LIVES OF GLADIATORS: THEIR DIETS, HOMES AND GLORY

WHO WERE GLADIATORS

stele of a gladiator who killed 13 foes and died at age 22

Gladiators were armed combatants who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent fights 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, or were criminals that might get their sentences reduced for participating. Most were slaves, schooled under harsh conditions, socially marginalized, and segregated even in death. The word gladiator is derived from Latin “gladiator” meaning "swordsman", from gladius, "sword". [Source Wikipedia]

Gladiators abided by Rome's martial ethics in which fighting or dying admirably was acclaimed. Some gladiators were very famouse. They were celebrated in high and low art, and their value as entertainers is depicted on a variety found throughout the Roman world.

Some gladiators were runaway slaves and criminals. Others were stars. William Grimes of the New York Times wrote: “the gladiator was a contradictory figure. Socially, he was a despised outcast, but the warrior code and the unflinching courage displayed by most gladiators made them in a sense, ideal Romans...Not surprisingly , gladiators captured the public imagination. They were celebrities; young women left amorous graffiti on the walls of gladiator schools."

The combatants in some contest are believed to have been women. This idea is based on images of female gladiators found on reliefs in Halicarnassus in Asia Minor, mentions of a female in records from a gladiator school, and a tomb found in London of a Roman woman buried with objects usually found with buried gladiators.

Websites on Ancient Rome: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Rome sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Late Antiquity sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; BBC Ancient Rome bbc.co.uk/history; Perseus Project - Tufts University; perseus.tufts.edu ; Lacus Curtius penelope.uchicago.edu; British Museum ancientgreece.co.uk; Metropolitan Museum of Art metmuseum.org; The Internet Classics Archive classics.mit.edu ; Bryn Mawr Classical Review bmcr.brynmawr.edu; Cambridge Classics External Gateway to Humanities Resources web.archive.org; Ancient Rome resources for students from the Courtenay Middle School Library web.archive.org ; History of ancient Rome OpenCourseWare from the University of Notre Dame web.archive.org ; United Nations of Roma Victrix (UNRV) History unrv.com

Lives of Gladiators

Gladiator sports became professionalized, with managers, fixed schedules, tours and training centers, where gladiators developed skills in the different events. The gladiators are believed to have been highly trained. They were trained at special clubs where they were given instruction in martial arts and gymnastics and drilled to increase their strength and endurance.

Andrew Curry wrote in National Geographic: Inscriptions found at Pompeii suggest gladiator troupes traveled from town to town, often followed by loyal fans, as part of a sword-wielding road show. One advertisement discovered just outside the city walls encouraged locals to head to Nola, a 20-mile hike due north, to catch 20 pairs of gladiators facing off over the course of three days.[Source: Andrew Curry, National Geographic, July 20, 2021]

Tombstones — often commissioned by fellow fighters or loved ones left behind — suggest that many gladiators were family men. “Pompeius the retiarius, winner of nine crowns, born in Vienna, 25 years of age,” reads one such monument excavated in France. “His wife put this up with her own money for her wonderful spouse.”

Such memorials also are evidence that gladiators were proud of their work. Grave markers often included their records in the ring and depictions of weapons and armor, the tools of their trade. “It’s just the same as being a baker or shoemaker — you say what you did, and you’re proud of it,” Coleman says. “It doesn’t sound like they’re treated like criminals. Gladiators saw themselves as professionals.”

Graffiti: Important Source on the Lives of Gladiators

graffiti on a piece of ceramics

There are virtually no accounts written by gladiators themselves presumably at least in part because few of them could read or write. Not even Spartacus, the most famous of all gladiators, spoke for himself. Most of what we know about gladiators is based on descriptions by Roman historians and writers, Roman-era images (many of them mosaics), and bits and shreds of archaeological evidence. A surprising amount of transportation has been gleaned from Roman-era graffiti.

Natasha Sheldon wrote in ancienthistoryarchaeology.com: “Graffiti and other archaeological evidence tell us a great deal about the lives and life expectancy of Roman gladiators in Pompeii. Despite the Pompeian’s appetite for blood, their life expectancy was not as low as one would expect. In the main, gladiators were slaves purchased for their strength by local businessmen. They were trained in troupes and then hired them out to fight in the games. Many gladiators had single names like ‘Princeps’ and 'Hilarius’ which indicated that they were slaves. Some gladiators were also free. The gladiator Lucius Raecius Felix was probably a freedman. Felix was a common slave name and his other two names were probably adopted from his former master’s name and added after his freedom. Some gladiators were also freeborn. Graffiti in Pompeii records the name of a gladiator Marcus Attilius. His name is not that of a slave and does not indicate he was a freedman, suggesting he signed up to the arena for profit. [Source: Natasha Sheldon, ancienthistoryarchaeology.com]

Professor Kathleen Coleman of Harvard University wrote for the BBC: “Regardless of their status, gladiators might command an extensive following, as shown by graffiti in Pompeii, where walls are marked with comments such as Celadus, suspirium puellarum ('Celadus makes the girls swoon'). Indeed, apart from the tombstones of the gladiators, the informal cartoons with accompanying headings, scratched on plastered walls and giving a tally of individual gladiators' records, are the most detailed sources that modern historians have for the careers of these ancient fighters. [Source: Professor Kathleen Coleman, BBC, February 17, 2011 |::|]

“Sometimes these graffiti even form a sequence. One instance records the spectacular start to the career of a certain Marcus Attilius (evidently, from his name, a free-born volunteer). As a mere rookie (tiro) he defeated an old hand, Hilarus, from the troupe owned by the emperor Nero, even though Hilarus had won the special distinction of a wreath no fewer than 13 times. |::|

“Attilius then capped this stunning initial engagement (for which he himself won a wreath) by going on to defeat a fellow-volunteer, Lucius Raecius Felix, who had 12 wreaths to his name. Both Hilarus and Raecius must have fought admirably against Attilius, since each of them was granted a reprieve (missio). |::|

Why Men Became Gladiators

Andrew Curry wrote in National Geographic History: In the early days of the Roman Empire, gladiators were enslaved peoples, criminals, or prisoners of war brought to the arena in chains. But by the first century A.D., being a gladiator had become a lucrative position, and literary sources suggest for some it was even a career choice. Some aspiring freeborn fighters signed away their rights and became enslaved as a high-risk way to pay off debts or escape a life of poverty. Others were criminals sentenced to serve as gladiators—a lighter punishment than execution, because there was a chance of being free someday. Most were professional fighters; some even had families waiting for them outside the ring. [Source Andrew Curry, National Geographic History, June 22, 2022]

Because Roman citizens couldn’t be executed without a trial, some aspiring fighters signed away their citizenship and became enslaved as a high-risk way to pay off debts or escape poverty. Others were criminals sentenced to serve as gladiators — a lighter punishment than execution, because there was a chance of being set free someday. [Source: Andrew Curry, National Geographic, July 20, 2021]

Still, slavery meant something different in Rome than it did centuries later in the American South. For one, it had nothing to do with race, and some experts believe gladiators were rarely chained or shackled. And despite their lowly status in society, successful fighters could earn a lot of money. Some may even have moonlighted as bodyguards for rich patrons. “Do your time,” says French historian Méryl Ducros, “and when it’s over, you can take your money and your wife and your kids and go back to your life.”

Where Gladiators Come From

captives

Contrary to the popular misconception almost all of the gladiators were pagans not Christians. For the most part they were slaves, prisoners of war and criminals who were trained, clothed and fed by men who were hired to supply gladiators by the local magistrates who arranged the competitions. Convicted criminals could fulfill a potion of their sentence battling it out with other criminals and prisoners of war in the arena. Free men such as soldiers and well-born Romans signed contracts to be gladiators to win fame and prize money.

Professor Kathleen Coleman of Harvard University wrote for the BBC: “Most gladiators were slaves. They were subjected to a rigorous training, fed on a high-energy diet, and given expert medical attention. Hence they were an expensive investment, not to be despatched lightly. For a gladiator who died in combat the trainer (lanista) might charge the sponsor of the fatal spectacle up to a hundred times the cost of a gladiator who survived. Hence it was very much more costly for sponsors to supply the bloodshed that audiences often demanded, although if they did allow a gladiator to be slain it was seen as an indication of their generosity. Remarkably, some gladiators were not slaves but free-born volunteers. The chief incentive was probably the down-payment that a volunteer received upon taking the gladiatorial oath. This oath meant that the owner of his troupe had ultimate sanction over the gladiator's life, assimilating him to the status of a slave (ie a chattel). “Some maverick emperors with a perverted sense of humour made upper-class Romans (of both sexes) fight in the arena. But, as long as they did not receive a fee for their participation, such persons would be exempt from the stain of infamia, the legal disability that attached to the practitioners of disreputable professions such as those of gladiators, actors and prostitutes.” [Source: Professor Kathleen Coleman, BBC, February 17, 2011 |::|]

In the early Republic the gladiators were captives taken in war, naturally men practiced in the use of weapons, who thought death by the sword a happier fate than the slavery that awaited them otherwise. Captives always remained the chief source of supply, though it became inadequate as the demand increased. From the time of Sulla, training schools were established in which slaves with or without previous experience in war were fitted for the business. These were naturally slaves of the most intractable and desperate character. From the time of Augustus criminals (in all cases non-citizens) were sentenced to the arena (later “to the lions”), for the most heinous crimes, treason, murder, arson, and the like. Finally, in the late Empire the arena became the last desperate resort of the dissipated and prodigal, and these volunteers were numerous enough to receive as a class the name auctorati. [Source: “The Private Life of the Romans” by Harold Whetstone Johnston, Revised by Mary Johnston, Scott, Foresman and Company (1903, 1932) |+|]

“As the number of the exhibitions increased, it became harder and harder to supply the gladiators demanded, for it must be remembered that there were exhibitions in many of the cities of the provinces and in the smaller towns of Italy as well as at Rome. In order to supply this increasing demand, thousands died miserably in the arena whom only the most glaring injustice could number number in the classes mentioned above. In Cicero’s time provincial governors were accused of sending unoffending provincials to be slaughtered in Rome and of forcing Roman citizens, obscure and friendless, of course, to fight in the provincial shows. Later, when the supply of real criminals had run short, it was common enough to send to the arena men sentenced for the pettiest offenses, and to trump up charges against the innocent for the same purpose. The persecution of the Christians was largely due to the demand for more gladiators. So, too, the distinction was lost between actual prisoners of war and peaceful non-combatants; after the fall of Jerusalem all Jews over seventeen years of age were condemned by Titus to work in the mines or fight in the arena. Wars on the border were sometimes waged for the sole purpose of taking men who could be made gladiators; in default of men, women and children were sometimes made to fight. |+|

Gladiator Barracks in Pompeii

gladiator barracks at Pompeii

Gladiators often lived in barracks. A entire gladiator barracks was unearthed in Pompeii, complete with decorated helmets, leg and shoulder guards, shields, and swords that had been discarded by fleeing gladiators.

Natasha Sheldon wrote in ancienthistoryarchaeology.com: Before A.D. 62, the House of the Gladiators “was the original gladiator’s barracks and training area for gladiators in Pompeii. A converted house, it consisted of a central peristyle surrounded by rooms. Graffiti on the pillars of the peristyle informs on the types of gladiators who appeared in Pompeii and how the gladiators themselves saw each other. Besides the well-known fighters such as Thracians, Murmillos and Retinarii (net men) the House of the Gladiators trained essedarius (chariot fighters) and eques (cavalrymen). There are also various pieces of graffiti that refer to the popularity of certain gladiators with local women, suggesting that the gladiators at least saw themselves as sex symbols.” [Source: Natasha Sheldon, ancienthistoryarchaeology.com]

“After 62 AD, the gladiator’s training venue moved to the portico of the large theatre. This large complex known as the Gladiator’s Barracks was occupied at the time of the 79 A.D. eruption. Eighteen human skeletons were found on the premises as well as that of a horse. The barracks consisted of a kitchen, mess hall, stables and armoury for storing the ceremonial armour and helmets that the gladiators wore in processions. Stairs on the east side were believed to lead to the lanista’s quarters on the second floor. A further set of stairs led below the barracks to an ergastulum or slave prison. Four more skeletons were found here. They were unchained despite the provision of iron fetters. [Source: Natasha Sheldon, ancienthistoryarchaeology.com]

Gladiator Barrack Life

Professor Kathleen Coleman of Harvard University wrote for the BBC: “The gladiatorial barracks were marked by heterogeneity. Membership was constantly fluctuating, as troupes toured the local circuit. Some members survived to reach retirement; new recruits were enlisted, many of them probably unable to understand Latin. [Source: Professor Kathleen Coleman, BBC, February 17, 2011 |::|]

“In the larger barracks, members of the same fighting-style had their own dedicated trainer, and they often bonded together in formal associations. Frequently it was a gladiator's fellows who furnished his tombstone, perhaps through membership of a burial society. Yet gladiators must frequently have met their intimate fellows in mortal combat. Professionalism and the survival instinct would have demanded a merciless display of expertise, inculcated by the gladiator's training. Within a training-school there was a competitive hierarchy of grades (paloi) through which individuals were promoted. |::|

“The larger barracks, at least, had their own training arena, with accommodation for spectators, so that combatants became accustomed to practising before an audience of their fellows. The system meant that combat and heroic prowess were brought right into the urban centres of the Roman empire, whereas real warfare was going on unimaginably far away, on the borders of barbarism. |::|

What Gladiators Ate

Pliny the Elder wrote in Natural History XXXVI.203: For abdominal cramp or bruises,” states Marcus Varro, and I quote his very words, “your hearth should be your medicine chest. Drink lye made from its ashes, and you will be cured. One can see how gladiators after a combat are helped by drinking this.”

barley bread

A study published in October 2014 in the scientific journal PLOS ONE confirmed that gladiators really did eat mostly plants — especially barley and wheat — and may have indeed consumed ashes. According to Biblical Archaeology: Researchers from the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Bern and the Medical University of Vienna aimed to investigate how the diet of gladiators compared to the rest of the population. Using spectroscopy to conduct isotopic analysis on the bone remains from a second–third-century A.D. gladiator cemetery in Roman Ephesus in Turkey, the researchers were able to confirm that the individuals buried in the cemetery consumed a mostly plant-based diet — as did the rest of the population in Ephesus. [Source: Robin Ngo, Biblicalarchaeology.org, October 24, 2014]

“Plant ashes were evidently consumed to fortify the body after physical exertion and to promote better bone healing,” study leader Fabian Kanz explained to ScienceDaily. “Things were similar then to what we do today — we take magnesium and calcium (in the form of effervescent tablets, for example) following physical exertion.”

Classicist Daniel Harris-McCoy offers a caution when using Pliny the Elder as a textual source: “Pliny the Elder is willing to print anything and everything, which makes him fun to read but sometimes hard to use as a source of solid information. He includes wild ‘facts’ about the giant gold-digging ants of India and even talks about ancient hallucinogenic drugs. But the material about gladiators consuming an ash drink seems credible, especially since Varro is his source.”

Gladiators Diet Determined by Examining Their Bones

“Roman historians sometimes called gladiators hordearii, which means "barley eaters" in Latin. Ancient texts by Roman scholars Pliny, Galen and Tacitus describe a special "gladiator diet" of barley and bell beans. Is this backed up by archaeological evidence?

Tia Ghose wrote in Livescience: ““In 1993, archaeologists surveying the holy procession path between the Temple of Artemis (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) and the city of Ephesus, Turkey, uncovered a mass burial pit not far from an ancient gladiator stadium. The pit contained the battle-scarred bones of 68 people who had died between the second and third centuries. The cemetery also contained some gladiator gravestones depicting battles, and most of the skeletons belonged to men between the ages of 20 and 30, according to a 2006 article in the journal Forensic Science International. Gladiators — who were typically prisoners of war, condemned men or slaves — usually lost all right to a proper burial, but it's possible the owner of the local gladiator school had purchased or rented this plot for his students,” scholars have speculated. [Source: Tia Ghose, Livescience, October 27, 2014]

A team led by Fabian Kanz, a forensic anthropologist at the Medical University of Vienna in Austria, decided to take a closer look at the bones from Ephesus. “The team analyzed the skeletal fragments' ratio of carbon, sulfur and nitrogen isotopes (atoms of the same element with a different number of neutrons). (Because different plants and animals contain different ratios of these isotopes, their ratios in bones can reveal the long-term dietary patterns of ancient people.)

“The gladiator bones showed low levels of the isotope nitrogen-15, which is typical of a diet high in nitrogen-fixing plants, such as lentils and beans. Even so, the gladiators' diet probably wasn't all that different from the mostly vegetarian fare eaten by the Roman populace, Kanz said. Because the chemical signals of a diet can take years to appear in the bones, however, it's possible that the gladiators did eat a different diet — but simply didn't live long enough after entering the deadly profession for that chemical signature to show up in their bones, he said.

Roman Gladiators: Fat Vegetarians?

Robert Koch of AFP wrote: “Roman gladiators were overweight vegetarians and not the muscle-bound men portrayed by actors like Russell Crowe, anthropologists say. Austrian scientists analysed the skeletons of two different types of gladiators, the myrmillos and retiariae, found at the ancient site of Ephesus, near Selsuk in Turkey. "Tests performed on bits of bone taken from the skeletons of some 70 gladiators buried at Ephesus seem to prove that they ate mainly barley, beans and dried fruit," said Dr Karl Grossschmidt, who took part in the study by the Austrian Archaeological Institute "This diet, which has been mentioned in the oral history, is rather sad but it gave the gladiators a lot of strength even if it made them fat," said Grossschmidt who is a member of the University of Vienna's Institute of Histology and Embryology. [Source: Robert Koch, AFP, 5 April 2004 ]

“The Austrian palaeoanthropologists relied on a method known as elementary microanalysis that allows scientists to determine what a human being ate during his or her lifetime. With the help of a sonar, they could establish the chemical concentrations inside cells in the bone samples taken from the skeletons at Ephesus. From this, they could deduce how much meat, fish, grains and fruit made up the diet of the Roman fighting machines. A balanced diet of meat and vegetables leaves equal amounts of zinc and strontium in the cells, while a mainly vegetarian diet would leave high levels of strontium and little zinc, Grossschmidt said.

“Fabian Kanz, from the university's department of analytical chemistry, said the gladiators' bone density gave us clues to how they lived. "The bone density here was higher than usual, as is the case with modern athletes," he said. This line of testing allowed the scientists to debunk another myth, that gladiators wore strappy Sparticus sandals in the arena. "The bone density is particularly high in samples taken from the feet, which would suggest that the gladiators fought with their bare feet in sand," Kanz said. He believed that because some gladiators fought with little more than their bare hands, they could have "cultivated layers of fat to protect their vital organs from the cutting blows of their opponents. It seems that the gladiators tried to put on some weight before their battles. But this does not mean that they did not work hard to lose it again once they stepped out of the ring."

Gladiator Energy Drinks

It appears that energy drinks may have been as common among ancient Roman gladiators and athletes as they are among modern athletes. Said to have performance-enhancing abilities, these drinks often architecture plant ash, a rich source of calcium that is known to help improve bone growth. High calcium levels are common in excavated gladiators. How did it taste? Like ash and water, with vinegar added to make it taste better. [Source: Gordon Gora. Listverse, September 16, 2016]

gladiator bones

Tia Ghose wrote in Livescience: “The skeletal remains of gladiators unearthed in a cemetery in Ephesus, Turkey, suggest the fighters may have drunk a beverage made from ash, vinegar and water. The new analysis, which was detailed online in the journal PLOS ONE, also casts doubt on the notion that the fighters ate a special gladiator diet, as historical documents suggest. The gladiators' mostly vegetarian fare wouldn't have been much different from the diet of the general population, said study co-author Fabian Kanz, a forensic anthropologist at the Medical University of Vienna in Austria. [Source: Tia Ghose, Livescience, October 27, 2014]

“The team analyzed the ratio of the elements strontium and calcium in the bones. Strontium is readily taken up from the soil by plants, but is removed from the body by animals that eat those plants or other animals, Kanz told Live Science. However, a strontium atom will occasionally replace a calcium atom in the bones, so planet eaters and those eating lower in the food chain will have higher levels of strontium, Kanz added.

“The team found that the gladiators had almost twice the ratio of strontium to calcium in their bones, as did other populations, even though they ate a very similar diet. That led the researchers to speculate that the gladiators were guzzling a post-battle drink described in ancient texts: a mixture of vinegar, water and ash. The ash, which Romans typically added to food for a smoky flavor and even used for medicinal purposes, would have provided an extra heaping of strontium, Kanz said. "They didn't have coffee; they didn't have tea," Kanz told Live Science. "But they had wine, and then they drank a mixture of vinegar and water. It's not as horrible as it sounds." With some good vinegar, the drink might have tasted like refreshing lemonade, Kanz said.”

Gladiator Rewards

Winners of gladiator contests received palm branches, and sometimes prizes. Successful gladiators not only got to live they often became sports celebrities with women hanging all over them. Coins were issued by emperors with the faces of famous gladiators. Charioteers sometimes amassed great wealth but there is no evidence of any gladiator being particularly wealthy.

Before making his first public appearance, the gladiator was technically called a tiro. When after many victories he had proved himself to be the best of his class, or second best, in his familia, he received the title of primus, or secundus, palus. When he had won his freedom, he received a wooden sword (rudis). From this the title prima rudis and secunda rudis seem to have been given to those who were afterwards employed as training masters (doctores) in the schools. The rewards given to famous gladiators by their masters and backers took the form of valuable prizes and gifts of money. [Source: “The Private Life of the Romans” by Harold Whetstone Johnston, Revised by Mary Johnston, Scott, Foresman and Company (1903, 1932) |+|]

“These may not have been so generous as those given to the aurigae, but they were enough to enable them to live in luxury the rest of their lives. The class of men, however, who became professional gladiators probably found their most acceptable reward in the immediate and lasting notoriety that their strength and courage brought them. That they did not shrink from the infamia that their lives entailed is shown by the fact that they did not try to hide their connection with the amphitheater. On the contrary, their gravestones record their classes and the number of their victories, and have often cut upon them their likenesses with the rudis in their hands. |+|

“D • M • ET • MEMORIAE
AETERNAE • HYLATIS
DYMACHAERO • SIVE
ASSIDARIO • P • VII • RV • I
ERMAIS • CONIVX
CONIVGI • KARISSIMO
P • C • ET • S • AS • D10

Mortality Rate Amongst Gladiators

Many gladiators who died in the arene presumably bled to death after their arteries were slashed by swords, as crowds cheered on their attackers.. So much blood was shed in gladiatorial combat that the arena floors were covered with sand to absorb it all. The English word “arena” comes from the Latin word for sand: “harena.” Yet, Austrian archaeologist Wolfgang Neubauer, told National Geographic, "They weren't killed very often, they were too valuable. Lots of other people were likely killed at the amphitheater, people not trained to fight. And there was lots of bloodshed. But the combat between gladiators was the point of them performing, not them killing each other." [Source: Dan Vergano, National Geographic, February 25, 2014]

Natasha Sheldon wrote in ancienthistoryarchaeology.com: “Graffiti is commonly found on tombs flanking the major routes into the city, detailing the outcome of gladiatorial combat. The equivalent of modern day sports reports, these accounts named the participants, how many bouts they had fought and how many of these fights they had won.Victors were indicated by the letter ‘v’. Losers could be marked as either ‘m’ for 'missus' indicating that they had lost but been reprieved or ‘p’ for ‘perrit’ indicating they had been killed. Far more gladiator’s names were marked with an m indicating that losers often survived. [Source: Natasha Sheldon, ancienthistoryarchaeology.com]

Nigel Spivey wrote The Guardian, “Complex calculations about gladiatorial death-rates similarly indicate a strong tendency to exaggerate, and not only by ancient writers. Christian martyrologists piously inflated the number of casualties among the faithful. (In an unsually candid reflection, one persecuted Christian witness, Origen, wondered if the total tally of Christian martyrs at Rome actually reached double figures.) There is, in fact, no firm evidence to prove that any Christian was ever torn apart by lions inside the Colosseum. [Source: Nigel Spivey, The Guardian, March 12, 2005 ^^]

Gladiator Graveyards?

Heather Ramsey of Listverse wrote: “In southwest France about 250 meters (820 ft) from the Saintes amphitheater used for gladiator battles, a large Roman-Gallo necropolis has been discovered with the remains of hundreds of people, including five shackled skeletons. Three adults had iron chains around their ankles, one adult had a neck shackle, and a child had a shackle on the wrist. Archaeologists believe these shackled skeletons may be the remains of slaves killed in the arena. [Source: Heather Ramsey, Listverse, March 4, 2015 ]

As a regional capital, Saintes was a bustling town with an amphitheater capable of holding 18,000 people during the first and second centuries, when these individuals are believed to have died. Some graves contained two people, often buried head-to-toe in trench-like pits. However, the necropolis yielded few artifacts. One man had some vases lying beside him, and one child had coins on his or her eyes. The coins were supposedly to pay a ferryman to transport the child’s spirit safely across a river that led from the land of the living to the afterlife.

“Archaeologists hope to figure out how these people died, if they belonged to the same community, and what their social standing was. In 2005, shackled skeletons were also found in a graveyard excavation from Roman days in York, England. Some of those human remains had bite marks, indicating they may have died in the arena from attacks by wild animals.

On a site in London, Ramsey wrote: “Executed criminals, Roman gladiators, or war trophies? “That question has yet to be answered about the 39 male human skulls discovered in the late 1980s in a burial pit near a Roman amphitheater and Walbrook stream in London. These men, most of whom were 25–35 years old, led hard lives judging by the evidence of decapitation, fractures, sharp-edged weapon injuries, and blunt-force trauma on their skulls. Their deaths have been dated to 120–160 when Londinium (now London) was a thriving capital in Roman Britain.” [Source: Heather Ramsey, Listverse, March 4, 2015 ]

The skulls, housed at the Museum of London, have been analyzed by bioarchaeologist Rebecca Redfern and earth scientist Heather Bonney. “They published their findings in early 2014 in the Journal of Archaeological Science. Although the skulls don’t look as though they were mounted on posts, the researchers believe they may have been exhibited in the Londinium amphitheater after the men died. They could have been thrown into the burial pit later. But Kathleen Coleman, a Roman gladiator expert from Harvard, disagrees. Without gravestones proving these men were gladiators, she believes they may have been killed in riots, common assaults, or gang warfare.

“Redfern doesn’t buy that argument. “There is no evidence for social unrest, warfare, or other acts of organized violence in London during the period that these human remains date from,” she said. “[Instead, there are] two possible outcomes—that these are fatally injured gladiators, or the victims of Roman head-hunting—a tantalizing prospect.” Were these head-hunting trophy skulls, such as those displayed by the military at Hadrian’s Wall in Roman Britain? The archaeologists want to do isotope analyses to determine where these men resided originally. The answer to whether they were locals or distant strangers may help scientists to narrow the possibilities of how and why they died.

Decapitated Gladiators Show Genetic Impact of the Romans on Britain

DNA from seven decapitated skeletons thought to be gladiators is helping researchers unravel the genetic impact of the Roman Empire, with initial findings suggesting genetic impact of the Romans on Britain is considerably less than previously thought. Taylor Kubota wrote in Live Science: “The headless skeletons were excavated between 2004 and 2005 from a Roman burial site in Driffield Terrace in York, England, the archaeologists said. Around the time the bodies were buried, between the second and fourth centuries A.D., the area that's now York was the Roman Empire's capital of northern Britain, called Eboracum. The cemetery where the bodies were discovered was located in a prominent area, near a main road that led out of the city, according to the researchers. [Source: Taylor Kubota, Live Science, January 28, 2016]

“Most of the skeletons found at this site were of males younger than 45 who were taller than average and showed evidence of trauma, such as cuts to their arms and fingers, the archaeologists said. Famously, the majority of them had been decapitated. These standout traits led some experts to suggest that this was a burial site for gladiators. However, it is also possible that these men were in the military, which, in Roman times, had a minimum height requirement, the researchers said. [See Photos of the Decapitated Gladiator Skeletons]

“"It was a very curious assemblage of individuals with their heads cut off, who may or may not be gladiators," said Matthew Collins, a professor of archaeology at the University of York and one of the paper's authors. The distinctiveness of these remains were featured in two documentaries in the years following the excavation, "Timewatch: The mystery of the headless Romans" in 2006 and "Gladiators: Back From the Dead" in 2010.

“In the new study, Collins and his colleagues collected high-quality DNA samples from the dense petrous bone of the inner ears from the skeletons. In total, nine genomes were compared: seven from the York Romans (all male) and two from skeletons found in other cemeteries, including one from a more ancient Iron Age female and one from a more recent Anglo-Saxon male. The genomes from the decapitated Romans were found to be similar to the Iron Age genome but significantly different from the Anglo-Saxon genome. This suggests that the Roman Empire's genetic influence on Britain was not nearly as strong as its cultural influence, the researchers said. "We are used to the idea of the Romans coming in and changing things," Collins said. "Yes, they changed things, but the people fundamentally didn't change."

“The results also indicate that the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons during the Dark Ages had a greater effect on the genetic makeup of Britain than did the Roman Empire. Nonetheless, this period of history is still shrouded in mystery, the researchers said. “The new study also revealed that the York Romans were genetically similar to modern-day British Celtic populations, especially the Welsh. This makes sense, the researchers said, given the movement of people from central Britain to the margins of the country following Anglo-Saxon invasions. [Photos: Gladiators of the Roman Empire]

“In addition to their more violent injuries, the Roman skeletons appeared to have experienced infections and childhood stress, the archaeologists said. Their genomes, in combination with evidence from studying different forms of elements (isotopes) and how they changed over time, showed that six of the seven were British, but one was from the Middle East, possibly Lebanon or Syria. This unexpected finding is an example of how dynamic the Roman Empire was — and brings to mind the present-day diaspora occurring in the Middle East, Collins said. It's likely that most of these men had brown eyes and black or brown hair, but one may have been blue-eyed and blond — the same as the Anglo-Saxon man, the researchers said.

“These remains have been studied extensively, but the sequencing of their DNA is a major achievement, the researchers said. In their paper, they called this "the first snapshot of British genomes in the early centuries A.D." Collins said that the researchers couldn't have attempted such a feat when the skeletons were first discovered because the approximate cost would have been about $70 million. (With technological advances, the cost of such analyses has gone down, according to the Human Genome Project.)

“Collins noted that the work exemplifies a new stage in archaeology. "The excitement is, we are now technologically able to do this kind of work, which is mind-boggling when you consider the great achievement of sequencing the first human genome was less than 15 years ago, and now we can sequence the genomes of Romans from York and Anglo-Saxons in Cambridge," Collins said. "It's just absolutely extraordinary." “The research was detailed online in the January 19, 2016issue of the journal Nature Communications.”

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons and “The Private Life of the Romans” by Harold Whetstone Johnston. except bones from Live Science

Text Sources: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Rome sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Late Antiquity sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; “Outlines of Roman History” by William C. Morey, Ph.D., D.C.L. New York, American Book Company (1901) ; “The Private Life of the Romans” by Harold Whetstone Johnston, Revised by Mary Johnston, Scott, Foresman and Company (1903, 1932); BBC Ancient Rome bbc.co.uk/history/ ; Project Gutenberg gutenberg.org ; Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Live Science, Discover magazine, Archaeology magazine, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, The New Yorker, Wikipedia, Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopedia.com and various other books, websites and publications.

Last updated November 2024