Finished my book on the gladiators. Maybe a bit disappointing (too many facts), but there were some nice stories in there too.
The gladiator fights were kinda boring, certainly not like the ones in the Gladiator-movie. The best part IMO was the afternoon-program that came before the actual fights, namely the executions of PoW's and criminals (and later christians).
Most of these executions took place in the form of crucifixions or 'death by animals'. And well, since a straight forward massacre got boring after a while the organisers became more inventive and sometimes turned it into a game.
Popular for example was the re-creation of ancient myths.
Like the story of Orpheus, who charmed man and animal alike with his excellent music and who persuaded the god of the underworld, Hades, to release his lost wife Eurydice. But he made the error of looking (back) at her before she had finally left the underworld, which caused her definitive parting. So yeah Orpheus has to let her go once and for all and in sadness denounces all women, 'till he is finally devoured by some hysteric women who were attracted by his brilliant musical play.
Anyway, they staged this story in the arena, but replaced the hysteric women by a bunch of wild animals on the brink of starvation. The performance failed though, as the victim already died in the early stages of the show, where he was 'charming' the animals with his music and one of the bears had a pretty poor taste in music and got grumpy. The lead role was torn to pieces.
They also recreated the myth of Pasiphaë, wife of king Minos of Crete. The myth foretold that Minos insulted Poseidon and as a punishment Poseidon had made his wife, Pasiphaë, fall in love with a big white bull. The passion was so intense that Pasiphaë ordered Daedalus to make her a cow out of wood. She then hid inside the cow and made the bull mate with her.
The result: the minotaur, half man, half beast.
And yeah, according to Martialis they perfomed this myth in the arena with a female prisoner. *ouch*
Yeah, sadistic they were, those good old romans.
(edit: we dont need that nemore, we have the internet for that kind of stuff
)
Forums
