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Let the Games Begin: How gladiators in ancient Anatolia lived to entertain the masses
Archaeology Magazine ^ | November/December 2024 Feature | Tolga İldun

Posted on 11/05/2024 6:27:25 PM PST by SunkenCiv

Two inscriptions from Hierapolis provide evidence of how gladiatorial contests were supervised. Gladiators were not, in fact, engaged in the chaotic, savage massacre of many people's imagination. On the contrary, the games were governed by detailed sets of rules and overseen by arbiters, or referees. These inscriptions, dedicated to local arbiters named Apollonios Menandros and Zosimos, describe the men as secunda rudes, or second umpires. If the city provided gladiators and referees for the games, it's possible there was a permanent gladiatorial organization in Hierapolis. This interpretation is supported by a grave stela found at the end of the nineteenth century in the village of Karahayıt, three miles north of Hierapolis. The artifact, which was described at the time but is now lost, was dedicated to a therotrophos, or animal trainer, who was responsible for maintaining the wild beasts used in hunts.

An impressive set of reliefs from Cibyra... provides some of the best evidence of how gladiatorial combat was conducted across different regions of the Roman Empire. The majority were discovered during rescue excavations in 2001 and 2002. In 2011, additional blocks thought to belong to the same series of friezes were unearthed on a road running alongside a necropolis and in the foundation of a house in the nearby town of Gölhisar. The friezes were created between a.d. 150 and 200 and depict venationes and battles between gladiators. They may once have adorned the eastern parapets of the city's stadium. According to Özüdoğru, the period when gladiatorial games were most popular coincided with the city's peak in wealth, population, and commercial activity. He adds that the vivid details of the reliefs—down to the depiction of the uneven paving stones of the stadium, which archaeologists have unearthed—suggest that the artists observed these contests in person.

(Excerpt) Read more at archaeology.org ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: anatolia; gladiators; godsgravesglyphs; romanempire
A mosaic from Aydın shows a scene of gladiatorial combat including (center) an arbiter, or referee.
© Tolga İldun
© Tolga İldun

1 posted on 11/05/2024 6:27:25 PM PST by SunkenCiv
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; 31R1O; ...

2 posted on 11/05/2024 6:28:16 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Dear leftists, that victory was just the undercard.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Btt


3 posted on 11/05/2024 6:46:16 PM PST by katykelly
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To: SunkenCiv

Watching a bunch of guys fighting en mass and killing each other is not very interesting. You need to have an emotional connection to one or preferably both of the combatants.


4 posted on 11/05/2024 7:24:59 PM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear ( Not my circus. Not my monkeys. But I can pick out the clowns at 100 yards.)
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear

It was no different than watching overpaid immature thugs ‘play’ ‘sports’ today.


5 posted on 11/05/2024 7:28:31 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Dear leftists, that victory was just the undercard.)
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To: SunkenCiv

6 posted on 11/05/2024 7:30:33 PM PST by algore
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To: katykelly

You like gladiator movies?............


7 posted on 11/05/2024 7:33:05 PM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: SunkenCiv
Exactly.

Many things change but people, at the basic level, do not.

8 posted on 11/05/2024 7:37:53 PM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear ( Not my circus. Not my monkeys. But I can pick out the clowns at 100 yards.)
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To: SunkenCiv

I believe it was Euripedes who denedgrated gladiators who strutted about the cities, parading like gods.


9 posted on 11/05/2024 7:52:40 PM PST by Bookshelf
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To: Bookshelf

Euripedes lived a couple of hundred years too early.


10 posted on 11/05/2024 8:14:12 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Dear leftists, that victory was just the undercard.)
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To: SunkenCiv

I believe that the Greeks took their ‘games’ from the Greeks. And the Greeks took their games from the Minoans.


11 posted on 11/05/2024 9:05:31 PM PST by Bookshelf
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To: Bookshelf

The Romans got their games from the Etruscans.


12 posted on 11/05/2024 9:19:54 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Dear leftists, that victory was just the undercard.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Modern pro sports are worse nowadays.

Let us remember that captured human tribute/slaves were used as gladiators in human sacrifice for Rome and were not voluntarily doing it. Nowadays we have “descendants of slaves” narcissistically soul selling for a human personality sacrifice in the court or football field. It is all fake personae.

To see the NFL, an inherent cynical hate industry, now putting up DEI poster boards against hate, is just another of the gaslight coming from narc institutions


13 posted on 11/05/2024 10:10:07 PM PST by lavaroise
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To: lavaroise

There should be zero given out for sports scholarships by institutes of alleged learning — the pro leagues should be shelling out the money and be regulated doing it. Also no gov’t spending on stadiums and arenas, the leagues and/or teams can pay for them.


14 posted on 11/05/2024 10:17:21 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Dear leftists, that victory was just the undercard.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Sorry, your timeline is really screwed up. First the Minoans were proto-Greeks. The Greeks themselves enjoyed incorporating them, viz., Theseus being captive in Minoa. The real transition of athletic games just might be: Egyptian: Minoan/Troy: Greek: Roman.


15 posted on 11/05/2024 10:39:16 PM PST by Bookshelf
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To: Bookshelf

Sorry, you just simply don’t know what you’re talking about.


16 posted on 11/05/2024 10:41:28 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Dear leftists, that victory was just the undercard.)
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To: SunkenCiv

An ad hominem attack instead of counter-argument does not demonstrate great intelligence.


17 posted on 11/06/2024 7:44:32 AM PST by Bookshelf
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To: Bookshelf

You just simply don’t know what an ad hominem attack is either.


18 posted on 11/06/2024 8:00:25 AM PST by SunkenCiv (I really mean it this time -- I'm done for the day.)
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