Rome Ping!......................
What does The Metatron think about that?
Early football. I wonder how football would have been played back then.
Now, about those Christians and lions....
I suppose the author is right under certain circumstances, limited perhaps to top level professional gladiators, but there was still plenty of blood and death in the arena on any given day. The whole point of the Meridiani, which preceded the evening’s gladiatorial event, was the death and slaughter of whatever unfortunates found themselves at the center of the day’s entertainment. And that’s not to mention the spectacles where whole groups of people were put to death for dramatic or sometimes even comic effect.
I enjoyed reading this. I was entertained.
“I’m not surprised that MMA is the fastest growing sport.”
I am an athlete, love sports and great athletes including boxing, and I always will. But I have no interest in MMA.
Good one!
‘For Mariotti, the reason why it is important to challenge myths is to recognize that the Roman people were not alien, brutal, bloodthirsty monsters. They did not gather in tens of thousands to watch torture and death. They gathered to watch a sport. ‘
Welllll....except for that whole christians and lions thing...that was kinda bloodthirsty....
Thanks, will ping a little later.
The arenas in HBO’s Rome were authentic to that time period (mid-1st c bc), btw.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Commodus
[snip] Meanwhile, Commodus was lapsing into insanity. He gave Rome a new name, Colonia Commodiana (Colony of Commodus), and imagined that he was the god Hercules, entering the arena to fight as a gladiator or to kill lions with bow and arrow. On December 31, 192, his advisers had him strangled by a champion wrestler, following his announcement the day before that he would assume the consulship, dressed as a gladiator. A grateful Senate proclaimed a new emperor—the city prefect, Publius Helvius Pertinax—but the empire quickly slipped into civil war. [/snip]
https://www.history.com/news/commodus-worst-roman-emperor-gladiator
[snip] In one instance he assembled a large number of men who had lost their feet, dressed them up as serpents, gave them sponges to throw at him in lieu of rocks and clubbed them to death, pretending they were giants. He seems to have been more careful with actual gladiators, never killing any but slicing off the occasional ear or nose. Of course, they had the good sense to let him win their matches.
In all, Commodus reportedly claimed to have won some 12,000 contests in the arena, while also bragging that he had done it left-handed. [/snip]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodus#Commodus_the_gladiator
[snip] Commodus also had a passion for gladiatorial combat, which he took so far as to take to the arena himself, dressed as a secutor. The Romans found Commodus’ gladiatorial combat to be scandalous and disgraceful. According to Herodian, spectators of Commodus thought it unbecoming of an emperor to take up arms in the amphitheater for sport when he could be campaigning against barbarians among other opponents of Rome. The consensus was that it was below his office to participate as a gladiator. Popular rumors spread alleging he was not actually the son of Marcus Aurelius, but of a gladiator his mother Faustina had taken as a lover at the coastal resort of Caieta. [/snip]