he was compelled to renew the combat or to submit to the death stroke
of his antagonist. Attendants were at hand with hot irons to apply to
the victim to see that death was not simulated. If life was not extinct,
the fallen gladiator was dragged out to the dead room, and there
dispatched. Servants then ran into the arena and scattered sand over the
blood-drenched ground. Other fighters standing in readiness, immediately
rushed in to renew the contest. Thus the fight went on until the Roman
populace was glutted with butchery and blood.
Gladiators were chosen from the strongest and most athletic among slaves
and condemned criminals. Thracians, Gauls, and Germans were captured and
enslaved for the purpose of being sacrificed in the arena. They were
trained with the greatest care in gladiatorial schools. The most famous
of these institutions was at Capua in Italy. It was here that Spartacus,
a young Thracian, of noble ancestry, excited an insurrection that soon
spread throughout all Italy and threatened the destruction of Rome.
Addressing himself to seventy of his fellow-gladiators, Spartacus is
said to have made a bitter and impassioned speech in which he proposed
that, if they must die, they should die fighting their enemies and not
themselves; that, if they were to engage in bloody battles, these
battles should be fought under the open sky in behalf of life and
liberty, and not in the amphitheater to furnish pastime and
entertainment to their masters and oppressors. The speech had its
effect. The band of fighters broke out of Capua, and took refuge in the
crater of Mount Vesuvius (73 B.C.). Spartacus became the leader, with
Crixus and Oenomaus, two Celtic gladiators, as lieutenants. Their
ranks soon swelled to the proportions of an army, through accessions of
slaves and desperadoes from the neighborhood of the volcano. During two
years, they terrorized all Italy, defeated two consuls, and burned many
cities. Crixus was defeated and killed at Mount Gargarus in Apulia by
the prætor Arrius. Spartacus compelled three hundred Roman prisoners,
whom he had captured, to fight as gladiators, following Roman custom, at
the grave of his fallen comrade and lieutenant. Finally, he himself was
slain, sword in hand, having killed two centurions before he fell. With
the death of their leaders, the insurgents either surrendered or fled.
Those who were captured were crucified. It is said that the entire way
from Capua to Rome was marked by crosses on which their bodies were
suspended, to the number of ten thousand.[172]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account