Siobhán McElduff - Spectacles in the Roman World: A Sourcebook

• Share copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
• Adapt remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.

The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

• Attribution You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
• NonCommercial You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
• ShareAlike If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.

No additional restrictions You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

• historyofallnati05wrig Internet Archive Book Images is labelled on Flickr as having no known copyright restrictions.
• Throughout this text, we use images from TimeMaps which are available for non-commercial use with reproduction guidelines.

The editors would also like to thank Erin Fields (Liaison Librarian and Flexible Learning Coordinator, UBC Library) and Amanda Grey (Open Eduction Student Librarian, UBC Library) for their assistance along the way.

This is an anthology of primary sources on Roman games and spectacles in some of their various forms, created for a second year undergraduate class on spectacles in Greece and Rome (CLST 260; this book covers the Roman section of that course) at the University of British Columbia.

The sources are grouped thematically, although there is overlap between the sections; the sources come from a wide range of periods, genres, and individuals and not all are equally reliable, in that many report on things they havent seen or are (like some of the Christian authors) deeply hostile to spectacles because they were often connected with the worship of various pagan deities. But taken together, along with the images and other information provided, they will give you some picture of the importance and complexity of spectacle for the Romans and many of the peoples they conquered or interacted with. We have tried to footnote and add information so that even if you know nothing about either Rome or the ancient Mediterranean you can still understand and follow along.

However, it is important to realize the Romans were not very nice people on the whole (you might have realized that if you know they conquered a lot of territory). They were willing to inflict terrible cruelties on people and animals, and our sources reflect that, while rarely reflecting on the violence they saw. And when they do, it is usually so they can reflect on themselves and their issues, so it is very self-absorbed. Even if gladiators didnt die at the rate that movies and TV insist they did, they were still often enslaved men and women forced to fight in a very risky profession with extremely sharp objects. Very few people went into playing a part in most Roman spectacles of their own free will.

According to legend, Rome was founded in 753 BCE, on April 21st (Romes birthday was celebrated at a festival called the Parilia). It remained a monarchy until 509 BCE, with Etruscan kings ruling from the fifth monarch, L. Tarquinius Priscus, on. The last king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, was driven out of Rome after his son raped Lucretia, the wife of a Roman nobleman; the story of Etruscan kings and the expulsion of those kings reflects Romes early dominance by the Etruscans to the north.

In its early days Rome was a small city-state, surrounded by other far more powerful and developed civilizations and powers, especially the Etruscans to the north and the Greeks of Magna Graecia to the South. It had ties and alliances with other Latin speaking city-states. However, gradually Rome became the dominant power in central Italy, scoring major victories over its neighbours and acquiring more and more manpower along the way. Romes history after the fall of the kings is usually divided into four periods: the Early Republic; the Mid-Republic; the Late Republic; and the Imperial Period.

Carthaginian war elephants engage Roman infantry at the Battle of Zama (202 BC).

After expelling the kings, Rome was governed by elected officials, the consuls, two of whom were elected each year; there was also a Senate of varying numbers. This was a period marked by patrician control of the Roman government, although that control was challenged during the conflict of the orders, which resulted in plebeians gaining more rights to hold various offices and authority. The praetorship was created, as was the office of the Tribune of the Plebs in 494 BCE; the job of the latter was to protect the interests of the plebeians, and although it did not hold imperium, its holders had a powerful right to veto any legislation that they believed not to be in the interest of the people. Rome joined the Latin League, a league of Latin speaking states in central Italy, in 493 BCE after defeating the forces of the League at the Battle of Lake Regillus; the league was dissolved in 338 after the Latin War between Rome and the League. In 281 Rome faced off against King Pyrrhus of Epirus who had come to support Greek cities in the south of Italy worried about Roman expansion; from the war with Pyrrhus came the first elephants to be brought to Rome.