CRUELTY AND CIVILIZATION The great spectacles of Ancient Rome were not merely casual entertainment, a matter of choice for the audience, like the modern theatre. Under the Empire, the games became a public opiate and gave the daily life of Rome its rhythm and lustre. From one year to the next, the Roman citizens lived in anticipation of the games; they provided excitement and helped the citizens forget the mediocrity of their own condition and their lack of political power. Roland Auguet has not restricted himself to the detailed reconstruction of these spectacles, he has also analysed the emotions of the crowd and the motives of the rulers. He explains why the games were so important in the life of the city and what the popularity of these spectacles, this strange combination of Cruelty and Civilization, reveals about the mentality of ancient Rome. CRUELTY AND CIVILIZATION The Roman Games Roland Auguet R O U T L E D G E London and New York First published in 1972 by George Allen & Unwin Ltd Translated from the French Cruaute et Civilization: Les Jeux Romains (Flammarion, Paris, 1970) Hardback reprinted and first paperback edition published in 1994 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York NY 10016 Transferred to Digital Printing 2006 © 1972 George Allen & Unwin Ltd © 1994 Routledge All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Applied for ISBN 0-415-10452-1 0-415-10453-X (pbk) Publisher's Note The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original may be apparent PREFACE Of all the monuments left to us by the Romans the amphitheatres are the most imposing and undoubtedly the best known to the public, perhaps because some of them are still to be seen almost intact, like those at Nîmes and at Aries. Everyone knows, too, the sort of spectacles—organized shame, as historians have often stressed—which took place behind these arcades to which the Roman architects gave such a grandiose nobility. No general study of this immense subject exists. It is a subject which involves the history of Rome and of the Roman Empire, its monumental art and its sociology; it embraces one of the most important features of the daily life of the masses and of the ruler. Naturally, within the modest limits accorded us, we have not been able to be exhaustive. We must make a choice and reject many episodes which are often relevant to the history of the games. Thus, to take one example, it is not possible to speak of the votive games without entering at great length and in the most complex detail into the political and religious problems peculiar to a given period. We have therefore been forced to proceed by suggestive touches, with the aim of giving the reader, by a study of the spectacles, a true feeling of the city and its masses, of a civiliza tion, and of an empire. Finally, the abundance of the bibliography to which we have had to refer (which often means reference to articles difficult to trace) has not permitted us to give detailed references on every page. This would have forced us to overload the text of the book which, moreover, has no pretensions to erudition. We have had to content ourselves with indicating references to the most important sources in the text. 7 CONTENTS Preface page 7 Introduction: Roman Cruelty 13 I From Rite to Spectacle : the Gladiatorial Combats 19 II In the Arena 46 III The Hunts of the Amphitheatre 81 IV Purveyors to the Carnage 107 V Chariot Races, Stables and Factions 120 VI The Reign of the Star 149 VII A Civilization Based on the Games 184 VIII The Ruins of the Circuses and Amphitheatres 200 Short Glossary 211 Index 217