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Gladiators
A gladiator ( la, gladiator, "swordsman", from , "sword") was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their lives and their legal and social standing by appearing in the arena. Most were despised as slaves, schooled under harsh conditions, socially marginalized, and segregated even in death. Irrespective of their origin, gladiators offered spectators an example of Rome's martial ethics and, in fighting or dying well, they could inspire admiration and popular acclaim. They were celebrated in high and low art, and their value as entertainers was commemorated in precious and commonplace objects throughout the Roman world. The origin of gladiatorial combat is open to debate. There is evidence of it in funeral rites during the Punic Wars of the 3rd century BC, and thereafter it rapidly became an essential fea ...
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Gladiators From The Zliten Mosaic 3
A gladiator ( la, gladiator, "swordsman", from , "sword") was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their lives and their legal and social standing by appearing in the arena. Most were despised as slaves, schooled under harsh conditions, socially marginalized, and segregated even in death. Irrespective of their origin, gladiators offered spectators an example of Rome's martial ethics and, in fighting or dying well, they could inspire admiration and popular acclaim. They were celebrated in high and low art, and their value as entertainers was commemorated in precious and commonplace objects throughout the Roman world. The origin of gladiatorial combat is open to debate. There is evidence of it in funeral rites during the Punic Wars of the 3rd century BC, and thereafter it rapidly became an essential fea ...
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List Of Roman Gladiator Types
There were many different types of gladiators in ancient Rome. Some of the first gladiators had been prisoners-of-war, and so some of the earliest types of gladiators were experienced fighters; Gauls, Samnites, and ''Thraeces'' (Thracians) used their native weapons and armor. Different gladiator types specialized in specific weapons and fighting techniques. Combatants were usually pitted against opponents with different, but more or less equivalent equipment, for the sake of a fair and balanced contest. Most gladiators only fought others from within the same school or ''ludus'', but sometimes specific gladiators could be requested to fight one from another ''ludus''. Elite gladiators wore high-quality decorative armour for the pre-game parade ''(Pompa)''. Julius Caesar's gladiators wore silver armour, Domitian's wore golden armour and Nero's wore armour decorated with carved amber. Peacock feathers were used for plumes while tunics and loincloths had patterns in gold thread. For t ...
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Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterranean Sea in Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia, and was ruled by emperors. From the accession of Caesar Augustus as the first Roman emperor to the military anarchy of the 3rd century, it was a Principate with Italia as the metropole of its provinces and the city of Rome as its sole capital. The Empire was later ruled by multiple emperors who shared control over the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire. The city of Rome remained the nominal capital of both parts until AD 476 when the imperial insignia were sent to Constantinople following the capture of the Western capital of Ravenna by the Germanic barbarians. The adoption of Christianity as the state church of the Roman Empire in AD 380 and the fall of the Western ...
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Thraex
The Thraex (pl. Thraeces), or Thracian, was a type of Roman gladiator, armed in the Thracian style with a small rectangular, square or circular shield called a '' parmula'' (about 60 x 65 cm) and a very short sword with a slightly curved blade called a ''sica'' (like a small version of the Dacian falx), intended to maim an opponent's unarmoured back. His other armour included armoured greaves, a protective belt above a loincloth, and a helmet with a side plume, visor and high crest. Ludia's female gladiators used the same weapons and armour. He and the hoplomachus, with his Greek equipment, were usually pitted against the murmillo, armed like a legionary, mimicking the opposition between Roman soldiers and their various slaves. In essence, these slaves were not trained well and died a gruesome death. See also * Ludus Dacicus * List of Roman gladiator types There were many different types of gladiators in ancient Rome. Some of the first gladiators had been prisoners-of- ...
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Roman Republic
The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establishment of the Roman Empire, Rome's control rapidly expanded during this period—from the city's immediate surroundings to hegemony over the entire Mediterranean world. Roman society under the Republic was primarily a cultural mix of Latin and Etruscan societies, as well as of Sabine, Oscan, and Greek cultural elements, which is especially visible in the Roman Pantheon. Its political organization developed, at around the same time as direct democracy in Ancient Greece, with collective and annual magistracies, overseen by a senate. The top magistrates were the two consuls, who had an extensive range of executive, legislative, judicial, military, and religious powers ...
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Manes
In ancient Roman religion, the ''Manes'' (, , ) or ''Di Manes'' are chthonic deities sometimes thought to represent souls of deceased loved ones. They were associated with the ''Lares'', ''Lemures,'' '' Genii'', and ''Di Penates'' as deities ('' di'') that pertained to domestic, local, and personal cult. They belonged broadly to the category of ''di inferi'', "those who dwell below," the undifferentiated collective of divine dead. The Manes were honored during the Parentalia and Feralia in February. The theologian St. Augustine, writing about the subject a few centuries after most of the Latin pagan references to such spirits, differentiated Manes from other types of Roman spirits: Latin spells of antiquity were often addressed to the Manes. Etymology and inscriptions Manes may be derived from "an archaic adjective manus—''good''—which was the opposite of immanis (monstrous)".. Roman tombstones often included the letters ''D.M.'', which stood for ''Dis Manibus'', liter ...
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Munera (ancient Rome)
In ancient Rome, (Latin plural; singular ) were public works and entertainments provided for the benefit of the Roman people by individuals of high status and wealth. means "duty, obligation" (cf. English " munificence"), expressing the individual's responsibility to provide a service or contribution to his community. The word was often a synonym for gladiatorial combat, which was originally sponsored as a funeral tribute at the tomb of a deceased Roman magnate by his heir. depended on the private largesse of individuals, in contrast to , which were games, athletic contests or spectacles sponsored by the state. Types and evolution The most famous ''munera'' were the gladiatorial contests, which began as a service or gift rendered by the heirs of the deceased at funeral games. ''Munera'' could refer to the provision of such public services, or to the services themselves. In describing Rome's provision of water to the public, Frontinus describes certain lavishly decorated term ...
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Forum Boarium
The Forum Boarium (, it, Foro Boario) was the cattle ''forum venalium'' of ancient Rome. It was located on a level piece of land near the Tiber between the Capitoline, the Palatine and Aventine hills. As the site of the original docks of Rome (''Portus Tiberinus''), the Forum Boarium experienced intense commercial activity. The Forum Boarium was the site of the first gladiatorial contest at Rome which took place in 264 BC as part of aristocratic funerary ritual—a '' munus'' or funeral gift for the dead. Marcus and Decimus Junius Brutus Scaeva put on a gladiatorial combat in honor of their deceased father with three pairs of gladiators. The site was also a religious centre housing the Temple of Hercules Victor, the Temple of Portunus (Temple of Fortuna Virilis), and the massive 6th or 5th century BC Great Altar of Hercules. Architecture The Temple of Hercules Victor or ''Hercules Olivarius'' (Hercules the Olive Branch Bearear ), is a circular peristyle building dati ...
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Decimus Junius Brutus Scaeva
Decimus may refer to: Romen praenomen * Decimus (praenomen) * Decimus Carfulenus (died 43 BC), Roman statesman * Decimus Haterius Agrippa (died 32 AD), consul in 22 AD * Decimus Junius Brutus (consul 77 BC) * Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus (–43 BC), Roman politician and general, assassin of Julius Caesar * Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus (180 BC–113 BC), Roman politician and general * Decimus Junius Silanus Torquatus (16 AD–64 AD), consul in AD 53 * Decimus Junius Silanus (consul) () * Decimus Junius Silanus (translator of Mago) () * Decimus Laberius (–43 BC), Roman eques and writer * Decimus Laelius (), Roman lawyer and tribune of the plebs * Decimus Laelius Balbus, consul in 6 BC * Decimus Valerius Asiaticus (–47 AD), Roman senator * Decimus Valerius Asiaticus (Legatus) (35-after 69 AD), Roman senator, Legatus of Gallia Belgica * Ausonius (Decimus Magnus Ausonius, –), Roman poet and rhetorician * Balbinus (Decimus Caelius Calvinus Balbinus, –238), Roman emperor in 2 ...
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Carthage
Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classical world. The city developed from a Canaanite Phoenician colony into the capital of a Punic empire which dominated large parts of the Southwest Mediterranean during the first millennium BC. The legendary Queen Alyssa or Dido, originally from Tyre, is regarded as the founder of the city, though her historicity has been questioned. According to accounts by Timaeus of Tauromenium, she purchased from a local tribe the amount of land that could be covered by an oxhide. As Carthage prospered at home, the polity sent colonists abroad as well as magistrates to rule the colonies. The ancient city was destroyed in the nearly-three year siege of Carthage by the Roman Republic during the Third Punic War in 146 BC and then re-developed as Roman Car ...
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First Punic War
The First Punic War (264–241 BC) was the first of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the early 3rd century BC. For 23 years, in the longest continuous conflict and greatest naval war of antiquity, the two powers struggled for supremacy. The war was fought primarily on the Mediterranean island of Sicily and its surrounding waters, and also in North Africa. After immense losses on both sides, the Carthaginians were defeated. The war began in 264 BC with the Romans gaining a foothold on Sicily at Messana (modern Messina). The Romans then pressed Syracuse, the only significant independent power on the island, into allying with them and laid siege to Carthage's main base at Akragas. A large Carthaginian army attempted to lift the siege in 262 BC but was heavily defeated at the Battle of Akragas. The Romans then built a navy to challenge the Carthaginians', and using novel tactics inflicted severa ...
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Paestum
Paestum ( , , ) was a major ancient Greek city on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea in Magna Graecia (southern Italy). The ruins of Paestum are famous for their three ancient Greek temples in the Doric order, dating from about 550 to 450 BC, which are in an excellent state of preservation. The city walls and amphitheatre are largely intact, and the bottom of the walls of many other structures remain, as well as paved roads. The site is open to the public, and there is a modern national museum within it, which also contains the finds from the associated Greek site of Foce del Sele. Solinus wrote that it was established by Dorians. After its foundation by Greek colonists under the name of Poseidonia ( grc, Ποσειδωνία), it was eventually conquered by the local Lucanians and later the Romans. The Lucanians renamed it to Paistos and the Romans gave the city its current name. As Pesto or Paestum, the town became a bishopric (now only titular), but it was abandoned in the E ...
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