From sotiris@hermesnetwork.com Sun May 7 00:29:55 2000 Received: from mxu3.u.washington.edu (mxu3.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.7]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.09/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id AAA11442 for ; Sun, 7 May 2000 00:29:53 -0700 Received: from sungod.ccs.yorku.ca (IDENT:Sv/GiF3mxAfXlc6nWdsH7IfNw8/iA7+a@sungod.ccs.yorku.ca [130.63.236.104]) by mxu3.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.02/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id AAA01541 for ; Sun, 7 May 2000 00:29:53 -0700 Received: from hermesnetwork.com (londo04.slip.yorku.ca [130.63.184.128]) by sungod.ccs.yorku.ca (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id DAA27255 for ; Sun, 7 May 2000 03:29:47 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <39151A87.DA0348C4@hermesnetwork.com> Date: Sun, 07 May 2000 03:26:00 -0400 From: Sotiropoulos X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (Win98; I) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: classics@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: Gladiator myths get the thumbs down References: <4.1.20000506235820.031f7100@pop.ben2.ucla.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I believe there was a black woman gladiator in one of the chariot teams in a scene in the movie Gladiator. Sotiris Sotiropoulos Jack Kolb wrote: > [forwarded by Varda Ullman Novick. JK] > > THE TIMES, LONDON > May 7 2000 BRITAIN > Richard Brooks, Arts Editor > > THE emperor's signal - the thumbs up or thumbs down - meant life or death > for a gladiator in Roman times and created a gesture that has symbolised > good and bad news ever since. > > However, like many legends of ancient Rome, the story of the imperial > thumbs, immortalised in the film Spartacus, turns out to be as mythical as > the gods themselves. > > A new exhibition at the British Museum will expose the Hollywood myths of > Roman custom - many perpetuated in the blockbuster Gladiator which opens > in cinemas on Friday. The exhibition will also contain revelations about > what did go on in the arena - female gladiators, little known today, were > among the most popular fighters of their time. > > "The evidence seems to be that thumbs down was given, but not thumbs up," > said Ralph Jackson, the organiser of the Gladiators and Caesars > exhibition, which will open this year. > > Experts on ancient Rome disagree over what really happened to gladiators > whose fate hung in the balance. "It was the acclamation of the crowd > which let off a gladiator, not the thumb turned up," said Professor John > Wilkes, of the London Institute of Archeology. > > Peter Jones, former professor of classics at Newcastle University, argues > that the thumbs up, if it ever was given, means "kill the man". He said: > "It's be-cause it's a sign of putting the sword up into the body." The > thumbs down is "the reprieve because it means turning the sword away". > > Various reliefs show only gladiators appealing for their life by raising > the index finger of their left hand. > > Another myth challenged by new research is that Christians were thrown to > the lions. "Christians, like other martyrs and criminals, were more often > tied to posts on wheels so the wild animals could torture and wound them," > said Jackson. The phrase most commonly used in Latin is "ad bestias" which > means "to the wild animals" - more likely to be tigers, boars, bears and > leopards than lions. > > The exhibition is hoping to inspire modern audiences with the glamour of > Roman gladiators. "Some gladiators were a combination of David Beckham > and Michael Schumacher - terrific sporting talent and often adored by > women groupies," said Jackson, who has collected reliefs, friezes, pots > and paintings to illustrate the hero worship. > > Thracian fighters - who wore the least amount of clothing - were > particularly popular with female audiences. > > Yet women were not just fans. Researchers have found evidence that female > gladiators were among the most popular in the arena. Friezes have been > found celebrating the best known, with names like Amazonia and Achillia. > "There was a titillation aspect in having women fighters to please the men > in the audience," said Paul Roberts, who is assisting Jackson with the > British Museum exhibition. > > Women seemed to have been gladiators only under the "evil" emperors such > as Nero and Domitian. Nero arranged a gladiatorial contest in AD66 at > Puteoli in which not only were all the fighters black, but some were > women. It is also believed that a few were children. Tacitus, the Roman > historian, wrote that "women of high status", as well as senators, fought > for Nero, wielding the same heavy weapons as the men. > > Domitian went even further by insisting that women fight each other at > night by torchlight. They would also take on dwarfs in the arena. Under > later emperors women gladiators were banned. > > An inscription from Ostia honours the first man to make women fight. The > British Museum exhibition will show evidence of female fighters from areas > which are now in Turkey and Italy. > > Gladiatorial contests were held on about 200 days a year. They were also > used as vote-catching events where magistrates or councillors put up the > money to "buy" votes. Usually such contests were held in the amphitheatre; > horse and chariot racing took place in stadiums. .