Did any Gladiator enter Roman Politics?

Transcript
· Reaching retirement
0:08 · The average gladiator did not survive to retirement. Sooner or later, whether an
0:15 · untried tyro or a battle-scarred champion, he fell to the bloody sands of the arena and was dragged
0:21 · away through the funeral goddess' gate. Although the odds of any given match ending in death were
0:28 · relatively low – during the first century, perhaps one in five – those odds accumulated,
0:34 · since some men fought more than a hundred times during their careers.
· Leaving the arena
0:39 · But a few survived. Some gladiators were allowed to retire after completing the
0:44 · term – often three or five years – stipulated by their sentence or contract. A very skilled
0:51 · fighter might be released in the arena by the sponsor of the games, and publicly awarded a
0:57 · rudis – the wooden sword that symbolized his freedom. Once, after watching an epic
1:03 · struggle between two well-matched gladiators, the emperor Titus freed both combatants.
1:09 · Regardless of whether they won or lost, gladiators were paid every time they
1:14 · fought. They received additional prizes when they were victorious; the emperor Claudius
1:20 · liked to toss gold coins to men who had fought well. And after they were granted the rudis,
1:26 · they might be richly rewarded. A gladiator named Spiculus received a mansion and estate from Nero.
1:33 · Few gladiators, however, could support themselves for the rest of their lives
1:37 · on their winnings. Many had families; Claudius freed one gladiator after receiving a petition
1:44 · from his four sons. And some ex-gladiators lived on for many decades after retirement. The
1:51 · tombstone of a paegniarius (mock-fighter) named Secundus records that he died at the age of 99.
· Infamia
2:00 · The career options of retired gladiators were limited by their
2:03 · low social status. Whether freeborn, former slaves, or prisoners of war,
2:09 · gladiators were infames, disgraced. This meant that – like executioners, undertakers,
2:17 · and actors – they were excluded from the full benefits of Roman citizenship, unable to hold
2:23 · office, appear in court, or even (in the case of former slaves) make their own wills.
· Exhibition fighters and referees
2:30 · Some gladiators continued to fight after their release, especially if they were
2:35 · famous enough to be invited back to the arena for exhibition matches. A prominent
2:40 · rudiarius – freed gladiator – would receive top billing before the games, and be handsomely
2:46 · compensated after. Tiberius paid some stars 100,000 sestertii for a single appearance.
2:54 · Alternatively, an ex-gladiator could become a referee. Each gladiatorial match was supervised
3:01 · by a head referee – the summa rudis – and his assistant, the secunda rudis. These men
3:07 · intervened with shouts and wooden switches when a fighter broke the rules or was incapacitated.
3:14 · (The tombstone of a gladiator named Diodorus laments that he was killed after a referee
3:19 · allowed his defeated opponent to get back on his feet.) Some referees had long careers:
3:25 · the tombstone of a summa rudis who lived to 60 was found at Caesarea Maritima.
· Trainers
3:32 · Retired gladiators might also train new fighters. Every gladiator was assigned to an armature – a
3:38 · specialized set of arms and armor – on the basis of his size, speed, and proficiency with
3:45 · weapons. A small, quick man, for example, might be taught the trident and net of the retiarius,
3:52 · while a larger but less nimble candidate learned to maneuver in the heavy armor and slitted helmed
3:58 · of the secutor. Since men with experience of the arena made the best trainers, a veteran fighter
4:04 · was a welcome addition to any gladiatorial school. Other gladiators embarked on very different
4:10 · careers. More on them, after a brief word about this video's sponsor.
· Curiosity Stream [redacted]
5:27 · Returning to our topic. Outside the ambit of the arena, many gladiators became bodyguards.
· Bodyguards
5:34 · During the turbulent last years of the Republic, the rival politicians Clodius and Milo recruited
5:40 · whole troupes of gladiators. A band of gladiators shadowed Nero and his drinking companions whenever
5:47 · they went carousing in dive bars and brothels. Aristocratic ladies sometimes hired former
5:54 · gladiators to protect them on journeys. And in late antiquity, wealthy landowners might recruit
6:00 · what amounted to private armies, captained by gladiators, to patrol their estates.
· Legionaries
6:07 · Because of their low status, gladiators were normally excluded from service in the legions.
6:13 · Amid the civil wars of the Late Republic, however, a consul briefly formed Julius Caesar's gladiators
6:19 · into a cavalry unit. During the chaotic Year of the Four Emperors, Otho enrolled 2,000
6:26 · gladiators as legionaries. A century later, Marcus Aurelius formed a unit of gladiators
6:32 · that was optimistically named the obsequentes, "obedient ones." Although gladiators were regarded
6:39 · as unreliable soldiers, Caligula made Thracian gladiators captains of his personal bodyguard.
· Farmers and priests
6:47 · Not all former gladiators dedicated their lives to violence. A few became farmers;
6:53 · the Roman poet Horace, retiring to his estate,
6:57 · compared himself to a gladiator who had given up his weapons and moved to
7:01 · the countryside. Other gladiators may have become black-cloaked priests of the war-goddess Bellona,
7:08 · or dueled in the Sacred Grove of Aricia for the crown of the priest-king of Nemi.
· Political careers
7:14 · Gladiators were barred from holding elected office. But in the eastern provinces,
7:19 · where athletes had long been honored, a few former gladiators achieved respectability. One,
7:26 · later a referee, became an honorary citizen of no fewer than seven cities. Even more dramatically,
7:33 · the emperor Vitellius made a freedman whom he had
7:36 · rescued from a gladiatorial school a member of the Equestrian order.
7:41 · According to the unreliable Historia Augusta, Marcus Aurelius once reprimanded a former
7:47 · gladiator for trying to become a Roman official, and was told that many other ex-gladiators
7:53 · already held positions in the government. Although this is almost certainly satirical,
7:58 · there is no reason to doubt that – as Juvenal claimed – the sons of gladiators
8:04 · could be found in the Equestrian seats of Rome's theaters; the social and legal
8:09 · restrictions that hindered former gladiators did not apply to their children. The Historia
8:15 · Augusta's suggestion that Emperor Macrinus was a former gladiator is less believable.
· "Friends" of wealthy ladies
8:21 · Gladiators unburdened by political ambition might exploit their sex appeal. Rumor alleged that the
8:28 · wives of Roman senators took gladiators as lovers. Empress Messalina reportedly had an affair with an
8:35 · ex-gladiator named Sabinus, and it was whispered that the real father of Commodus, son of Marcus
8:42 · Aurelius, was a gladiator. (According to an alternate version, Empress Faustina confessed
8:48 · her attraction to Marcus, who – after consulting with some astrologers – had the gladiator killed
8:54 · so that Faustina could bathe in his blood.) While there is no reason to believe that any
8:59 · of this happened, at least a few former gladiators must have established liaisons with Roman ladies.
· Elusive antiheroes
9:07 · For more than half a millennium, gladiators were at the center of Roman society. They
9:12 · were applauded by slaves and emperors. They were figured in mosaics, modeled by figurines,
9:19 · stamped on lamps. Their blood was said to cure impotence, and the very sand on which
9:24 · they fought was gathered for spells. But the gladiators themselves remain elusive. Perhaps,
9:31 · to those who watched them, they always were – marionettes who played out the fantasies of
9:37 · a civilization before vanishing, upon death or retirement, behind the anonymity of the stage.
9:47 · My new book – Insane Emperors, Sunken Cities,
9:50 · and Earthquake Machines – is now available as a paperback, e-book,
9:55 · and audiobook. You can buy your copy through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or your local bookstore.
10:02 · For more toldinstone content, check out my channels Toldinstone Footnotes and Scenic Routes
10:08 · to the Past, which are linked in the description. Please consider joining other viewers
10:14 · in supporting toldinstone on Patreon. Thanks for watching.

Some gladiatorial matches were terminated by a fatal blow. A few were declared a draw. The majority, however, ended when one of the gladiators raised a finger in the gesture of submission. His fate then depended on the mood of the audience - and the wealth of the games' sponsor.
How deadly was gladiatorial combat? | 4:55
toldinstone | 438K subscribers | 113,931 views | August 10, 2021

World expert and film consultant debunks 3 gladiator myths [11/14/2023]

Thanks...was going to watch this later tonite...

Good vids. Thanks for posting.

No surprise that some Roman ladies were rumored to have bedded the big, strong, virile, masculine gladiators.

Tough life. Interesting post. Yeah, the Faustian story sounds a bit out there but then the Roman Empire was a bit out there.

Recently there was a survey and concluded men think about the Romans once a week or something.

I have to admit, I think about them pretty much every day.

Yes.

Spartacus.

He entered their politics, all right…

Scared the crap out of them for a while. Killed a bunch of the bastards too…

Yeah, it really worked out for him. He'd wound up getting turned into a gladiator, and that's how his life ended, along with those of his followers, when a good Roman army beat their asses on behalf of the Senate and people of Rome / the Roman Republic [sic]. Speaking of historical fiction...

From I Claudius... Livia ( Augustus' wife) lectures the gladiators.
Livia Speaks to Gladiators | 1:09
Kurt Cooper | 36 subscribers | 30,433 views | January 20, 2013

My pleasure.

Berta: "Name three contributions the Romans made to society."
Charlie: "Orgies, wine and bulimia. Go ahead, ask me about the Greeks."

“I, Claudius”!!!!

I remember that series. Loved it!!! “Masterpiece Theater” from PBS, I believe???

That’s a long while ago.

I think I still have that on VHS tape somewhere lol!!

😆

and I’ve heard even wilder stories about the Etruscans.

It’s circa 1980, it’s on DVD around here somewhere. I binged it earlier this year, first time in a long while. :^)

Derek Jacobi played Claudius…

He was also in Gladiator with Russel Crowe, as a Senator.

Very comfortable in a toga and sandals, apparently lol!!!

Transcript
	·	Reaching retirement
0:08	·	The average gladiator did not survive to retirement. Sooner or later, whether an
0:15	·	untried tyro or a battle-scarred champion, he fell to the bloody sands of the arena and was dragged
0:21	·	away through the funeral goddess' gate. Although the odds of any given match ending in death were
0:28	·	relatively low – during the first century, perhaps one in five – those odds accumulated,
0:34	·	since some men fought more than a hundred times during their careers.
	·	Leaving the arena
0:39	·	But a few survived. Some gladiators were allowed to retire after completing the
0:44	·	term – often three or five years – stipulated by their sentence or contract. A very skilled
0:51	·	fighter might be released in the arena by the sponsor of the games, and publicly awarded a
0:57	·	rudis – the wooden sword that symbolized his freedom. Once, after watching an epic
1:03	·	struggle between two well-matched gladiators, the emperor Titus freed both combatants.
1:09	·	Regardless of whether they won or lost, gladiators were paid every time they
1:14	·	fought. They received additional prizes when they were victorious; the emperor Claudius
1:20	·	liked to toss gold coins to men who had fought well. And after they were granted the rudis,
1:26	·	they might be richly rewarded. A gladiator named Spiculus received a mansion and estate from Nero.
1:33	·	Few gladiators, however, could support themselves for the rest of their lives
1:37	·	on their winnings. Many had families; Claudius freed one gladiator after receiving a petition
1:44	·	from his four sons. And some ex-gladiators lived on for many decades after retirement. The
1:51	·	tombstone of a paegniarius (mock-fighter) named Secundus records that he died at the age of 99.
	·	Infamia
2:00	·	The career options of retired gladiators were limited by their
2:03	·	low social status. Whether freeborn, former slaves, or prisoners of war,
2:09	·	gladiators were infames, disgraced. This meant that – like executioners, undertakers,
2:17	·	and actors – they were excluded from the full benefits of Roman citizenship, unable to hold
2:23	·	office, appear in court, or even (in the case of former slaves) make their own wills.
	·	Exhibition fighters and referees
2:30	·	Some gladiators continued to fight after their release, especially if they were
2:35	·	famous enough to be invited back to the arena for exhibition matches. A prominent
2:40	·	rudiarius – freed gladiator – would receive top billing before the games, and be handsomely
2:46	·	compensated after. Tiberius paid some stars 100,000 sestertii for a single appearance.
2:54	·	Alternatively, an ex-gladiator could become a referee. Each gladiatorial match was supervised
3:01	·	by a head referee – the summa rudis – and his assistant, the secunda rudis. These men
3:07	·	intervened with shouts and wooden switches when a fighter broke the rules or was incapacitated.
3:14	·	(The tombstone of a gladiator named Diodorus laments that he was killed after a referee
3:19	·	allowed his defeated opponent to get back on his feet.) Some referees had long careers:
3:25	·	the tombstone of a summa rudis who lived to 60 was found at Caesarea Maritima.
	·	Trainers
3:32	·	Retired gladiators might also train new fighters. Every gladiator was assigned to an armature – a
3:38	·	specialized set of arms and armor – on the basis of his size, speed, and proficiency with
3:45	·	weapons. A small, quick man, for example, might be taught the trident and net of the retiarius,
3:52	·	while a larger but less nimble candidate learned to maneuver in the heavy armor and slitted helmed
3:58	·	of the secutor. Since men with experience of the arena made the best trainers, a veteran fighter
4:04	·	was a welcome addition to any gladiatorial school. Other gladiators embarked on very different
4:10	·	careers. More on them, after a brief word about this video's sponsor.
	·	Curiosity Stream [redacted]
5:27	·	Returning to our topic. Outside the ambit of the arena, many gladiators became bodyguards.
	·	Bodyguards
5:34	·	During the turbulent last years of the Republic, the rival politicians Clodius and Milo recruited
5:40	·	whole troupes of gladiators. A band of gladiators shadowed Nero and his drinking companions whenever
5:47	·	they went carousing in dive bars and brothels. Aristocratic ladies sometimes hired former
5:54	·	gladiators to protect them on journeys. And in late antiquity, wealthy landowners might recruit
6:00	·	what amounted to private armies, captained by gladiators, to patrol their estates.
	·	Legionaries
6:07	·	Because of their low status, gladiators were normally excluded from service in the legions.
6:13	·	Amid the civil wars of the Late Republic, however, a consul briefly formed Julius Caesar's gladiators
6:19	·	into a cavalry unit. During the chaotic Year of the Four Emperors, Otho enrolled 2,000
6:26	·	gladiators as legionaries. A century later, Marcus Aurelius formed a unit of gladiators
6:32	·	that was optimistically named the obsequentes, "obedient ones." Although gladiators were regarded
6:39	·	as unreliable soldiers, Caligula made Thracian gladiators captains of his personal bodyguard.
	·	Farmers and priests
6:47	·	Not all former gladiators dedicated their lives to violence. A few became farmers;
6:53	·	the Roman poet Horace, retiring to his estate,
6:57	·	compared himself to a gladiator who had given up his weapons and moved to
7:01	·	the countryside. Other gladiators may have become black-cloaked priests of the war-goddess Bellona,
7:08	·	or dueled in the Sacred Grove of Aricia for the crown of the priest-king of Nemi.
	·	Political careers
7:14	·	Gladiators were barred from holding elected office. But in the eastern provinces,
7:19	·	where athletes had long been honored, a few former gladiators achieved respectability. One,
7:26	·	later a referee, became an honorary citizen of no fewer than seven cities. Even more dramatically,
7:33	·	the emperor Vitellius made a freedman whom he had
7:36	·	rescued from a gladiatorial school a member of the Equestrian order.
7:41	·	According to the unreliable Historia Augusta, Marcus Aurelius once reprimanded a former
7:47	·	gladiator for trying to become a Roman official, and was told that many other ex-gladiators
7:53	·	already held positions in the government. Although this is almost certainly satirical,
7:58	·	there is no reason to doubt that – as Juvenal claimed – the sons of gladiators
8:04	·	could be found in the Equestrian seats of Rome's theaters; the social and legal
8:09	·	restrictions that hindered former gladiators did not apply to their children. The Historia
8:15	·	Augusta's suggestion that Emperor Macrinus was a former gladiator is less believable.
	·	"Friends" of wealthy ladies
8:21	·	Gladiators unburdened by political ambition might exploit their sex appeal. Rumor alleged that the
8:28	·	wives of Roman senators took gladiators as lovers. Empress Messalina reportedly had an affair with an
8:35	·	ex-gladiator named Sabinus, and it was whispered that the real father of Commodus, son of Marcus
8:42	·	Aurelius, was a gladiator. (According to an alternate version, Empress Faustina confessed
8:48	·	her attraction to Marcus, who – after consulting with some astrologers – had the gladiator killed
8:54	·	so that Faustina could bathe in his blood.) While there is no reason to believe that any
8:59	·	of this happened, at least a few former gladiators must have established liaisons with Roman ladies.
	·	Elusive antiheroes
9:07	·	For more than half a millennium, gladiators were at the center of Roman society. They
9:12	·	were applauded by slaves and emperors. They were figured in mosaics, modeled by figurines,
9:19	·	stamped on lamps. Their blood was said to cure impotence, and the very sand on which
9:24	·	they fought was gathered for spells. But the gladiators themselves remain elusive. Perhaps,
9:31	·	to those who watched them, they always were – marionettes who played out the fantasies of
9:37	·	a civilization before vanishing, upon death or retirement, behind the anonymity of the stage.
9:47	·	My new book – Insane Emperors, Sunken Cities,
9:50	·	and Earthquake Machines – is now available as a paperback, e-book,
9:55	·	and audiobook. You can buy your copy through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or your local bookstore.
10:02	·	For more toldinstone content, check out my channels Toldinstone Footnotes and Scenic Routes
10:08	·	to the Past, which are linked in the description. Please consider joining other viewers
10:14	·	in supporting toldinstone on Patreon. Thanks for watching.