The “Historical” Spartacus - Gladiators
by Jeffrey Stevens, Historical Consultant, Spartacus: Blood and Sand
Spartacus: Blood and Sand represents a deliberate and entertaining mixture of gladiatorial types drawn from the Late Republican period, in which Spartacus lived, as well as the later Imperial period that contained a wider variety of fighters. While some imperial gladiatorial types, like the net and trident wielding retiarius, and certain equipment representations, involving shield shapes along with helmet and weapon styles, are not always completely historically accurate with respect the time period of Spartacus, one of the strengths in the first season is that it shows the diverse backgrounds and fighting styles that defined the evolution of gladiatorial culture throughout all phases of Roman history. Throughout the first season, Spartacus will evolve and employ a variety of weapons, armor, shields, and fighting styles that are not simply representative of a typical thraex of the Late Republican period. In some ways, as the heroic catalyst of this story, he becomes an embodiment of many different gladiatorial types during his ongoing transformation throughout the first season.
There were various paths an individual might travel that could end with the spilling of blood upon the sands of the arena for the entertainment of a frenzied crowd. During the Republic, the earliest gladiatorial types of samnis, gallus, and thraex were taken from the prisoners of war captured by Roman military actions against populations of Samnites, Gauls, and Thracians. These early gladiators seem to have been forced to fight and spill human blood at funerary events, often with equipment representative of their own ethnic origins. While the Samnite form had largely fallen away by the time of Spartacus, the thraex form endured with the influx of Thracians from the numerous Roman campaigns against Mithridates in the East, and the gallus form seems likely to have either been renamed or transformed into the murmillo type represented by Crixus. The ethnic tension visible early in episode 102 [watch epiosde 102] between Spartacus, a Thracian, and Crixus, a Gaul, portrays likely divisions within the gladiatorial culture as well as foreshadowing the murmillo vs. thraex pairing in episode 103 that was very popular in the arena.
While being sold into training as a slave was actually the most common way for one to find oneself a gladiator in the arena, in addition to the occasional impressment of condemned criminals, there were instances of freeborn men who voluntarily submitted to serve as gladiators. These auctorati, as they were eventually called, appeared in the Late Republican period and increased dramatically during the empire. In the show, the character of Varro represents this element within the gladiatorial school when discussing his background with Spartacus in episode 102. Usually driven by monetary concerns, or sometimes fame, a free person could enter into training at a gladiatorial school under terms of a contract and by taking some form of a gladiatorial oath of servitude (sacramentum gladiatorum, or sacramentum gladiatorium as it is often called). This type of voluntary oath is represented in the final scene of episode 102 and was generally modeled from a passage found in the Satyricon of Petronius where a gladiator swears to his master “to be burned, chained, beaten, or put to death by iron.” With the inclusion of these types of details, even if they are sometimes imperial in origin, the Blood and Sand season of Spartacus will explore the world of a gladiator school to a depth not seen before in either television or film.
Jeffrey Stevens is a current Chancellor’s Prize Fellow and Ph.D. student at UCLA, while also serving as the Assistant Field Director for the San Martino Archaeological Field School (RI), Torano di Borgorose, Italy. He received a B.A. and M.A. in History at the University of Oregon from 2003-07, and an M.A. in History at UCLA in 2009. His areas of study include Roman Historiography and Gladiatorial Culture.
Message Edited by starz_mktg on 03-05-2010 11:55 AM
