Spectacles in ancient Rome

Romans preferred to attend gladiatorial fights, those with ferocious beasts (venationes), reproductions of naval battles (naumachia), chariot races, athletic contests, theatrical performances by mimes, and pantomimes.

Forty years after the invective of Juvenal (n. between 55 and 60-m. after 127), who lamented the republican sobriety and severity of a people who now aspired only to panem et circenses, bread and spectacles, Fronto (100–166), in almost the same words, described disconsolately the sad reality: Indeed, the Roman ruling class considered it its primary task to distribute food once a month to the people and to distract them and regulate their leisure time with the free entertainment offered on religious holidays or secular occasions.

From a rough calculation "[...] neglecting certain duplications whereby two festivals coincided [on the same day]...we arrive at this mathematical calculation: the obligatory feast days of imperial Rome occupied more than half the year...." But in addition to those offered in Rome by the Caesars there were also those that were celebrated in the countryside in peasant hamlets, neighborhood festivals in honor of local shrines, those of the new cults, those of the guilds (scholae[2]), those of the military, and finally those that surprisingly offered imperial munificence such as gladiatorial fights that in the second century CE could last for months at a time.

Suetonius records that since confusion and disorder reigned in the spectacles, the Roman emperor, Augustus, introduced order and discipline,[note 1] as well as: —Suetonius, Augustus, 43.Augustus had also made it a habit, in the days leading up to the spectacles, in case some animal never before seen and worthy of being known had been brought to Rome, to present it to the people in an extraordinary way, in any place: for example, a rhinoceros at the Saepta Julia, a tiger in a theatrical scene, a snake of fifty cubits (about 22 meters) in front of the Tribal Assembly.

The sacred character was also present in the Republican age when in 105 BC gladiatorial fights were instituted by the state, originally born as a cult rendered by private individuals at the tomb of their parents.

Even in the second century AD Festus calls them "oblations offered on official grounds," Tertullian, "obligatory honors to the Mani," and Ausonius, "blood shed on earth to appease the god armed with a sickle."

The ancient religious imprint of the games for the Romans of the imperial age had now been reduced to formalities that bore no relation to the rituals of a religion now forgotten and had been replaced by the astrological symbolism depicted in the arena, which represented the earth, and in the moat surrounding the track, the sea; the obelisk (spina) symbolized the sun at the top of the sky; the seven laps of the chariot race track reproduced the orbit of the seven planets and the succession of the seven days of the week; the twelve doors of the chariot sheds facing the circus depicted the places of the zodiac.

[11][12][13] When the emperor appeared in the circus, amphitheater, or theater, the crowd greeted him by standing up and waving white handkerchiefs, paying homage to him and manifesting their presence and their emotional, almost religious, co-participation in his witnessing the same spectacle taking place in common sight.

Spectacles, in a population where 150,000 people lived without working at the expense of the state and where those who had employment had half the day free of commitments, including, forcibly, political ones, served to occupy leisure time and to distract and channel passions, instincts, and violence.

The Caesars did not let the Roman plebs yawn, either from hunger or boredom: the spectacles were the great diversion to the unemployment of their subjects, and, consequently, the certain tool for absolutism.Suetonius reports that Augustus, when he attended the games, usually sat in the dining room of one of his friends or freedmen, sometimes sitting in his tribune, together with his wife and children.

When he attended, he was very attentive and participative to avoid discontent, since the people in the past had complained about his adoptive father, Gaius Julius Caesar, who used to devote himself during the games to reading letters and petitions.

He repressed, finally, some behavior judged morally disordered by the histrions, and when he learned that a certain Stephanius, author of fabulae togatae, was being served at the table by a woman with her hair cut in a boyish fashion, he banished him and had him beaten with rods in three theaters.

The intellectual Tacitus wrote that he feared, as did the part of Roman society most attached to traditions, that Greek refinements might invalidate ancient values: What is left today [for young people] but to show themselves naked, take the boxing gloves and think about those fights instead of military service.In the same vein should be considered the aversion of the senatorial class to those emperors infatuated with Greek civilization such as Caligula or Nero, who aroused scandal by taking pleasure in attending the games in person.

In ancient Rome, the main structure designated to host chariot races was the Circus Maximus, located in the valley between the Palatine and Aventine hills, which could accommodate up to 250,000 spectators.

The spina ended up becoming a very elaborate construction-decorated with statues, obelisks and other works of art-to such an extent that spectators often could not follow the chariots when they were on the opposite side (but apparently they thought this fact made the experience more exciting by increasing suspense).

In some rare cases, when a charioteer wanted to demonstrate his skill, he could employ up to ten horses, but it was a practice that combined great difficulty with little actual utility.

Because of the latter custom, the Romans could not let go of the reins in case of an accident, so they often ended up being dragged by the horses around the track until they were either killed or managed to free themselves: this is why they carried a knife with them to be able to get out of such situations.

[17] The origin of gladiatorial combat is open to debate, although there is a tendency to interpret it as a practice from Etruria that, like many other aspects of Etruscan culture, was adopted by the Romans.

Christians disapproved of the games because they involved idolatrous pagan rites, and the popularity of gladiatorial contests declined in the fifth century, leading to their demise.

From the Principate onward, private citizens could hold munera and own gladiators only with imperial permission, and the role of editor was increasingly tied to state officialdom.

For example, in the aftermath of the First Jewish War, gladiatorial schools received an influx of Jews: those rejected for training were sent directly to the arenas as noxii (lit.

After having a large reservoir dug near the Tiber in the Campus Martius, capable of containing real biremes, triremes, and quadriremes, he hired from among the prisoners of war 2,000 fighters and 4,000 oarsmen.

As he himself recalls in the Res gestæ,[25] he had a reservoir dug on the right bank of the Tiber, in the place called the "forest of the Caesars" (nemus Caesarum), where 3,000 men, not counting the oarsmen, on 30 vessels with rostrums, and many smaller units faced each other.

multiple forms of dramatic performance had already developed in the Italian peninsula, owing both to Greek influence and to local traditions,[28] including: (i) in Etruria and Rome the fescennine had developed, which was sometimes accompanied by music and dance performances or sports games;[29] (ii) in the south of Campania Atellan Farce was widespread;[30] (iii) finally, in the Dorian colonies of southern Italy and Sicily, phlyax plays were performed;[29] and in Taranto, the Italic cradle of the dramatic art that came to Rome thanks precisely to a Tarentine author,[31] in particular, the poet Rhinthon (323–285 BC) who had given literary form to mythological parody.

Roman theater reached its zenith with Livius Andronicus, Gnaeus Naevius, Plautus, and Terence for comedy and Seneca for tragedy: Venationes (sing.

Wild and exotic beasts were brought to Rome from the far reaches of the empire, and venationes were held during the morning before the main afternoon event, the gladiatorial duels.

These hunts were held in the Roman Forum, the Saepta, and the Circus Maximus, although none of these venues offered protection to the crowd from the wild animals in the arena.