"Roger Dunkle's book is singular in its mix of clear, lucid and
approachable writing with a meticulous presentation of classical
sources and scholarship. This is a thorough and well-organized
study of the history of the gladiatorial games from early Republic
to Empire; and of the popular role of these games, including their
advertisement and how the life or death of combatants was decided.
Fascinating and engrossing!"
Patrice D. Rankine, Associate Professor of Classics, Purdue
University
To the modern mind, the gladiatorial games of ancient Rome
embody the dark side of Roman culture - a blood-soaked
glorification of violence as entertainment.
But how did they appear to the spectators who packed the
amphitheatres of ancient Rome?
Roger Dunkle here shows us the games through Roman eyes - both
those who watched and those who fought. He gives a fascinating
insight into the lives of the gladiators - their food, their living
quarters and the training they underwent. He recreates the
experience of the Roman spectator: the atmosphere of the
amphitheatre and the arena, the advertisements and parades, the
music that accompanied the preliminary mock fights and the real
combat, and, of course, the fights themselves.
He also discusses the wider significance of the games: the
political aspirations of the republican sponsors of such events,
and, as the Roman Republic became the Roman Empire, changes that
the games underwent, reflecting the values of the time. Stand-alone
combat, embodying the republican virtues of personal courage and
self-reliance, became a multi-faceted spectacle involving not only
the gladiatorial combat itself but also elaborately stagedanimal
hunts and the execution of enemies of the state - criminals,
Christians and prisoners of war. Thus, the gladiatorial games
became a symbolic representation of Imperial rule and all that went
with it.
Anyone who is interested in the Roman psyche will find this book
essential and gripping reading.
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