Ancient History and Archaeology.com

Many people compare the ancient mania for gladiators with the sports and athletics stars of today. Why not reality TV?

Whilst it may seem a little trivial to compare the life and death struggles of the arena with the pointless posturing of groups of wannabees in the jungle or a house, there are some similarities between the two. At least from the point of view of the spectators.

Gladiatorial games may have begun their life in Rome as memorial events for the patrician dead but they became wildly popular with the general populace-in much the same way as certain reality shows today. They were even paid for by politicians to win over the voters.

Like reality TV, they had their detractors. The orator Cicero hated them, questioning the pleasure of watching an animal or human being slaughtered. Seneca felt very much the same. Like many of today’s viewers who bewail the proliferation of tacky, shows which exploit the worst kinds of human weakness on our screens, these roman intellectuals objected on the grounds of good taste and the gratuitous enjoyment of the crowd of the sufferings of others.

This, however, is perhaps where the similarities stop. For gladiators may have been regarded as the lowest of the low- social outcasts tainted by their association with death, but they were not the attention seeking, greedy and often needy participants of today’s reality TV.

They were heroes to some. Cicero and Seneca may have hated the spectacles but they viewed the examples of the fighters as instructive. To them, gladiators encapsulated many valued Roman virtues-bravery, honour and martial skill. And, if the evidence of Pompeii is to be believed, they were heroes of a different kind to many women and girls. And whilst, like in today’s reality shows, some free Romans and women were attracted to the arena by the prospect of fame and money; most gladiators were slaves and criminals. They had no choice and although they may have achieved fame, a fortune wasn’t likely. The major prize for them at the end of the day was their lives.

Analysis of bones from bodies in a potential gladiator’s graveyard in York shows that gladiator’s often led harsh, even cruel lives with the lowest sort being chained in cells. But unlike reality show contestants, gladiators weren’t so readily discarded. A lanista invested a great deal of time and money in the training of his gladiators. Perhaps that’s why, in Pompeii at least, it was more common for losers to be reprieved rather than killed in the arena.

And whilst gladiators may have been social outcasts, they were at least part of a close community which ensured that their passing was marked respectfully and they had a decent burial. Better than the average reality contestant who can only hope to have salacious stories sold to the tabloids by their supposed friends.

But even gladiators can be victims of the over imaginative modern press. Consider the case of a large female in a roman graveyard near Hereford, UK. Despite being buried with no weapons or significant grave goods, the woman’s size alone was enough to incite the press into proclaiming her a female gladiator.

Which goes to prove you shouldn’t always believe what you read in the papers,