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Article: http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-09-unique-roman-gladiator-unveiled-austria.html
Radar has mapped what appears to be a gladiatorial school from the ancient Roman Empire. The ruins, which are underground, were located east of Vienna. They've created a model of the ruins and it's definitely going to be interesting to see what they unveil over time as they dig, restore, dig, restore, and so on and so forth. Please share your thoughts (as I'm not a Romanist by any means).
That's huge for the empire's borders, guess the legions near Germania wanted more blood :D
I never understood if gladiators really killed eachothers or simply animals and criminals...
Gladiators always fought one against one, but weren't killed that often. (except perhaps in the early period) As they were expensive to train and all. They also didn't fight that often, a couple times a year max. Beasts were usually hunted by trained professionals sometimes accompanied by dogs, the animals in this case rarely had a chance. And were to show that Romans could triumph any threat. However one could also be punished to death by animals, damnatio ad bestias. This was especially increasingly widespread under the empire. In this case however they were unarmed and barely had clothes to wear or none at all, sometimes even bound to a pole. Mass combats were another way of execution in which criminals were given weapons but no protection and were forced to fight each other to the death.
Or perhaps they chose to train the gladiators near the primary source of raw material for gladiators: a conflict zone. That way, they made an early selection of gladiators, and minimized the costs of transport of gladiators (that may ultimately be found wanting) to Rome.Quote:
Originally Posted by Arjos
Good point, I was actually surprised to read that it dates around 300 AD, didn't expect that area to be able to support it...
Thank you for the infos Moros :)
Gladiator fights and the other violent spectacles were very much popular still in this period. One should not forget about Diocletianus' (285-305 IIRC) and his prosecutions of Christians for example. The spectacles did die out because of economic reasons (especially the West), the diminishing power of the emperors on which gladiator combat had been dependant and because of Christianity. Emperor Honorius formally banned it in 404 AD after a monk was killed by a crowd as he tried to stop the games. Only beast shows continued on small scale, though the last appears to have been held in Constantinople in 573 AD, though only officially banned in 681.