Question:
The writers of Block 2 state that there was a
‘general lack of concern among ancient writers
for the suffering of the condemned’
Why do you think this is the case?
Drawing on both ancient and modern sources,
discuss Roman attitude towards the activities in the arena.
Roman public displays of punishing the condemned
were highly sensational, lavish and extravagant;
however it caused humiliation, cruelty and bloodshed.
Death had become a specatacle in this theatrical sense.
The educated elite class had the liberty to express their finer
feelings by showing contempt on these inhuman displays of
cruelty. What seems alarming is that although philosophers
did address their concern, their focus was towards the
harmful effects on the spectators rather than those
condemned. Though we might find their lack of
compassion distasteful, we need to understand how they
were conditioned to such an extent due to clever
manipulation of the emperor, their sense of justice; their
fascination with such sensational shows; and crowd
psychology; all these formed and shaped their values,
attitudes and ethics that gave birth to the distinct
Roman culture.
Public punishments were witnessed by the diversity of the
Romans; each with an important role to play: the decision
of the condemned’s death or social rebirth, and the emperor
chose to fulfil their collective desire. This unity
consolidated Roman identity and demonstrated the imperial
power.
‘ Whatever the crises of an emperor’s reign and threats to
the stability of his regime, there were people and animals
available for the sacrifice who, by dying violently, would
earn his popular acclaim and demonstrate his authority over
life and death’.(K. M. Coleman, RBK 1. C16, p.120)
In this sense, the emperor was able to manipulate his people
(in which a large part of them were illiterate) by giving
them an important role to feed their social identity with
his magnanimous spirit.
Suetonius, a Roman imperial secretary, who was only ten
years old, when he wrote:
‘ The whole body of the people in particular he treated
with such indulgence on all occasions that once at a
gladiatorial show he declared that he would give it,
‘not after his own inclination but those of the spectators;
and what is more he kept his word’.(RBK 1, C5, p. 96)
This value and belief (that the Roman kings were
generous and admired for indulging his people with such
sensational shows of bloodshed) were instilled into a child
as young as Suetonius.
Prisoners were considered degraded, polluted and
condemnable beings, they had no place in the society.
They were considered below humanity, they had even lower
status than animals. Compassion was shown for the animals
rather than the condemned - Statius, a writer wrote:
‘...people and Senate mourned in sorrow to see thee die...,
beasts so cheaply slain,
the loss of one lion alone drew a tear
from mighty Caesar’s eye’.
(RBK 1, C7. P.98)
However, justice was given. Prisoners were given the
possibility of rebirth, so that the dead can live again
through bravery, the virtue much respected in the Roman
society. Cicero expressed his feelings that the combats
and courage shown were lessons in good Roman virtues:
‘ These gladiators, these rogues, these barbarians,
to what lengths do they carry their strength of mind’.
(RBK1 C8, p.98).The pain inflicted had to be
commensurate with the sufferings the prisoners had
caused. The pain inflicted on the prisoners was meant
to degrade and humiliate him to ensure proper social
order is being restored.
Games were set to sensationalise with the ingredients of:
power, sex, violence, cruelty, madness, depravity in
gaudy, flashy, threatrical showy displays. The
punishments included: throwing prisoners to wild beasts;
gladiatorial battles, women battling with cripples and
dwarves; women copulating with bull, dressing up prisoners
to enact mythological stories of famous scenes of death
and suffering.
Additionally, the sexually attractive and charismatic
gladiators are most Roman women’s secret fantasy.
According to Keith Hopkins, he suggests that there is a close
link in the Roman minds between gladiatorial fighting and sexuality
(RBK 1 C14, p.113). Thomas Wiedemann observed that
these shows:
‘...like strip-tease shows, tended to engage the
emotions of the on-lookers to an extent that made them
temporarily incapable of rational thoughts'(RBK 1, C11, p.102).
‘ What was it, asked Tertullian, which transformed men who
were timid and peaceable enough in private and made them
shout gleefully for the merciless destruction
of their fellow men?’( Keith Hopkins, RBK 1 C 14, p. 114)
Seneca, a philosopher highlighted the impact of the harmful
effects of these displays of extreme cruelty on the
audience, damaging their soul and spirituality. Being in
a crowd, he claimed bound to influence us with some vices:
‘Indeed there is nothing so damaging to good character as
to take a seat at a show, for then faults sneak up on us
easily through our enjoyment. Do you think I mean that I
go home more greedy, more ambitious, more self-indulgent?
Yes- and more cruel and inhuman
because I have been among humans’.
( RBK 1, C9, p.99)
St. Augustine, another philosopher wrote of how he was at
first most reluctant to attend these cruel displays but
after witnessing the show for the first time he started to
have an extraordinary craving: seething with the lust for
cruelty:
‘ When he saw blood, it was as though he had drunk
a deep draught of savage passion. Instead of turning away,
he fixed his eyes upon the scene and drank in all its frenzy,
unaware of what he was doing’.
(RBK1, C10, p.100)
Pearson wrote ‘This was a vulgar age’ ( RBK1 C12). We might
expressed qualms of the experiences and attitudes of the
Romans- of their sense of justice and democracy however
we need to assess them through Roman’s ancient values that
were build on the idea of public punishment- to assure the
certainty of the punishment and a sense of social order
which leads to such sensational displays of cruelty though
clever manipulation of the emperor and the seduction of
crowd’s psychology.
(927 words)
Bibliography:
Block 2- The Colosseum
Resource Book 1 ( RBK1)
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