title: Gladiator

text: For some modern scholars, reappraisal of pictorial evidence supports a Campanian origin, or at least a borrowing, for the games and gladiators. Campania hosted the earliest known gladiator schools ("ludi"). Tomb frescoes from the Campanian city of Paestum (4th century BC) show paired fighters, with helmets, spears and shields, in a propitiatory funeral blood-rite that anticipates early Roman gladiator games. Compared to these images, supporting evidence from Etruscan tomb-paintings is tentative and late. The Paestum frescoes may represent the continuation of a much older tradition, acquired or inherited from Greek colonists of the 8th century BC.


title: Gladiator

text: Livy places the first Roman gladiator games (264 BC) in the early stage of Rome's First Punic War, against Carthage, when Decimus Junius Brutus Scaeva had three gladiator pairs fight to the death in Rome's "cattle market" forum ("Forum Boarium") to honor his dead father, Brutus Pera. Livy describes this as a ""munus"" (plural: "munera"), a gift, in this case a commemorative duty owed the manes (spirit, or shade) of a dead ancestor by his descendants. The development of the gladiator "munus" and its gladiator types was most strongly influenced by Samnium's support for Hannibal and the subsequent punitive expeditions against the Samnites by Rome and its Campanian allies; the earliest, most frequently mentioned and probably most popular type was the Samnite.


title: Gladiator

text: The war in Samnium, immediately afterwards, was attended with equal danger and an equally glorious conclusion. The enemy, besides their other warlike preparation, had made their battle-line to glitter with new and splendid arms. There were two corps: the shields of the one were inlaid with gold, of the other with silver ... The Romans had already heard of these splendid accoutrements, but their generals had taught them that a soldier should be rough to look on, not adorned with gold and silver but putting his trust in iron and in courage ... The Dictator, as decreed by the senate, celebrated a triumph, in which by far the finest show was afforded by the captured armour. So the Romans made use of the splendid armour of their enemies to do honour to their gods; while the Campanians, in consequence of their pride and in hatred of the Samnites, equipped after this fashion the gladiators who furnished them entertainment at their feasts, and bestowed on them the name Samnites.


title: Gladiator

text: Livy's account skirts the funereal, sacrificial function of early Roman gladiator combats and reflects the later theatrical ethos of the Roman gladiator show: splendidly, exotically armed and armoured barbarians, treacherous and degenerate, are dominated by Roman iron and native courage. His plain Romans virtuously dedicate the magnificent spoils of war to the gods. Their Campanian allies stage a dinner entertainment using gladiators who may not be Samnites, but play the Samnite role. Other groups and tribes would join the cast list as Roman territories expanded. Most gladiators were armed and armoured in the manner of the enemies of Rome. The gladiator "munus" became a morally instructive form of historic enactment in which the only honourable option for the gladiator was to fight well, or else die well.


title: Gladiator

text: In 216 BC, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, late consul and augur, was honoured by his sons with three days of "gladiatora munera" in the Forum Romanum, using twenty-two pairs of gladiators. Ten years later, Scipio Africanus gave a commemorative "munus" in Iberia for his father and uncle, casualties in the Punic Wars. High status non-Romans, and possibly Romans too, volunteered as his gladiators. The context of the Punic Wars and Rome's near-disastrous defeat at the Battle of Cannae (216 BC) link these early games to munificence, the celebration of military victory and the religious expiation of military disaster; these "munera" appear to serve a morale-raising agenda in an era of military threat and expansion. The next recorded "munus", held for the funeral of Publius Licinius in 183 BC, was more extravagant. It involved three days of funeral games, 120 gladiators, and public distribution of meat ("visceratio data") – a practice that reflected the gladiatorial fights at Campanian banquets described by Livy and later deplored by Silius Italicus.


title: Gladiator

text: The enthusiastic adoption of "gladiatoria munera" by Rome's Iberian allies shows how easily, and how early, the culture of the gladiator "munus" permeated places far from Rome itself. By 174 BC, "small" Roman "munera" (private or public), provided by an "editor" of relatively low importance, may have been so commonplace and unremarkable they were not considered worth recording:


title: Gladiator

text: Many gladiatorial games were given in that year, some unimportant, one noteworthy beyond the rest – that of Titus Flamininus which he gave to commemorate the death of his father, which lasted four days, and was accompanied by a public distribution of meats, a banquet, and scenic performances. The climax of the show which was big for the time was that in three days seventy four gladiators fought.


title: Gladiator

text: In 105 BC, the ruling consuls offered Rome its first taste of state-sponsored "barbarian combat" demonstrated by gladiators from Capua, as part of a training program for the military. It proved immensely popular. Thereafter, the gladiator contests formerly restricted to private "munera" were often included in the state games ("ludi") that accompanied the major religious festivals. Where traditional "ludi" had been dedicated to a deity, such as Jupiter, the "munera" could be dedicated to an aristocratic sponsor's divine or heroic ancestor.


title: Gladiator

text: Gladiatorial games offered their sponsors extravagantly expensive but effective opportunities for self-promotion, and gave their clients and potential voters exciting entertainment at little or no cost to themselves. Gladiators became big business for trainers and owners, for politicians on the make and those who had reached the top and wished to stay there. A politically ambitious "privatus" (private citizen) might postpone his deceased father's "munus" to the election season, when a generous show might drum up votes; those in power and those seeking it needed the support of the plebeians and their tribunes, whose votes might be won with the mere promise of an exceptionally good show. Sulla, during his term as "praetor", showed his usual acumen in breaking his own sumptuary laws to give the most lavish "munus" yet seen in Rome, for the funeral of his wife, Metella.


title: Gladiator

text: In the closing years of the politically and socially unstable Late Republic, any aristocratic owner of gladiators had political muscle at his disposal. In 65 BC, newly elected "curule aedile" Julius Caesar held games that he justified as "munus" to his father, who had been dead for 20 years. Despite an already enormous personal debt, he used 320 gladiator pairs in silvered armour. He had more available in Capua but the senate, mindful of the recent Spartacus revolt and fearful of Caesar's burgeoning private armies and rising popularity, imposed a limit of 320 pairs as the maximum number of gladiators any citizen could keep in Rome. Caesar's showmanship was unprecedented in scale and expense; he had staged a "munus" as memorial rather than funeral rite, eroding any practical or meaningful distinction between "munus" and "ludi".


title: Gladiator

text: Gladiatorial games, usually linked with beast shows, spread throughout the republic and beyond. Anti-corruption laws of 65 and 63 BC attempted but failed to curb the political usefulness of the games to their sponsors. Following Caesar's assassination and the Roman Civil War, Augustus assumed imperial authority over the games, including "munera", and formalised their provision as a civic and religious duty. His revision of sumptuary law capped private and public expenditure on "munera", claiming to save the Roman elite from the bankruptcies they would otherwise suffer, and restricting gladiator "munera" to the festivals of Saturnalia and Quinquatria. Henceforth, an imperial praetor's official "munus" was allowed a maximum of 120 gladiators at a ceiling cost of 25,000 denarii; an imperial "ludi" might cost no less than 180,000 denarii. Throughout the empire, the greatest and most celebrated games would now be identified with the state-sponsored imperial cult, which furthered public recognition, respect and approval for the emperor's divine "numen", his laws, and his agents. Between 108 and 109 AD, Trajan celebrated his Dacian victories using a reported 10,000 gladiators and 11,000 animals over 123 days. The cost of gladiators and "munera" continued to spiral out of control. Legislation of 177 AD by Marcus Aurelius did little to stop it, and was completely ignored by his son, Commodus.


title: Gladiator

text: The decline of the gladiatorial "munus" was a far from straightforward process. The crisis of the 3rd century imposed increasing military demands on the imperial purse, from which the Roman Empire never quite recovered, and lesser magistrates found their provision of various obligatory "munera" an increasingly unrewarding tax on the doubtful privileges of office. Still, emperors continued to subsidize the games as a matter of undiminished public interest. In the early 3rd century AD, the Christian writer Tertullian condemned the attendance of Christians: the combats, he said, were murder, their witnessing spiritually and morally harmful and the gladiator an instrument of pagan human sacrifice. Carolyn Osiek comments:


title: Gladiator

text: The reason, we would suppose, would be primarily the bloodthirsty violence, but his is different: the extent of religious ritual and meaning in them, which constitutes idolatry. Although Tertullian states that these events are forbidden to believers, the fact that he writes a whole treatise to convince Christians that they should not attend ("De Spectaculis") shows that apparently not everyone agreed to stay away from them.


title: Gladiator

text: In the next century, Augustine of Hippo deplored the youthful fascination of his friend (and later fellow-convert and bishop) Alypius of Thagaste, with the "munera" spectacle as inimical to a Christian life and salvation. Amphitheatres continued to host the spectacular administration of Imperial justice: in 315 Constantine the Great condemned child-snatchers "ad bestias" in the arena. Ten years later, he forbade criminals being forced to fight to the death as gladiators:


title: Gladiator

text: Bloody spectacles do not please us in civil ease and domestic quiet. For that reason we forbid those people to be gladiators who by reason of some criminal act were accustomed to deserve this condition and sentence. You shall rather sentence them to serve in the mines so that they may acknowledge the penalties of their crimes with blood.


title: Gladiator

text: This has been interpreted as a ban on gladiatorial combat. Yet, in the last year of his life, Constantine wrote a letter to the citizens of Hispellum, granting its people the right to celebrate his rule with gladiatorial games.


title: Gladiator

text: In 365, Valentinian I (r. 364–375) threatened to fine a judge who sentenced Christians to the arena and in 384 attempted, like most of his predecessors, to limit the expenses of "gladiatora munera".


title: Gladiator

text: In 393, Theodosius I (r. 379–395) adopted Nicene Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire and banned pagan festivals. The "ludi" continued, very gradually shorn of their stubbornly pagan elements. Honorius (r. 395–423) legally ended gladiator games in 399, and again in 404, at least in the Western Roman Empire. According to Theodoret, the ban was in consequence of Saint Telemachus' martyrdom by spectators at a gladiator "munus." Valentinian III (r. 425–455) repeated the ban in 438, perhaps effectively, though "venationes" continued beyond 536. By this time, interest in gladiator contests had waned throughout the Roman world. In the Byzantine Empire, theatrical shows and chariot races continued to attract the crowds, and drew a generous imperial subsidy.


title: Gladiator

text: The earliest "munera" took place at or near the tomb of the deceased and these were organised by their "munerator" (who made the offering). Later games were held by an "editor", either identical with the "munerator" or an official employed by him. As time passed, these titles and meanings may have merged. In the republican era, private citizens could own and train gladiators, or lease them from a "lanista" (owner of a gladiator training school). From the "principate" onwards, private citizens could hold "munera" and own gladiators only with imperial permission, and the role of "editor" was increasingly tied to state officialdom. Legislation by Claudius required that "quaestors", the lowest rank of Roman magistrate, personally subsidise two-thirds of the costs of games for their small-town communities – in effect, both an advertisement of their personal generosity and a part-purchase of their office. Bigger games were put on by senior magistrates, who could better afford them. The largest and most lavish of all were paid for by the emperor himself.


title: Gladiator

text: The earliest types of gladiator were named after Rome's enemies of that time: the Samnite, Thracian and Gaul. The Samnite, heavily armed, elegantly helmed and probably the most popular type, was renamed secutor and the Gaul renamed murmillo, once these former enemies had been conquered then absorbed into Rome's Empire. In the mid-republican "munus", each type seems to have fought against a similar or identical type. In the later Republic and early Empire, various "fantasy" types were introduced, and were set against dissimilar but complementary types. For example, the bareheaded, nimble retiarius ("net-man"), armoured only at the left arm and shoulder, pitted his net, trident and dagger against the more heavily armoured, helmeted Secutor. Most depictions of gladiators show the most common and popular types. Passing literary references to others has allowed their tentative reconstruction. Other novelties introduced around this time included gladiators who fought from chariots or carts, or from horseback. At an unknown date, cestus fighters were introduced to Roman arenas, probably from Greece, armed with potentially lethal boxing gloves.


title: Gladiator

text: The trade in gladiators was empire-wide, and subjected to official supervision. Rome's military success produced a supply of soldier-prisoners who were redistributed for use in State mines or amphitheatres and for sale on the open market. For example, in the aftermath of the Jewish Revolt, the gladiator schools received an influx of Jews – those rejected for training would have been sent straight to the arenas as "noxii" (lit. "hurtful ones"). The best – the most robust – were sent to Rome. In Rome's military ethos, enemy soldiers who had surrendered or allowed their own capture and enslavement had been granted an unmerited gift of life. Their training as gladiators would give them opportunity to redeem their honour in the "munus".


title: Gladiator

text: Two other sources of gladiators, found increasingly during the Principate and the relatively low military activity of the Pax Romana, were slaves condemned to the arena ("damnati"), to gladiator schools or games ("ad ludum gladiatorium") as punishment for crimes, and the paid volunteers ("auctorati") who by the late Republic may have comprised approximately half – and possibly the most capable half – of all gladiators. The use of volunteers had a precedent in the Iberian "munus" of Scipio Africanus; but none of those had been paid.


title: Gladiator

text: For the poor, and for non-citizens, enrollment in a gladiator school offered a trade, regular food, housing of sorts and a fighting chance of fame and fortune. Mark Antony chose a troupe of gladiators to be his personal bodyguard. Gladiators customarily kept their prize money and any gifts they received, and these could be substantial. Tiberius offered several retired gladiators 100,000 "sesterces" each to return to the arena. Nero gave the gladiator Spiculus property and residence "equal to those of men who had celebrated triumphs."


title: Gladiator

text: From the 60s AD female gladiators appear as rare and "exotic markers of exceptionally lavish spectacle". In 66 AD, Nero had Ethiopian women, men and children fight at a "munus" to impress the King Tiridates I of Armenia. Romans seem to have found the idea of a female gladiator novel and entertaining, or downright absurd; Juvenal titillates his readers with a woman named "Mevia", hunting boars in the arena "with spear in hand and breasts exposed", and Petronius mocks the pretensions of a rich, low-class citizen, whose "munus" includes a woman fighting from a cart or chariot. A "munus" of 89 AD, during Domitian's reign, featured a battle between female gladiators, described as "Amazons". In Halicarnassus, a 2nd-century AD relief depicts two female combatants named "Amazon" and "Achillia"; their match ended in a draw. In the same century, an epigraph praises one of Ostia's local elite as the first to "arm women" in the history of its games. Female gladiators probably submitted to the same regulations and training as their male counterparts. Roman morality required that all gladiators be of the lowest social classes, and emperors who failed to respect this distinction earned the scorn of posterity. Cassius Dio takes pains to point out that when the much admired emperor Titus used female gladiators, they were of acceptably low class.


title: Gladiator

text: Some regarded female gladiators of any type or class as a symptom of corrupted Roman appetites, morals and womanhood. Before he became emperor, Septimius Severus may have attended the Antiochene Olympic Games, which had been revived by the emperor Commodus and included traditional Greek female athletics. Septimius' attempt to give Rome a similarly dignified display of female athletics was met by the crowd with ribald chants and cat-calls. Probably as a result, he banned the use of female gladiators in 200 AD.


title: Gladiator

text: Caligula, Titus, Hadrian, Lucius Verus, Caracalla, Geta and Didius Julianus were all said to have performed in the arena, either in public or private, but risks to themselves were minimal. Claudius, characterised by his historians as morbidly cruel and boorish, fought a whale trapped in the harbor in front of a group of spectators. Commentators invariably disapproved of such performances.


title: Gladiator

text: Commodus was a fanatical participant at the "ludi", and compelled Rome's elite to attend his performances as gladiator, "bestiarius" or "venator". Most of his performances as a gladiator were bloodless affairs, fought with wooden swords; he invariably won. He was said to have restyled Nero's colossal statue in his own image as "Hercules Reborn", dedicated to himself as "Champion of "secutores"; only left-handed fighter to conquer twelve times one thousand men." He was said to have killed 100 lions in one day, almost certainly from an elevated platform surrounding the arena perimeter, which allowed him to safely demonstrate his marksmanship. On another occasion, he decapitated a running ostrich with a specially designed dart, carried the bloodied head and his sword over to the Senatorial seats and gesticulated as though they were next. As reward for these services, he drew a gigantic stipend from the public purse.


title: Gladiator

text: Gladiator games were advertised well beforehand, on billboards that gave the reason for the game, its editor, venue, date and the number of paired gladiators ("ordinarii") to be used. Other highlighted features could include details of "venationes", executions, music and any luxuries to be provided for the spectators, such as an awning against the sun, water sprinklers, food, drink, sweets and occasionally "door prizes". For enthusiasts and gamblers, a more detailed program ("libellus") was distributed on the day of the "munus", showing the names, types and match records of gladiator pairs, and their order of appearance. Left-handed gladiators were advertised as a rarity; they were trained to fight right-handers, which gave them an advantage over most opponents and produced an interestingly unorthodox combination.


title: Gladiator

text: The night before the "munus", the gladiators were given a banquet and opportunity to order their personal and private affairs; Futrell notes its similarity to a ritualistic or sacramental "last meal". These were probably both family and public events which included even the "noxii", sentenced to die in the arena the following day; and the "damnati", who would have at least a slender chance of survival. The event may also have been used to drum up more publicity for the imminent game.


title: Gladiator

text: Official "munera" of the early Imperial era seem to have followed a standard form ("munus legitimum"). A procession ("pompa") entered the arena, led by lictors who bore the fasces that signified the magistrate-"editor"'s power over life and death. They were followed by a small band of trumpeters ("tubicines") playing a fanfare. Images of the gods were carried in to "witness" the proceedings, followed by a scribe to record the outcome, and a man carrying the palm branch used to honour victors. The magistrate "editor" entered among a retinue who carried the arms and armour to be used; the gladiators presumably came in last.


title: Gladiator

text: The entertainments often began with "venationes" (beast hunts) and "bestiarii" (beast fighters). Next came the "ludi meridiani", which were of variable content but usually involved executions of "noxii", some of whom were condemned to be subjects of fatal re-enactments, based on Greek or Roman myths. Gladiators may have been involved in these as executioners, though most of the crowd, and the gladiators themselves, preferred the "dignity" of an even contest. There were also comedy fights; some may have been lethal. A crude Pompeian graffito suggests a burlesque of musicians, dressed as animals named "Ursus tibicen" (flute-playing bear) and "Pullus cornicen" (horn-blowing chicken), perhaps as accompaniment to clowning by "paegniarii" during a "mock" contest of the "ludi meridiani".


title: Gladiator

text: The gladiators may have held informal warm-up matches, using blunted or dummy weapons – some "munera", however, may have used blunted weapons throughout. The "editor," his representative or an honoured guest would check the weapons ("probatio armorum") for the scheduled matches. These were the highlight of the day, and were as inventive, varied and novel as the "editor" could afford. Armatures could be very costly – some were flamboyantly decorated with exotic feathers, jewels and precious metals. Increasingly the "munus" was the "editor"'s gift to spectators who had come to expect the best as their due.


title: Gladiator

text: Lightly armed and armoured fighters, such as the retiarius, would tire less rapidly than their heavily armed opponents; most bouts would have lasted 10 to 15 minutes, or 20 minutes at most. In late Republican "munera", between 10 and 13 matches could have been fought on one day; this assumes one match at a time in the course of an afternoon.


title: Gladiator

text: Spectators preferred to watch highly skilled, well matched "ordinarii" with complementary fighting styles; these were the most costly to train and to hire. A general "melee" of several, lower-skilled gladiators was far less costly, but also less popular. Even among the "ordinarii", match winners might have to fight a new, well-rested opponent, either a "tertiarius" ("third choice gladiator") by prearrangement; or a "substitute" gladiator ("suppositicius") who fought at the whim of the "editor" as an unadvertised, unexpected "extra". This yielded two combats for the cost of three gladiators, rather than four; such contests were prolonged, and in some cases, more bloody. Most were probably of poor quality, but the emperor Caracalla chose to test a notably skilled and successful fighter named Bato against first one "supposicitius", whom he beat, and then another, who killed him. At the opposite level of the profession, a gladiator reluctant to confront his opponent might be whipped, or goaded with hot irons, until he engaged through sheer desperation.


title: Gladiator

text: Combats between experienced, well trained gladiators demonstrated a considerable degree of stagecraft. Among the cognoscenti, bravado and skill in combat were esteemed over mere hacking and bloodshed; some gladiators made their careers and reputation from bloodless victories. Suetonius describes an exceptional "munus" by Nero, in which no-one was killed, "not even "noxii" (enemies of the state)."


title: Gladiator

text: Trained gladiators were expected to observe professional rules of combat. Most matches employed a senior referee ("summa rudis") and an assistant, shown in mosaics with long staffs ("rudes") to caution or separate opponents at some crucial point in the match. Referees were usually retired gladiators whose decisions, judgement and discretion were, for the most part, respected; they could stop bouts entirely, or pause them to allow the combatants rest, refreshment and a rub-down.


title: Gladiator

text: Ludi and "munera" were accompanied by music, played as interludes, or building to a "frenzied crescendo" during combats, perhaps to heighten the suspense during a gladiator's appeal; blows may have been accompanied by trumpet-blasts. The Zliten mosaic in Libya (circa 80–100 AD) shows musicians playing an accompaniment to provincial games (with gladiators, "bestiarii", or "venatores" and prisoners attacked by beasts). Their instruments are a long straight trumpet ("tubicen"), a large curved horn ("Cornu") and a water organ ("hydraulis"). Similar representations (musicians, gladiators and "bestiari") are found on a tomb relief in Pompeii.


title: Gladiator

text: A match was won by the gladiator who overcame his opponent, or killed him outright. Victors received the palm branch and an award from the "editor". An outstanding fighter might receive a laurel crown and money from an appreciative crowd but for anyone originally condemned "ad ludum" the greatest reward was manumission (emancipation), symbolised by the gift of a wooden training sword or staff ("rudis") from the "editor". Martial describes a match between Priscus and Verus, who fought so evenly and bravely for so long that when both acknowledged defeat at the same instant, Titus awarded victory and a "rudis" to each. Flamma was awarded the "rudis" four times, but chose to remain a gladiator. His gravestone in Sicily includes his record: "Flamma, "secutor", lived 30 years, fought 34 times, won 21 times, fought to a draw 9 times, defeated 4 times, a Syrian by nationality. Delicatus made this for his deserving comrade-in-arms."


title: Gladiator

text: A gladiator could acknowledge defeat by raising a finger ("ad digitum"), in appeal to the referee to stop the combat and refer to the "editor", whose decision would usually rest on the crowd's response. In the earliest "munera", death was considered a righteous penalty for defeat; later, those who fought well might be granted remission at the whim of the crowd or the "editor". During the Imperial era, matches advertised as "sine missione" (usually understood to mean "without reprieve" for the defeated) suggest that "missio" (the sparing of a defeated gladiator's life) had become common practice. The contract between "editor" and his "lanista" could include compensation for unexpected deaths; this could be "some fifty times higher than the lease price" of the gladiator.


title: Gladiator

text: Under Augustus' rule, the demand for gladiators began to exceed supply, and matches "sine missione" were officially banned; an economical, pragmatic development that happened to match popular notions of "natural justice". When Caligula and Claudius refused to spare defeated but popular fighters, their own popularity suffered. In general, gladiators who fought well were likely to survive. At a Pompeian match between chariot-fighters, Publius Ostorius, with previous 51 wins to his credit, was granted missio after losing to Scylax, with 26 victories. By common custom, the spectators decided whether or not a losing gladiator should be spared, and chose the winner in the rare event of a standing tie. Even more rarely, perhaps uniquely, one stalemate ended in the killing of one gladiator by the "editor" himself. In any event, the final decision of death or life belonged to the "editor", who signalled his choice with a gesture described by Roman sources as "pollice verso" meaning "with a turned thumb"; a description too imprecise for reconstruction of the gesture or its symbolism. Whether victorious or defeated, a gladiator was bound by oath to accept or implement his editor's decision, "the victor being nothing but the instrument of his [editor's] will." Not all "editors" chose to go with the crowd, and not all those condemned to death for putting on a poor show chose to submit:


title: Gladiator

text: Once a band of five "retiarii" in tunics, matched against the same number of "secutores", yielded without a struggle; but when their death was ordered, one of them caught up his trident and slew all the victors. Caligula bewailed this in a public proclamation as a most cruel murder.


title: Gladiator

text: A gladiator who was refused "missio" was despatched by his opponent. To die well, a gladiator should never ask for mercy, nor cry out. A "good death" redeemed the gladiator from the dishonourable weakness and passivity of defeat, and provided a noble example to those who watched:


title: Gladiator

text: For death, when it stands near us, gives even to inexperienced men the courage not to seek to avoid the inevitable. So the gladiator, no matter how faint-hearted he has been throughout the fight, offers his throat to his opponent and directs the wavering blade to the vital spot. (Seneca. "Epistles", 30.8)


title: Gladiator

text: Some mosaics show defeated gladiators kneeling in preparation for the moment of death. Seneca's "vital spot" seems to have meant the neck. Gladiator remains from Ephesus confirm this.


title: Gladiator

text: The body of a gladiator who had died well was placed on a couch of Libitina and removed with dignity to the arena morgue, where the corpse was stripped of armour, and probably had its throat cut as confirmation of death. The Christian author Tertullian, commenting on "ludi meridiani" in Roman Carthage during the peak era of the games, describes a more humiliating method of removal. One arena official, dressed as the "brother of Jove", Dis Pater (god of the underworld) strikes the corpse with a mallet. Another, dressed as Mercury, tests for life-signs with a heated "wand"; once confirmed as dead, the body is dragged from the arena.


title: Gladiator

text: Whether these victims were gladiators or "noxii" is unknown. Modern pathological examination confirms the probably fatal use of a mallet on some, but not all the gladiator skulls found in a gladiators' cemetery. Kyle (1998) proposes that gladiators who disgraced themselves might have been subjected to the same indignities as "noxii", denied the relative mercies of a quick death and dragged from the arena as carrion. Whether the corpse of such a gladiator could be redeemed from further ignominy by friends or "familia" is not known.


title: Gladiator

text: The bodies of "noxii", and possibly some "damnati", were thrown into rivers or dumped unburied; Denial of funeral rites and memorial condemned the shade ("manes") of the deceased to restless wandering upon the earth as a dreadful "larva" or "lemur". Ordinary citizens, slaves and freedmen were usually buried beyond the town or city limits, to avoid the ritual and physical pollution of the living; professional gladiators had their own, separate cemeteries. The taint of "infamia" was perpetual.


title: Gladiator

text: Gladiators could subscribe to a union ("collegia"), which ensured their proper burial, and sometimes a pension or compensation for wives and children. Otherwise, the gladiator's "familia", which included his "lanista", comrades and blood-kin, might fund his funeral and memorial costs, and use the memorial to assert their moral reputation as responsible, respectful colleagues or family members. Some monuments record the gladiator's career in some detail, including the number of appearances, victories  —  sometimes represented by an engraved crown or wreath  —  defeats, career duration, and age at death. Some include the gladiator's type, in words or direct representation: for example, the memorial of a retiarius at Verona included the engraving of a trident and sword. A wealthy editor might commission artwork to celebrate a particularly successful or memorable show, and include named portraits of winners and losers in action; the Borghese Gladiator Mosaic is a notable example. According to Cassius Dio, the emperor Caracalla gave the gladiator Bato a magnificent memorial and State funeral; more typical are the simple gladiator tombs of the Eastern Roman Empire, whose brief inscriptions include the following:


title: Gladiator

text: "For Nikepharos, son of Synetos, Lakedaimonian, and for Narcissus the secutor. Titus Flavius Satyrus set up this monument in his memory from his own money."


title: Gladiator

text: Very little evidence survives of the religious beliefs of gladiators as a class, or their expectations of an afterlife. Modern scholarship offers little support for the once-prevalent notion that gladiators, "venatores" and "bestiarii" were personally or professionally dedicated to the cult of the Graeco-Roman goddess Nemesis. Rather, she seems to have represented a kind of "Imperial Fortuna" who dispensed Imperial retribution on the one hand, and Imperially subsidised gifts on the other – including the "munera". One gladiator's tomb dedication clearly states that her decisions are not to be trusted. Many gladiator epitaphs claim Nemesis, fate, deception or treachery as the instrument of their death, never the superior skills of the flesh-and-blood adversary who defeated and killed them. Having no personal responsibility for his own defeat and death, the losing gladiator remains the better man, worth avenging.


title: Gladiator

text: "I, Victor, left-handed, lie here, but my homeland was in Thessalonica. Doom killed me, not the liar Pinnas. No longer let him boast. I had a fellow gladiator, Polyneikes, who killed Pinnas and avenged me. Claudius Thallus set up this memorial from what I left behind as a legacy."


title: Gladiator

text: A gladiator might expect to fight in two or three "munera" annually, and an unknown number would have died in their first match. Few gladiators survived more than 10 contests, though one survived an extraordinary 150 bouts; and another died at 90 years of age, presumably long after retirement. A natural death following retirement is also likely for three individuals who died at 38, 45, and 48 years respectively. George Ville, using evidence from 1st century gladiator headstones, calculated an average age at death of 27, and mortality "among all who entered the arena" at 19/100. Marcus Junkelmann disputes Ville's calculation for average age at death; the majority would have received no headstone, and would have died early in their careers, at 18–25 years of age. Between the early and later Imperial periods the risk of death for defeated gladiators rose from 1/5 to 1/4, perhaps because "missio" was granted less often. Hopkins and Beard tentatively estimate a total of 400 arenas throughout the Roman Empire at its greatest extent, with a combined total of 8,000 deaths per annum from executions, combats and accidents.


title: Gladiator

text: The earliest named gladiator school (singular: "ludus"; plural: "ludi") is that of Aurelius Scaurus at Capua. He was "lanista" of the gladiators employed by the state circa 105 BC to instruct the legions and simultaneously entertain the public. Few other "lanistae" are known by name: they headed their "familia gladiatoria", and had lawful power over life and death of every family member, including "servi poenae", "auctorati" and ancillaries. Socially, they were "infames", on a footing with pimps and butchers and despised as price gougers. No such stigma was attached to a gladiator owner ("munerarius" or "editor") of good family, high status and independent means; Cicero congratulated his friend Atticus on buying a splendid troop – if he rented them out, he might recover their entire cost after two performances.


title: Gladiator

text: The Spartacus revolt had originated in a gladiator school privately owned by Lentulus Batiatus, and had been suppressed only after a protracted series of costly, sometimes disastrous campaigns by regular Roman troops. In the late Republican era, a fear of similar uprisings, the usefulness of gladiator schools in creating private armies, and the exploitation of "munera" for political gain led to increased restrictions on gladiator school ownership, siting and organisation. By Domitian's time, many had been more or less absorbed by the State, including those at Pergamum, Alexandria, Praeneste and Capua. The city of Rome itself had four; the "Ludus Magnus" (the largest and most important, housing up to about 2,000 gladiators), "Ludus Dacicus", "Ludus Gallicus", and the "Ludus Matutinus", which trained "bestiarii".


title: Gladiator

text: In the Imperial era, volunteers required a magistrate's permission to join a school as "auctorati". If this was granted, the school's physician assessed their suitability. Their contract ("auctoramentum") stipulated how often they were to perform, their fighting style and earnings. A condemned bankrupt or debtor accepted as novice ("novicius") could negotiate with his "lanista" or "editor" for the partial or complete payment of his debt. Faced with runaway re-enlistment fees for skilled "auctorati", Marcus Aurelius set their upper limit at 12,000 "sesterces".


title: Gladiator

text: All prospective gladiators, whether volunteer or condemned, were bound to service by a sacred oath ("sacramentum"). Novices ("novicii") trained under teachers of particular fighting styles, probably retired gladiators. They could ascend through a hierarchy of grades (singular: "palus") in which "primus palus" was the highest. Lethal weapons were prohibited in the schools – weighted, blunt wooden versions were probably used. Fighting styles were probably learned through constant rehearsal as choreographed "numbers". An elegant, economical style was preferred. Training included preparation for a stoical, unflinching death. Successful training required intense commitment.


title: Gladiator

text: Those condemned "ad ludum" were probably branded or marked with a tattoo ("stigma", plural "stigmata") on the face, legs and/or hands. These "stigmata" may have been text – slaves were sometimes thus marked on the forehead until Constantine banned the use of facial stigmata in 325 AD. Soldiers were routinely marked on the hand.


title: Gladiator

text: Gladiators were typically accommodated in cells, arranged in barrack formation around a central practice arena. Juvenal describes the segregation of gladiators according to type and status, suggestive of rigid hierarchies within the schools: "even the lowest scum of the arena observe this rule; even in prison they're separate". "Retiarii" were kept away from "damnati", and "fag targeteers" from "armoured heavies". As most "ordinarii" at games were from the same school, this kept potential opponents separate and safe from each other until the lawful "munus". Discipline could be extreme, even lethal. Remains of a Pompeian "ludus" site attest to developments in supply, demand and discipline; in its earliest phase, the building could accommodate 15–20 gladiators. Its replacement could have housed about 100 and included a very small cell, probably for lesser punishments and so low that standing was impossible.


title: Gladiator

text: Despite the harsh discipline, gladiators represented a substantial investment for their "lanista" and were otherwise well fed and cared for. Their daily, high-energy, vegetarian diet consisted of barley, boiled beans, oatmeal, ash and dried fruit. Gladiators were sometimes called "hordearii" (eaters of barley). Romans considered barley inferior to wheat—a punishment for legionaries replaced their wheat ration with it—but it was thought to strengthen the body. Regular massage and high quality medical care helped mitigate an otherwise very severe training regimen. Part of Galen's medical training was at a gladiator school in Pergamum where he saw (and would later criticise) the training, diet, and long-term health prospects of the gladiators.


title: Gladiator

text: "He vows to endure to be burned, to be bound, to be beaten, and to be killed by the sword." "The gladiator's oath as cited by Petronius (Satyricon, 117)."


title: Gladiator

text: Modern customs and institutions offer few useful parallels to the legal and social context of the "gladiatoria munera". In Roman law, anyone condemned to the arena or the gladiator schools ("damnati ad ludum") was a "servus poenae" (slave of the penalty), and was considered to be under sentence of death unless manumitted. A rescript of Hadrian reminded magistrates that "those sentenced to the sword" (execution) should be despatched immediately "or at least within the year", and those sentenced to the "ludi" should not be discharged before five years, or three years if granted manumission. Only slaves found guilty of specific offences could be sentenced to the arena; however, citizens found guilty of particular offenses could be stripped of citizenship, formally enslaved, then sentenced; and slaves, once freed, could be legally reverted to slavery for certain offences. Arena punishment could be given for banditry, theft and arson, and for treasons such as rebellion, census evasion to avoid paying due taxes and refusal to swear lawful oaths.


title: Gladiator

text: Offenders seen as particularly obnoxious to the state ("noxii") received the most humiliating punishments. By the 1st century BC, "noxii" were being condemned to the beasts ("damnati ad bestias") in the arena, with almost no chance of survival, or were made to kill each other. From the early Imperial era, some were forced to participate in humiliating and novel forms of mythological or historical enactment, culminating in their execution. Those judged less harshly might be condemned "ad ludum venatorium" or "ad gladiatorium" – combat with animals or gladiators – and armed as thought appropriate. These "damnati" at least might put on a good show and retrieve some respect and, very rarely, survive to fight another day. Some may even have become "proper" gladiators.


title: Gladiator

text: Among the most admired and skilled "auctorati" were those who, having been granted manumission, volunteered to fight in the arena. Some of these highly trained and experienced specialists may have had no other practical choice open to them. Their legal status – slave or free – is uncertain. Under Roman law, a freed gladiator could not "offer such services [as those of a gladiator] after manumission, because they cannot be performed without endangering [his] life." All contracted volunteers, including those of equestrian and senatorial class, were legally enslaved by their "auctoratio" because it involved their potentially lethal submission to a master. All "arenarii" (those who appeared in the arena) were ""infames" by reputation", a form of social dishonour which excluded them from most of the advantages and rights of citizenship. Payment for such appearances compounded their "infamia". The legal and social status of even the most popular and wealthy "auctorati" was thus marginal at best. They could not vote, plead in court nor leave a will; and unless they were manumitted, their lives and property belonged to their masters. Nevertheless, there is evidence of informal if not entirely lawful practices to the contrary. Some "unfree" gladiators bequeathed money and personal property to wives and children, possibly via a sympathetic owner or "familia"; some had their own slaves and gave them their freedom. One gladiator was even granted "citizenship" to several Greek cities of the Eastern Roman world.


title: Gladiator

text: Caesar's "munus" of 46 BC included at least one equestrian, son of a Praetor, and two volunteers of possible senatorial rank. Augustus, who enjoyed watching the games, forbade the participation of senators, equestrians and their descendants as fighters or "arenarii", but in 11 AD he bent his own rules and allowed equestrians to volunteer because "the prohibition was no use". Under Tiberius, the Larinum decree (19AD) reiterated Augustus' original prohibitions. Thereafter, Caligula flouted them and Claudius strengthened them. Nero and Commodus ignored them. Even after the adoption of Christianity as Rome's official religion, legislation forbade the involvement of Rome's upper social classes in the games, though not the games themselves. Throughout Rome's history, some volunteers were prepared to risk loss of status or reputation by appearing in the arena, whether for payment, glory or, as in one recorded case, to revenge an affront to their personal honour. In one extraordinary episode, an aristocratic descendant of the Gracchi, already infamous for his marriage, as a bride, to a male horn player, appeared in what may have been a non-lethal or farcical match. His motives are unknown, but his voluntary and "shameless" arena appearance combined the "womanly attire" of a lowly "retiarius tunicatus", adorned with golden ribbons, with the apex headdress that marked him out as a priest of Mars. In Juvenal's account, he seems to have relished the scandalous self-display, applause and the disgrace he inflicted on his more sturdy opponent by repeatedly skipping away from the confrontation.


title: Gladiator

text: As "munera" grew larger and more popular, open spaces such as the Forum Romanum were adapted (as the Forum Boarium had been) as venues in Rome and elsewhere, with temporary, elevated seating for the patron and high status spectators; they were popular but not truly public events:


title: Gladiator

text: A show of gladiators was to be exhibited before the people in the market-place, and most of the magistrates erected scaffolds round about, with an intention of letting them for advantage. Caius commanded them to take down their scaffolds, that the poor people might see the sport without paying anything. But nobody obeying these orders of his, he gathered together a body of labourers, who worked for him, and overthrew all the scaffolds the very night before the contest was to take place. So that by the next morning the market-place was cleared, and the common people had an opportunity of seeing the pastime. In this, the populace thought he had acted the part of a man; but he much disobliged the tribunes his colleagues, who regarded it as a piece of violent and presumptuous interference.


title: Gladiator

text: Towards the end of the Republic, Cicero ("Murena", 72–3) still describes gladiator shows as ticketed — their political usefulness was served by inviting the rural tribunes of the plebs, not the people of Rome "en masse" – but in Imperial times, poor citizens in receipt of the corn dole were allocated at least some free seating, possibly by lottery. Others had to pay. Ticket scalpers ("Locarii") sometimes sold or let out seats at inflated prices. Martial wrote that "Hermes [a gladiator who always drew the crowds] means riches for the ticket scalpers".


title: Gladiator

text: The earliest known Roman amphitheatre was built at Pompeii by Sullan colonists, around 70 BC. The first in the city of Rome was the extraordinary wooden amphitheatre of Gaius Scribonius Curio (built in 53 BC). The first part-stone amphitheatre in Rome was inaugurated in 29–30 BC, in time for the triple triumph of Octavian (later Augustus). Shortly after it burned down in 64 AD, Vespasian began its replacement, later known as the Amphitheatrum Flavium (Colosseum), which seated 50,000 spectators and would remain the largest in the Empire. It was inaugurated by Titus in 80 AD as the personal gift of the Emperor to the people of Rome, paid for by the imperial share of booty after the Jewish Revolt.


title: Gladiator

text: Amphitheatres were usually oval in plan. Their seating tiers surrounded the arena below, where the community's judgments were meted out, in full public view. From across the stands, crowd and "editor" could assess each other's character and temperament. For the crowd, amphitheatres afforded unique opportunities for free expression and free speech ("theatralis licentia"). Petitions could be submitted to the "editor" (as magistrate) in full view of the community. "Factiones" and claques could vent their spleen on each other, and occasionally on Emperors. The emperor Titus's dignified yet confident ease in his management of an amphitheatre crowd and its factions were taken as a measure of his enormous popularity and the rightness of his imperium. The amphitheatre "munus" thus served the Roman community as living theatre and a court in miniature, in which judgement could be served not only on those in the arena below, but on their judges. Amphitheatres also provided a means of social control. Their seating was "disorderly and indiscriminate" until Augustus prescribed its arrangement in his Social Reforms. To persuade the Senate, he expressed his distress on behalf of a senator who could not find seating at a crowded games in Puteoli:


title: Gladiator

text: In consequence of this the senate decreed that, whenever any public show was given anywhere, the first row of seats should be reserved for senators; and at Rome he would not allow the envoys of the free and allied nations to sit in the orchestra, since he was informed that even freedmen were sometimes appointed. He separated the soldiery from the people. He assigned special seats to the married men of the commons, to boys under age their own section and the adjoining one to their preceptors; and he decreed that no one wearing a dark cloak should sit in the middle of the house. He would not allow women to view even the gladiators except from the upper seats, though it had been the custom for men and women to sit together at such shows. Only the Vestal virgins were assigned a place to themselves, opposite the praetor's tribunal.


title: Gladiator

text: Popular factions supported favourite gladiators and gladiator types. Under Augustan legislation, the Samnite type was renamed "Secutor" ("chaser", or "pursuer"). The secutor was equipped with a long, heavy "large" shield called a "scutum"; "Secutores", their supporters and any heavyweight "secutor"-based types such as the Murmillo were "secutarii". Lighter types, such as the Thraex, were equipped with a smaller, lighter shield called a "parma", from which they and their supporters were named "parmularii" ("small shields"). Titus and Trajan preferred the "parmularii" and Domitian the "secutarii"; Marcus Aurelius took neither side. Nero seems to have enjoyed the brawls between rowdy, enthusiastic and sometimes violent factions, but called in the troops if they went too far.


title: Gladiator

text: There were also local rivalries. At Pompeii's amphitheatre, during Nero's reign, the trading of insults between Pompeians and Nucerian spectators during public "ludi" led to stone throwing and riot. Many were killed or wounded. Nero banned gladiator "munera" (though not the games) at Pompeii for ten years as punishment. The story is told in Pompeian graffiti and high quality wall painting, with much boasting of Pompeii's "victory" over Nuceria.


title: Gladiator

text: It is not known how many "gladiatoria munera" were given throughout the Roman period. Many, if not most, involved "venationes", and in the later empire some may have been only that. In 165 BC, at least one "munus" was held during April's Megalesia. In the early imperial era, "munera" in Pompeii and neighbouring towns were dispersed from March through November. They included a provincial magnate's five-day "munus" of thirty pairs, plus beast hunts. A single late primary source, the "Calendar of Furius Dionysius Philocalus" for 354, shows how seldom gladiators featured among a multitude of official festivals. Of the 176 days reserved for spectacles of various kinds, 102 were for theatrical shows, 64 for chariot races and just 10 in December for gladiator games and "venationes". A century before this, the emperor Alexander Severus (r. 222–235) may have intended a more even redistribution of "munera" throughout the year; but this would have broken with what had become the traditional positioning of the major gladiator games, at the year's ending. As Wiedemann points out, December was also the month for the Saturnalia, Saturn's festival, in which death was linked to renewal, and the lowest were honoured as the highest.


title: Gladiator

text: According to Livy: "A man who knows how to conquer in war is a man who knows how to arrange a banquet and put on a show."


title: Gladiator

text: Rome was essentially a landowning military aristocracy. From the early days of the Republic, ten years of military service were a citizen's duty and a prerequisite for election to public office. "Devotio" (willingness to sacrifice one's life to the greater good) was central to the Roman military ideal, and was the core of the Roman military oath. It applied from highest to lowest alike in the chain of command. As a soldier committed his life (voluntarily, at least in theory) to the greater cause of Rome's victory, he was not expected to survive defeat.


title: Gladiator

text: The Punic Wars of the late 3rd century BC – in particular the near-catastrophic defeat of Roman arms at Cannae – had long-lasting effects on the Republic, its citizen armies, and the development of the gladiatorial "munera". In the aftermath of Cannae, Scipio Africanus crucified Roman deserters and had non-Roman deserters thrown to the beasts. The Senate refused to ransom Hannibal's Roman captives: instead, they consulted the Sibylline books, then made drastic preparations:


title: Gladiator

text: In obedience to the Books of Destiny, some strange and unusual sacrifices were made, human sacrifices amongst them. A Gaulish man and a Gaulish woman and a Greek man and a Greek woman were buried alive under the Forum Boarium ... They were lowered into a stone vault, which had on a previous occasion also been polluted by human victims, a practice most repulsive to Roman feelings. When the gods were believed to be duly propitiated ... Armour, weapons, and other things of the kind were ordered to be in readiness, and the ancient spoils gathered from the enemy were taken down from the temples and colonnades. The dearth of freemen necessitated a new kind of enlistment; 8,000 sturdy youths from amongst the slaves were armed at the public cost, after they had each been asked whether they were willing to serve or no. These soldiers were preferred, as there would be an opportunity of ransoming them when taken prisoners at a lower price.


title: Gladiator

text: The account notes, uncomfortably, the bloodless human sacrifices performed to help turn the tide of the war in Rome's favour. While the Senate mustered their willing slaves, Hannibal offered his dishonoured Roman captives a chance for honourable death, in what Livy describes as something very like the Roman "munus". The "munus" thus represented an essentially military, self-sacrificial ideal, taken to extreme fulfillment in the gladiator's oath. By the "devotio" of a voluntary oath, a slave might achieve the quality of a Roman ("Romanitas"), become the embodiment of true "virtus" (manliness, or manly virtue), and paradoxically, be granted "missio" while remaining a slave. The gladiator as a specialist fighter, and the ethos and organization of the gladiator schools, would inform the development of the Roman military as the most effective force of its time. In 107 BC, the Marian Reforms established the Roman army as a professional body. Two years later, following its defeat at the Battle of Arausio:


title: Gladiator

text: ...weapons training was given to soldiers by P. Rutilius, consul with C. Mallis. For he, following the example of no previous general, with teachers summoned from the gladiatorial training school of C. Aurelus Scaurus, implanted in the legions a more sophisticated method of avoiding and dealing a blow and mixed bravery with skill and skill back again with virtue so that skill became stronger by bravery's passion and passion became more wary with the knowledge of this art.


title: Gladiator

text: The military were great aficionados of the games, and supervised the schools. Many schools and amphitheatres were sited at or near military barracks, and some provincial army units owned gladiator troupes. As the Republic wore on, the term of military service increased from ten to the sixteen years formalised by Augustus in the Principate. It would rise to twenty, and later, to twenty-five years. Roman military discipline was ferocious; severe enough to provoke mutiny, despite the consequences. A career as a volunteer gladiator may have seemed an attractive option for some.


title: Gladiator

text: In AD 69, the Year of the Four Emperors, Otho's troops at Bedriacum included 2000 gladiators. Opposite him on the field, Vitellius's army was swollen by levies of slaves, plebs and gladiators. In 167 AD, troop depletions by plague and desertion may have prompted Marcus Aurelius to draft gladiators at his own expense. During the Civil Wars that led to the Principate, Octavian (later Augustus) acquired the personal gladiator troop of his erstwhile opponent, Mark Antony. They had served their late master with exemplary loyalty but thereafter, they disappear from the record.


title: Gladiator

text: Roman writing as a whole demonstrates a deep ambivalence towards the "gladiatoria munera". Even the most complex and sophisticated "munera" of the Imperial era evoked the ancient, ancestral "dii manes" of the underworld and were framed by the protective, lawful rites of "sacrificium". Their popularity made their co-option by the state inevitable; Cicero acknowledged their sponsorship as a political imperative. Despite the popular adulation of gladiators, they were set apart, despised; and despite Cicero's contempt for the mob, he shared their admiration: "Even when [gladiators] have been felled, let alone when they are standing and fighting, they never disgrace themselves. And suppose a gladiator has been brought to the ground, when do you ever see one twist his neck away after he has been ordered to extend it for the death blow?" His own death would later emulate this example. Yet, Cicero could also refer to his popularist opponent Clodius, publicly and scathingly, as a "bustuarius" – literally, a "funeral-man", implying that Clodius has shown the moral temperament of the lowest sort of gladiator. "Gladiator" could be (and was) used as an insult throughout the Roman period, and "Samnite" doubled the insult, despite the popularity of the Samnite type.


title: Gladiator

text: Silius Italicus wrote, as the games approached their peak, that the degenerate Campanians had devised the very worst of precedents, which now threatened the moral fabric of Rome: "It was their custom to enliven their banquets with bloodshed and to combine with their feasting the horrid sight of armed men [(Samnites)] fighting; often the combatants fell dead above the very cups of the revelers, and the tables were stained with streams of blood. Thus demoralised was Capua." Death could be rightly meted out as punishment, or met with equanimity in peace or war, as a gift of fate; but when inflicted as entertainment, with no underlying moral or religious purpose, it could only pollute and demean those who witnessed it.


title: Gladiator

text: The "munus" itself could be interpreted as pious necessity, but its increasing luxury corroded Roman virtue, and created an un-Roman appetite for profligacy and self-indulgence. Caesar's 46 BC "ludi" were mere entertainment for political gain, a waste of lives and of money that would have been better doled out to his legionary veterans. Yet for Seneca, and for Marcus Aurelius – both professed Stoics – the degradation of gladiators in the "munus" highlighted their Stoic virtues: their unconditional obedience to their master and to fate, and equanimity in the face of death. Having "neither hope nor illusions", the gladiator could transcend his own debased nature, and disempower death itself by meeting it face to face. Courage, dignity, altruism and loyalty were morally redemptive; Lucian idealised this principle in his story of Sisinnes, who voluntarily fought as a gladiator, earned 10,000 drachmas and used it to buy freedom for his friend, Toxaris. Seneca had a lower opinion of the mob's un-Stoical appetite for "ludi meridiani": "Man [is]...now slaughtered for jest and sport; and those whom it used to be unholy to train for the purpose of inflicting and enduring wounds are thrust forth exposed and defenceless."


title: Gladiator

text: These accounts seek a higher moral meaning from the "munus", but Ovid's very detailed (though satirical) instructions for seduction in the amphitheatre suggest that the spectacles could generate a potent and dangerously sexual atmosphere. Augustan seating prescriptions placed women – excepting the Vestals, who were legally inviolate – as far as possible from the action of the arena floor; or tried to. There remained the thrilling possibility of clandestine sexual transgression by high-caste spectators and their heroes of the arena. Such assignations were a source for gossip and satire but some became unforgivably public:


title: Gladiator

text: What was the youthful charm that so fired Eppia? What hooked her? What did she see in him to make her put up with being called "the gladiator's moll"? Her poppet, her Sergius, was no chicken, with a dud arm that prompted hope of early retirement. Besides his face looked a proper mess, helmet-scarred, a great wart on his nose, an unpleasant discharge always trickling from one eye. But he was a gladiator. That word makes the whole breed seem handsome, and made her prefer him to her children and country, her sister, her husband. Steel is what they fall in love with.


title: Gladiator

text: Eppia – a senator's wife – and her Sergius eloped to Egypt, where he deserted her. Most gladiators would have aimed lower. Two wall "graffiti" in Pompeii describe Celadus the Thraex as "the sigh of the girls" and "the glory of the girls" – which may or may not have been Celadus' own wishful thinking.


title: Gladiator

text: In the later Imperial era, Servius Maurus Honoratus uses the same disparaging term as Cicero – "bustuarius" – for gladiators. Tertullian used it somewhat differently – all victims of the arena were sacrificial in his eyes – and expressed the paradox of the "arenarii" as a class, from a Christian viewpoint:


title: Gladiator

text: On the one and the same account they glorify them and they degrade and diminish them; yes, further, they openly condemn them to disgrace and civil degradation; they keep them religiously excluded from council chamber, rostrum, senate, knighthood, and every other kind of office and a good many distinctions. The perversity of it! They love whom they lower; they despise whom they approve; the art they glorify, the artist they disgrace.


title: Gladiator

text: In this new Play, I attempted to follow the old custom of mine, of making a fresh trial; I brought it on again. In the first Act I pleased; when in the meantime a rumor spread that gladiators were about to be exhibited; the populace flock together, make a tumult, clamor aloud, and fight for their places: meantime, I was unable to maintain my place.


title: Gladiator

text: Images of gladiators were found throughout the Republic and Empire, among all classes. Walls in the 2nd century BC "Agora of the Italians" at Delos were decorated with paintings of gladiators. Mosaics dating from the 2nd through 4th centuries AD have been invaluable in the reconstruction of combat and its rules, gladiator types and the development of the "munus". Throughout the Roman world, ceramics, lamps, gems and jewellery, mosaics, reliefs, wall paintings and statuary offer evidence, sometimes the best evidence, of the clothing, props, equipment, names, events, prevalence and rules of gladiatorial combat. Earlier periods provide only occasional, perhaps exceptional examples. The Gladiator Mosaic in the Galleria Borghese displays several gladiator types, and the Bignor Roman Villa mosaic from Provincial Britain shows Cupids as gladiators. Souvenir ceramics were produced depicting named gladiators in combat; similar images of higher quality, were available on more expensive articles in high quality ceramic, glass or silver.


title: Gladiator

text: Some of the best preserved gladiator graffiti are from Pompeii and Herculaneum, in public areas including Pompeii's Forum and amphitheater, and in the private residences of the upper, middle and lower classes. They clearly show how gladiator "munera" pervaded Pompeiian culture; they provide information pertaining to particular gladiators, and sometimes include their names, status as slaves or freeborn volunteers, and their match records.


title: Gladiator

text: Pliny the Elder gives vivid examples of the popularity of gladiator portraiture in Antium and an artistic treat laid on by an adoptive aristocrat for the solidly plebeian citizens of the Roman Aventine:


title: Gladiator

text: When a freedman of Nero was giving a gladiatorial show at Antium, the public porticoes were covered with paintings, so we are told, containing life-like portraits of all the gladiators and assistants. This portraiture of gladiators has been the highest interest in art for many centuries now, but it was Gaius Terentius who began the practice of having pictures made of gladiatorial shows and exhibited in public; in honour of his grandfather who had adopted him he provided thirty pairs of Gladiators in the Forum for three consecutive days, and exhibited a picture of the matches in the Grove of Diana.


title: Gladiator

text: Some Roman reenactors attempt to recreate Roman gladiator troupes. Some of these groups are part of larger Roman reenactment groups, and others are wholly independent, though they might participate in larger demonstrations of Roman reenacting or historical reenacting in general. These groups usually focus on portraying mock gladiatorial combat in as accurate a manner as possible.


title: Yellowjacket

text: Yellowjacket or yellowjacket is the common name in North America for predatory social wasps of the genera "Vespula" and "Dolichovespula". Members of these genera are known simply as "wasps" in other English-speaking countries. Most of these are black and yellow like the eastern yellowjacket "Vespula maculifrons" and the aerial yellowjacket "Dolichovespula arenaria"; some are black and white like the bald-faced hornet, "Dolichovespula maculata". Others may have the abdomen background color red instead of black. They can be identified by their distinctive markings, their occurrence only in colonies, and a characteristic, rapid, side-to-side flight pattern prior to landing. All females are capable of stinging. Yellowjackets are important predators of pest insects.


title: Yellowjacket

text: Yellowjackets may be confused with other wasps, such as hornets and paper wasps such as "Polistes dominula". A typical yellowjacket worker is about long, with alternating bands on the abdomen; the queen is larger, about long (the different patterns on their abdomens help separate various species).


title: Yellowjacket

text: Yellowjackets are sometimes mistakenly called "bees" (as in "meat bees"), given that they are similar in size and general coloration to honey bees, but yellowjackets are actually wasps. In contrast to honey bees, yellowjackets have yellow or white markings, are not covered with tan-brown dense hair on their bodies, and do not have the flattened, hairy pollen-carrying hind legs characteristic of honey bees (although they are capable of pollination).


title: Yellowjacket

text: Yellowjackets have lance-like stingers with small barbs, and typically sting repeatedly, though occasionally a stinger becomes lodged and pulls free of the wasp's body; the venom, like most bee and wasp venoms, is primarily dangerous to only those humans who are allergic or are stung many times. All species have yellow or white on their faces. Their mouthparts are well-developed with strong mandibles for capturing and chewing insects, with probosces for sucking nectar, fruit, and other juices. Yellowjackets build nests in trees, shrubs, or in protected places such as inside man-made structures, or in soil cavities, tree stumps, mouse burrows, etc. They build them from wood fiber they chew into a paper-like pulp. Many other insects exhibit protective mimicry of aggressive, stinging yellowjackets; in addition to numerous bees and wasps (Müllerian mimicry), the list includes some flies, moths, and beetles (Batesian mimicry).


title: Yellowjacket

text: Yellowjackets' closest relatives, the hornets, closely resemble them but have larger heads, seen especially in the large distance from the eyes to the back of the head.


title: Yellowjacket

text: Yellowjackets are social hunters living in colonies containing workers, queens, and males (drones). Colonies are annual with only inseminated queens overwintering. Fertilized queens are found in protected places such as in hollow logs, stumps, under bark, leaf litter, soil cavities, and man-made structures. Queens emerge during the warm days of late spring or early summer, select a nest site, and build a small paper nest in which they lay eggs. After eggs hatch from the 30 to 50 brood cells, the queen feeds the young larvae for about 18 to 20  days. Larvae pupate, then emerge later as small, infertile females called workers. Workers in the colony take over caring for the larvae, feeding them with chewed-up meat or fruit. By midsummer, the first adult workers emerge and assume the tasks of nest expansion, foraging for food, care of the queen and larvae, and colony defense.


title: Yellowjacket

text: From this time until her death in the autumn, the queen remains inside the nest, laying eggs. The colony then expands rapidly, reaching a maximum size of 4,000–5,000 workers and a nest of 10,000–15,000 cells in late summer. The species "V. squamosa", in the southern part of its range, may build much larger perennial colonies populated by dozens of queens, tens of thousands of workers, and hundreds of thousands of cells. At peak size, reproductive cells are built with new males and queens produced. Adult reproductives remain in the nest fed by the workers. New queens build up fat reserves to overwinter. Adult reproductives leave the parent colony to mate. After mating, males quickly die, while fertilized queens seek protected places to overwinter. Parent colony workers dwindle, usually leaving the nest to die, as does the founding queen. Abandoned nests rapidly decompose and disintegrate during the winter. They can persist as long as they are kept dry, but are rarely used again. In the spring, the cycle is repeated; weather in the spring is the most important factor in colony establishment.


title: Yellowjacket

text: The adult yellowjacket diet consists primarily of sugars and carbohydrates, such as fruits, flower nectar, and tree sap. Larvae feed on proteins derived from insects, meats, and fish. Workers collect, chew, and condition such foods before feeding them to the larvae. Many of the insects collected by the workers are considered pest species, making the yellowjacket beneficial to agriculture. Larvae, in return, secrete a sugary substance for workers to eat; this exchange is a form of trophallaxis. As insect sources of food diminish in late summer, larvae produce less for workers to eat. Foraging workers pursue sources of sugar outside the nest including ripe fruits and human garbage.


title: Yellowjacket

text: "Dolichovespula" species such as the aerial yellowjacket, "D. arenaria", and the bald-faced hornet, tend to create exposed aerial nests. This feature is shared with some true hornets, which has led to some naming confusion.


title: Yellowjacket

text: Yellowjacket nests usually last for only one season, dying off in winter. The nest is started by a single queen, called the "foundress". Typically, a nest can reach the size of a basketball by the end of a season. In parts of Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, and southern coastal areas of the United States, the winters are mild enough to allow nest overwintering. Nests that survive multiple seasons become massive and often possess multiple egg-laying queens.


title: Yellowjacket

text: The German yellowjacket ("V. germanica") first appeared in Ohio in 1975, and has now become the dominant species over the eastern yellowjacket. It is bold and aggressive and can sting repeatedly and painfully. It will mark aggressors and pursue them. It is often confused with "Polistes dominula", an invasive species in the United States, due to their very similar pattern. The German yellowjacket builds its nests in cavities—not necessarily underground—with the peak worker population in temperate areas between 1000 and 3000 individuals between May and August. Each colony produces several thousand new reproductives after this point through November.


title: Yellowjacket

text: The eastern yellowjacket builds its nests underground, also with the peak worker population between 1000 and 3000 individuals, similar to the German yellowjacket. Nests are built entirely of wood fiber and are completely enclosed except for a small entrance at the bottom. The color of the paper is highly dependent on the source of the wood fibers used. The nests contain multiple, horizontal tiers of combs within. Larvae hang within the combs.


title: Yellowjacket

text: In the southeastern United States, where southern yellowjacket ("Vespula squamosa") nests may persist through the winter, colony sizes of this species may reach 100,000 adult wasps. The same kind of nest expansion has occurred in Hawaii with the invasive western yellowjacket ("V. pensylvanica").


title: Yellowjacket

text: The yellowjacket's most visible place in US sporting culture is as a mascot, most famously with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, represented by the mascot Buzz. Other college and university examples include Allen University, the American International College, Baldwin-Wallace University, Black Hills State University, Cedarville University, Defiance College, Graceland University, Howard Payne University, LeTourneau University, Montana State University Billings, Northern Vermont University-Lyndon, Randolph-Macon College, University of Rochester, University of Wisconsin–Superior, West Virginia State University, and Waynesburg University.


title: Yellowjacket

text: Though not specified by the team, the mascot of the Columbus Blue Jackets, named "Stinger," closely resembles a yellowjacket. In the years since its original yellow incarnation, the mascot's color has been changed to light green, seemingly combining the real insect's yellow and the team's blue.


title: Yellowjacket

text: In the United Kingdom the Rugby Union team Wasps traditionally use a yellowjacket as their club emblem.


title: Yellowjacket

text: Note that yellowjacket is often spelled as two words (yellow jacket) in popular culture and even in some dictionaries. The proper entomological spelling, according to the Entomological Society of America, is as a single word (yellowjacket).


title: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)

text: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? is a 1962 American psychological horror thriller film directed and produced by Robert Aldrich, from a screenplay by Lukas Heller, based on the 1960 novel of the same name by Henry Farrell. The film stars Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, and features the major film debut of Victor Buono. It follows an aging former child star tormenting her paraplegic sister, a former movie star, in an old Hollywood mansion.


title: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)

text: "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" was theatrically released in the United States on October 31, 1962, by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film was met with critical acclaim and was a box office success. It was nominated for five Academy Awards and won one for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White, with Davis receiving her tenth and final nomination for Best Actress.


title: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)

text: The intensely bitter Hollywood rivalry between the film's two stars, Davis and Crawford, was pivotal to the film's initial success. This in part led to the revitalization of the careers of the two stars. In the years after release, critics continued to acclaim the film for its psychologically driven black comedy, camp, and creation of the psycho-biddy subgenre. The film's novel and controversial plot meant that it originally received an X rating in the U.K. Because of the appeal of the film's stars, Dave Itzkoff in "The New York Times" has identified it as being a "cult classic". It has also gone on to become an enduring favorite with queer audiences.


title: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)

text: In 2003, the character of Baby Jane Hudson was ranked No. 44 on the American Film Institute's list of the "50 Best Villains of American Cinema".


title: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)

text: In 2021, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".


title: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)

text: In 1917, "Baby Jane" Hudson is a spoiled and capricious child actress who performs in vaudeville theatres across the country with her father, who acts as her manager and accompanies her on stage on the piano. Her success is such that a line of porcelain dolls is made in her image. Meanwhile, her shy older sister Blanche lives in her shadow and is treated with contempt by the haughty Jane. As the sisters pass adolescence, their situations undergo a reversal; Jane's style of performing falls out of fashion, and her career declines as she descends into alcoholism, while Blanche becomes an acclaimed Hollywood actress. Mindful of a promise made to their mother, Blanche attempts to maintain a semblance of a career for Jane, going as far as to prevail on producers to guarantee acting roles for her. One evening in 1935, Blanche's career is cut short when she is paralyzed from the waist down in a mysterious car accident that is unofficially blamed on Jane, who is found three days later in a drunken stupor.


title: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)

text: By 1962, Blanche and Jane are living together in a mansion purchased with Blanche's movie earnings. Blanche's mobility is limited due to her reliance on a wheelchair and the lack of an elevator to her upstairs bedroom. Jane, psychotic and resentful of Blanche's success, regularly mistreats Blanche and prepares to revive her old act with hired pianist Edwin Flagg. When Blanche informs Jane she intends to sell the house, Jane rightly suspects Blanche will commit her to a psychiatric hospital once the house is sold. She removes the telephone from Blanche's bedroom, cutting her off from the outside world. During Jane's absence, Blanche desperately drags herself down the stairs and calls her doctor for help. Jane returns to find Blanche on the phone and beats her unconscious before mimicking Blanche's voice to dismiss the doctor. After tying Blanche to her bed and locking her in her room, Jane abruptly fires their housekeeper, Elvira, when she comes to work. While Jane is away, the suspicious Elvira sneaks into the house and attempts to access Blanche's room. Concerned by the lack of a response, Elvira tries to break open the door with a hammer. Jane returns home and reluctantly gives Elvira the key. As soon as Elvira enters Blanche's room, Jane takes the hammer and kills Elvira. Edwin comes by the house but Jane won't answer the door. That night she uses Blanche's wheelchair to move Elvira's body to her car.


title: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)

text: A few days later, the police call to tell Jane that Elvira's cousin has reported her missing. Jane panics and prepares to leave, taking Blanche with her. Before they can go, an inebriated Edwin is escorted to the house by police, who leave him there. He discovers Blanche bound to her bed. Edwin flees and notifies the authorities. Jane, in a fit of infantile regression, takes Blanche to a beach where she sang as a child.


title: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)

text: The next morning the news of Elvira's disappearance and Blanche's condition is on the radio and the police are on the lookout. Blanche — lying starved, dehydrated, and near death on a blanket — stirs and tells the real story of the car accident to relieve Jane of guilt, saying she is paraplegic by her own fault: On the night of the accident, Blanche tried to run Jane over because she was angry at her drunken sister for mocking her at a party earlier that night. Blanche's spine broke when her car struck the iron gates outside their mansion, and she dragged herself in front of the car's hood to stage the cause of accident and frame Jane. Blanche took advantage of Jane's shock and subsequent bender, concealing the real cause of the accident from her, which subjected Jane to a life of guilt, loneliness, and servitude. Now aware of the truth, a saddened Jane responds "You mean all this time, we could have been friends?" When Jane gets ice cream for herself and Blanche from a nearby refreshment stand, she is recognized by two police officers, who ask her to lead them to Blanche, attracting the attention of nearby beachgoers. Jane dodges the officers' inquiry and dances before the crowd of curious onlookers. The officers find Blanche nearby and rush to her, as the end credit rolls.


title: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)

text: The house exterior of the Hudson mansion is located at 172 South McCadden Place in the neighborhood of Hancock Park, Los Angeles. Other residential exteriors show cottages on DeLongpre Avenue near Harvard Avenue in Hollywood without their current gated courtyards. The scene on the beach was filmed near Aldrich's beach house in Malibu, the same site where Aldrich filmed the final scene of "Kiss Me Deadly" (1955). The beach house's exterior is briefly visible during the film's final scenes.


title: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)

text: Footage from the Bette Davis films "Parachute Jumper" and "Ex-Lady" (both 1933) and the Joan Crawford film "Sadie McKee" (1934) was used to represent the film acting of Jane and Blanche, respectively.


title: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)

text: In a 1972 telephone conversation, Crawford told author Shaun Considine that after seeing the film she urged Davis to go and have a look. When she failed to hear back from her co-star, Crawford called Davis and asked her what she thought of the film. Davis replied, "You were so right, Joan. The picture is good. And I was terrific." Crawford said, "That was it. She never said anything about my performance. Not a word."


title: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)

text: During the filming of "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte" (1964), Crawford acknowledged to visiting reporter and author Lawrence J. Quirk the difficulty she was having with Davis because of the Oscar incident, but added, "She acted like "Baby Jane" was a one-woman show after they nominated her. What was I supposed to do? Let her hog all the glory, act like I hadn't even been in the movie? She got the nomination. I didn't begrudge her that, but it would have been nice if she'd been a little gracious in interviews and given me a little credit. I would've done so for her."


title: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)

text: Contemporary reviews were mixed. In a generally negative review in "The New York Times", Bosley Crowther observed, "[Davis and Crawford] do get off some amusing and eventually blood-chilling displays of screaming sororal hatred and general monstrousness ... The feeble attempts that Mr. Aldrich has made to suggest the irony of two once idolized and wealthy females living in such depravity, and the pathos of their deep-seated envy having brought them to this, wash out very quickly under the flood of sheer grotesquerie. There is nothing moving or particularly significant about these two." Philip K. Scheuer of the "Los Angeles Times" also panned the film, writing that Crawford and Davis had been turned into "grotesque caricatures of themselves" and that the film "mocks not only its characters but also the sensibilities of its audience." "The Chicago Tribune" wrote, "This isn't a movie, it's a caricature. Bette Davis' make-up could very well have been done by Charles Addams, Joan Crawford's perils make those of Pauline look like good, clean fun and the plot piles one fantastic twist upon another until it all becomes nonsensical." Brendan Gill of "The New Yorker" was somewhat negative as well, calling the film "far from being a Hitchcock—it goes on and on, in a light much dimmer than necessary, and the climax, when it belatedly arrives, is a bungled, languid mingling of pursuers and pursued which put me in mind of "Last Year at Marienbad". Still, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford "do" get a chance to carry on like mad things, which at least one of them is supposed to be."


title: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)

text: Among the positive reviews, "Variety" stated that after a slow and overlong introduction the film became "an emotional toboggan ride," adding, "Although the results heavily favor Davis (and she earns the credit), it should be recognized that the plot, of necessity, allows her to run unfettered through all the stages of oncoming insanity ... Crawford gives a quiet, remarkably fine interpretation of the crippled Blanche, held in emotionally by the nature and temperament of the role." Richard L. Coe of "The Washington Post" also liked the film, writing that "Miss Davis has the showiest role and bites into it with all her admired force, looking a fright from head to foot. I doubt if she would regret some of the laughs she gets. She plays for them and psychologically, they are needed. If Miss Crawford has the passive role, that is not without rewards. Suffering is one of her particular gifts." "The Monthly Film Bulletin" wrote that numerous directorial techniques, including all the plunging shots down the staircase, made the film look "rather like an anthology of the oldest and most hackneyed devices in thrillerdom. And yet, in its curious Gothic way, the film works marvelously, though mainly as a field-day for its actors."


title: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)

text: In "Sight & Sound", Peter John Dyer stated that the film had "a frequent air of incompetence," writing of Aldrich's direction that "Like some textbook student of Hitchcock who never got beyond "Blackmail", he dispenses suspense with ham-fisted conventionality." Dyer did praise the performances of the leads, however, finding that they seemed to have found "a new maturity, a discipline encouraged perhaps by the confined sets and Crawford's wheelchair, or by the interaction of their professional rivalry upon a belated mutual respect."


title: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)

text: More recent assessments have been more uniformly positive. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 92% based on 51 reviews, with an average rating of 7.91/10. The site's critical consensus reads, ""What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" combines powerhouse acting, rich atmosphere, and absorbing melodrama in service of a taut thriller with thought-provoking subtext." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 75 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)

text: In a retrospective review, "TV Guide" awarded the film four stars, calling it "Star wars, trenchantly served" and adding, "If it sometimes looks like a poisonous senior citizen show with over-the-top spoiled ham, just try to look away ... As in the best Hitchcock movies, suspense, rather than actual mayhem, drives the film."


title: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)

text: The Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa cited "What ever happened to Baby Jane?" as one of his favorite films.


title: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)

text: The film was a box office hit, grossing $9 million in theatrical rentals in North America. giving both Bette Davis and Joan Crawford their biggest hit in over a decade.


title: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)

text: In the United Kingdom, the film was given an X certificate by the BBFC in 1962, with a few minor cuts. These cuts were waived for a video submission, which was given an 18 certificate in 1988, meaning no one under 18 years of age could purchase a copy of the film. However, in 2004, the film was re-submitted for a theatrical re-release, and it was given a 12A certificate, now meaning persons under 12 years of age could view it if accompanied by an adult. It remains at this category to this day.


title: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)

text: The film's success spawned a succession of horror/thriller films featuring psychotic older women, later dubbed the psycho-biddy subgenre, among them Aldrich's "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte", "What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice?", and director Curtis Harrington's "Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?" and "What's the Matter with Helen?". It was parodied by the Italian comedy film "What Ever Happened to Baby Toto?"


title: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)

text: Shaun Considine's book "" (1989) chronicles the actresses' rivalry, including their experience shooting this film.


title: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)

text: Comedy duo "French and Saunders" (Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French) created a BBC episode called "Whatever Happened to Baby Dawn?" on 22 March 1990. French and Saunders also made a radio play about feuding sisters called "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane Austen" in 2021.


title: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)

text: In 1991, the film was remade as a television film starring real-life sisters Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave.


title: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)

text: In 2006, Christina Aguilera adopted a new alter ego called Baby Jane after Bette Davis' character in the film.


title: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)

text: In Season 2, Episode 4 of "RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars", the drag queens' acting chops are tested in parody film sequels of RuPaul<nowiki>'s favorite films. A parody of "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" called "Wha' Ha' Happened to Baby JJ?"</nowiki> was made by Alaska and Alyssa Edwards.


title: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)

text: The backstage battle between Crawford and Davis during the production of the film is the basis for the 2017 miniseries "Feud", which stars Jessica Lange as Crawford and Susan Sarandon as Davis and created by Ryan Murphy.


title: Anthology series

text: An anthology series is a radio, television, video game or film series that spans different genres and presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a different cast in each episode, but several series in the past, such as "Four Star Playhouse", employed a permanent troupe of character actors who would appear in a different drama each week. Some anthology series, such as "Studio One", began on radio and then expanded to television.


title: Anthology series

text: The word comes from Ancient Greek ἀνθολογία ("anthología", “flower-gathering”), from ἀνθολογέω ("anthologéō", "I gather flowers"), from ἄνθος ("ánthos", "flower") + λέγω ("légō", "I gather, pick up, collect"), coined by Meleager of Gadara circa 60 BCE, originally as Στέφανος (στέφανος ("stéphanos", "garland")) to describe a collection of poetry, later retitled anthology – see Greek Anthology. "Anthologiai" were collections of small Greek poems and epigrams, because in Greek culture the flower symbolized the finer sentiments that only poetry can express.


title: Anthology series

text: Many popular old-time radio programs were anthology series. On some series, such as "Inner Sanctum Mysteries", the only constant was the host, who introduced and concluded each dramatic presentation. One of the earliest such programs was "The Collier Hour", broadcast on the NBC Blue Network from 1927 to 1932. As radio's first major dramatic anthology, it adapted stories and serials from "Collier's Weekly" in a calculated move to increase subscriptions and compete with "The Saturday Evening Post". Airing on the Wednesday prior to each week's distribution of the magazine, the program soon moved to Sundays in order to avoid spoilers with dramatizations of stories simultaneously appearing in the magazine.


title: Anthology series

text: Radio anthology series provided a format for science fiction, horror, suspense, and mystery genres (all produced in the US, unless noted):


title: Anthology series

text: The final episode of "Suspense" was broadcast on September 30, 1962, a date that has traditionally been seen as marking the end of the old-time radio era. However, genre series produced since 1962 include:


title: Anthology series

text: In the history of television, live anthology dramas were especially popular during the Golden Age of Television of the 1950s with series such as "The United States Steel Hour" and "The Philco Television Playhouse."


title: Anthology series

text: Dick Powell came up with an idea for an anthology series, "Four Star Playhouse", with a rotation of established stars every week, four stars in all. The stars would own the studio and the program, as Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz had done successfully with Desilu studio. Powell had intended for the program to feature himself, Charles Boyer, Joel McCrea, and Rosalind Russell. When Russell and McCrea backed out, David Niven came on board as the third star. The fourth star was initially a guest star. CBS liked the idea, and "Four Star Playhouse" made its debut in fall of 1952. It ran on alternate weeks only during the first season, alternating with "Amos 'n' Andy". It was successful enough to be renewed and became a weekly program from the second season until the end of its run in 1956. Ida Lupino was brought on board as the de facto fourth star, though unlike Powell, Boyer, and Niven, she owned no stock in the company.


title: Anthology series

text: American television networks would sometimes run summer anthology series which consisted of unsold television pilots. Beginning in 1971, the long-run "Masterpiece Theatre" drama anthology series brought British productions to American television.


title: Anthology series

text: In 2011, "American Horror Story" debuted a new type of anthology format in the U.S. Each season, rather than each episode, is a standalone story. Several actors have appeared in the various seasons, but playing different roles—in an echo of the "Four Star Playhouse" format.


title: Anthology series

text: The success of "American Horror Story" has spawned other season-long anthologies such as "American Crime Story" and "True Detective".


title: Anthology series

text: Anthology film series are rare compared to their TV and radio counterparts. There have been several attempts within the horror genre to have a franchise with an anthology format, such as with the "Halloween" franchise where the third film, "", was meant to be the beginning of a series of anthology horror films, but due to negative reception that plan was shelved.


title: Leon Russell

text: Leon Russell (born Claude Russell Bridges; April 2, 1942 – November 13, 2016) was an American musician and songwriter who was involved with numerous bestselling records during his 60-year career that spanned multiple genres, including rock and roll, country, gospel, bluegrass, rhythm and blues, southern rock, blues rock, folk, surf and the Tulsa Sound.


title: Leon Russell

text: He collaborated with many notable artists and recorded at least 31 albums and 430 songs. He wrote "Delta Lady", recorded by Joe Cocker, and organized and performed with Cocker's "Mad Dogs & Englishmen" tour in 1970. His "A Song for You", which was named to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2018, has been recorded by more than 200 artists, and his song "This Masquerade" by more than 75.


title: Leon Russell

text: As a pianist, he played in his early years on albums by the Beach Boys, Dick Dale, and Jan and Dean. On his first album, "Leon Russell", in 1970, the musicians included Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison. One of his early fans, Elton John, said that Russell was a "mentor" and an "inspiration". They recorded their album "The Union" in 2010, earning them a Grammy nomination.


title: Leon Russell

text: Russell produced and played in recording sessions for Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra, Ike & Tina Turner, the Rolling Stones, and many other artists. He wrote and recorded the hits "Tight Rope" and "Lady Blue". He performed at The Concert for Bangladesh in 1971, along with Harrison, Dylan, and Clapton; he earned a Grammy Award for this.


title: Leon Russell

text: His recordings earned six gold records. He received two Grammy Awards from seven nominations. In 2011, he was inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.


title: Leon Russell

text: Russell was born in Lawton, Oklahoma, on April 2, 1942. He began playing the piano at the age of four.


title: Leon Russell

text: Russell attended Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as did David Gates, with whom he had an early collaboration as The Fencemen.