wing—, the myrmilón—large rectangular shield (scutum), helmet with visor and crest decorated with mane or feathers and short sword – or the aforementioned retiary. But there were other curious types of gladiators, such as andabataewho could not see because they were blindfolded or had their helmet visors covered; either THE paegniariiwho fought among themselves armed with sticks and whips —one of them, called Segundo and trained at the Ludus Magnus in Rome, the most important school, a few meters from the Colosseum, reached the age of 98—.

Among the most interesting aspects of the work, accompanied by a revealing graphic device, stands out the immersion in the preparations for the shows, sponsored by rich men or by the Roman state itself. “The gladiator has never ceased to be a product for a business and he had to give the most to his employer, the laniste“, say the authors. Their maintenance was very expensive and their presence had to be ensured in as many games as possible – not all fights were to the death, as is also commonly believed. Their diet consisted of cereals and legumes taken in the form of porridge – Pliny the Elder defined them as “barley eaters” -. There was no meat or fish in their rations, but they ate at least three meals a day, unlike many other Roman citizens.

“This diet provided the gladiators with 6,000 calories per day. No matter how much exercise they did, they would never be hypermuscular, let alone be perfectly proportioned ‘gym boys,'” historians say. “We prefer to take as an example heavyweight boxers. Tall, fit, strong, tough men with big muscles. And with a significant layer of fat which offered protection against cuts from the opponent.”

Gladiator shows were a mass event in ancient Rome. There were emperors like Nero, Domitian or even Commodus himself who felt a real passion for these battles, announced by inscriptions in large red letters in public places or on tombs located on the access roads to the city. Also the programs were distributed on papyrus with the names, classes and biographies of the protagonists so that viewers can choose their favorites.

Compared to what the movies show – multiple groups or couples fighting among themselves – the most common thing was single combat. The gladiators had to fight according to precise rules which have not been preserved and two referees ensured that they were respected. They could interrupt the action due to an unforeseen event, such as the accidental loss of part of the weapons, or to establish one or more breaks in a long and regular confrontation, which usually lasted between three and eight minutes, although it could last up to ten or fifteen minutes. The winner received the palm of victory or a laurel wreath and a sum of money. The body of the deceased, if there was one, was sent to the spoliariumwhere he was stripped of his panoply. Some were buried in graves, but if no one claimed the body, it was thrown into a mass grave.

In a curious and macabre detail, some Roman brides combed their hair on their wedding day with the tip of a spear which had been thrust into the body of a defeated and dead gladiator so that, in the same way as the weapon had been attached to the fighter, the wife was for the husband.

And one last myth debunked, although this one is probably better known. Gladiators never greeted the emperor with the expression “Hail Caesar, those who are about to die salute you”. The sentence, with the formula Hail, emperor…is only documented by the historian Suetonius, who puts it in the mouths of a few prisoners condemned to participate in a naumachia organized by Claudius. Once again, the origin of this misconception is found in a painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme from 1859. An essential book to x-ray the second part of Gladiatorwhich hits theaters next month.