Medusa
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Posts posted by Medusa
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I love the Simon Scarrow books but my favorites are not that widely known:
James Duffy
"Sand of the Arena"
"The Fight for Rome"
The author had intended to write a trilogy but since he did not sell enough of the first two volumes he cancelled this project which makes me very sad since they are the best novels on gladiators I've read so far.
Second best, Medusa, surely? *lol*
Salve Russ,
You dealt with the topic more freely while James Duffy's gladiators were very authentic and the way he described the training it felt for me if I was walking onto the training ground myself (though at the time I read the first volume I had a ruptured muscle fibre in my left calf and wished I could train instead of lying on the sofa).
Anyhow, I look forward to your sequel to "Gladiatrix".
Vale optime,
Medusa
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I love the Simon Scarrow books but my favorites are not that widely known:
James Duffy
"Sand of the Arena"
"The Fight for Rome"
The author had intended to write a trilogy but since he did not sell enough of the first two volumes he cancelled this project which makes me very sad since they are the best novels on gladiators I've read so far.
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Reading the new book by Dario Battaglia "De Rebus Gladiatoriis" in Italian. I have a review copy of it and want to write a review for Ancient Warfare.
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FELICES DIES NATALIS!!!!
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Tiberius Gracchus was portrayed in the BBC drama-documentary 'Ancient Rome: Rise and Fall of an Empire'. Unfortunately his life was squashed into a 50 minute slot, so the entire episode was a very basic and largely inaccurate portrayl of his political career. One of the most glaring omissions from the episode was that his brother, Gaius, wasn't even mentioned. It was almost as if Tiberius was an only child.
I just got these BBC-documentaries as a DVD boxed set as a Saturnalia gift from my boyfriend and have had time to watch the first disc on which is also the documentary about Tiberius Gracchus. I too stumbled over the fact that his brother Gaius wasn't mentioned at all. I have to admit that all films on that DVD seem to be inaccurate, they focus on certain events of the person's life, e.g. Caesar's war in Gaul, Nero acting after the great fire. Of course 50 Min. are not long but it could have been better.
The bonus DVD is about the Colosseum and shows Gladiators in totally unauthentic armor, and this is called a documentary and not a movie. From a reknowned TV station such as the BBC I would have expected much better quality.
But the same problem occurs with ARTE who made a documentary on the Germanic people. It is also very inaccurate.
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Did you guys think about Chester? I have been there nearly three years ago. Many Roman things to see, e.g. the amphitheater, etc.
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IO SATVRNALIA!!!
I wish everybody a nice Holiday Season!
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Because of this review I ordered the book straight away from Amazon. I'll read it once I'm finished with my current read.
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Oddly enough, I have never heard of the The Vindolanda Tablets. The painted glass bowl looks great though, with its picture of...what is it? a Samnite Gladiator?
The gladiators shown are a secutor (with scutum and gladius) and a retiarius (with trident). A Samnite gladiator is known only from the republic time and the scholars do not know what his armatara really looked like if he was a predecessor to the murmillo. The pairing retiarius vs. secutor became one of the most popular ones and is seen on many depictions.
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"A History of Pagan Europe." A decent overview of the subject, from Crete to the Baltic.
If it's by Nigel Pennick and Prudence Jones I got the German translation of this book and enjoyed reading it. It is indeed a good overview of the European Pagan cults.
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I read both, Pompeii and Imperium and I have to admit that Pompeii was much better than Imperium. I thought that the story of Pompeii was more thrilling.
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Trier is said to be German oldest town founded 14 BC.
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Katherine Welch mentions in her aforementioned book that the name Colosseum was first attested in the 8th century and is either derived from the colossal size of the building or more probably from the Colossus of Nero which stood nearby.
A dedicatory inscription calls the building "amphitheatrum novum" which reads in full:
I[mp(erator)] T(itus) Caes(ar) Vespasi[ans Aug(ustus)]
amphitheatru[m novum (?]
[ex) manubi(i)s (vac.) [fieri iussit (?)]
"The Emperor Titus Caesar Vespasianus Augustus had the new amphitheatre built from the profits of war."
G. Alf
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I recently read about Caesar's "hunting theater" in Katherine Welch's book "The Roman Amphitheatre". She lists the following sources for this:
Suetonius, Iul. 37
Dio Cassius, 43.22-3
Plinius Historia Naturalis 19.23 (mentions only vera stretched over the Forum Romanum while Caesar's hosted gladiatorial games in 46 BC, presumably in the "hunting theater" erected for this event)
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Arena always refers to the place where the action takes place. The word actually meaning sand, sandy place.
The building or the seating construction (which was during the Republic temporarily) was called in that time spectacula or when referring to Caesar's munus in 46 BC 'hunting theater'. The word spectacula is also find on the dedicatory inscription of the stone amphitheater of Pompeii. In the Imperial period it became common to call the thing amphitheatrum derived from Greek but the building type being something unique Roman.
For those who want to know more about this topic I could recommend the following books:
Katherine E. Welch "The Roman Amphitheatre - From Its Origins to the Colosseum" Cambridge University Press (New York, 2007)
David L. Bomgardner "The Story of the Roman Amphitheatre" Routledge (London, 2002)
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Hi Russ,
Many thanks for pointing me out as being an expert on gladiatrices (BTW this would be the correct spelling of the Latin plural of gladiatrix as far as I know but I'm not an expert on Latin language though). For all who are interested in the article I wrote for this board as well on those of my website follow read this thread:
http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=9890&st=0
Here you will find the links to the articles in question.
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Gladiators where nicknamed in Ancient Rome as "barley eaters" and I guess it had a reason why they were called so. They ate a lot of barley and most probably other pulses. This the Austrian scholars found out from the bones excavated at the Gladiator cemetary in Ephesos. Most probably every now and then they of course had meat or maybe even fish whatever was available. Pulses are easier to prepare in masses and also cheaper. I have to dig out the exact information though being there in the following article most probably as I haven't read it yet:
Kanz, F. and Grossschmidt, K. "Dying in the Arena: The Osseus Evidence from Ephesian Gladiators" in Roman Amphitheatres and Spectacula: a 21st Century Perspective, BAR International Series 1946, 2009
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We are based in Hamburg (one part of the group) and the other in Saarland/Rheinland-Pfalz. Check out our website which you will find in my signature.
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MEDVSA
That's the arena name I have chosen for my reenactment because I didn't want to take neither Amazone nor Achillia (the only two known names of gladiatrices) but took a name from Greek mythology as was common among gladiators.
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Except for the books already mentioned I like the following:
Roma Sub Rosa mystery series by Steven Saylor
as well as SPQR by John Maddox Roberts (also mystery)
First three volumes by Colleen McCullough about Marius and Caesar etc.
The Far Arena by Richard Ben Shapir
Gladiators of the Empire series by James Duffy
In German:
Fortunas Rache and Die Legionen des Raben by Maria W. Peter (mystery)
Leichtes Geld and Flammenmeer by Peter Lichtenberger (mystery)
Die Schule der Gladiatoren by Wolfram zu Mondfeld/Barbara zu Wertheim
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I'm reading as a bed time story a novel by Steven Saylor "The Judgment of Caesar" (of the Roma Sub Rosa series).
Have you read the rest of the series?
I've just ordered the latest in the series, "The Triumph of Caesar" It's been over three years since the last Gordianus book so I hope it's worth the wait!
I've read all books before "The Judgment of Caesar" but not the latest one which obviously is "The Triumph of Caesar". I also have not read the volume with the short stories in it though the title "A Gladiator dies only once" is of course appealing to me ;-) But I'm not into short stories at all, I rather prefer full length novels.
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Thanks for your birthday wishes!
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As with all kinds of Martial Arts, fighting with swords or other type of weapons bears the risk of getting injured. But that's why you have to practise regularly in order to minimize that risk, also to wear protection such as helmets, manicae and not to go for the head esp. when you comrade does not wear a helmet such as our retiarius. We are very cautious about that and for any newbie it is important to get manica and helmet as soon as possible in order to receive a proper training.
I never got seriously injured neither by practising gladiatura nor by my Chinese Martial Art Wing Tsun, only bruises which are normal. But I got a partially torn ligament when running after a ball during a soccer training at school (neither ball nor leg nearby) and ruptures of muscle fibers when doing jogging as warm up before a training session.
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Fair enough, although I did mean the comedy aspect. It wasn't a 'fight' in the same way as professional bouts at all. The reason I mentioned that was the hope you would react in a certain way (I nearly achieved that - thanks for the reference anyway
). You see, professional fighters such as existed from the Principate onward must have had a great deal of pride in what they did - there is of course the mention that "Gladiators love nothing more than to provide pleasure to their owners" by fighting well and in an entertaining manner. I was wondering if any of that attitude had worn off onto you. The difference of course is that you're not owned by anyone ( I hope not anyway!) which provides a difference before we begin the comparison of mindset, and that you perform for public display as opposed to actually fighting to the death. In one respect you have something very much in common with those arena contestants two thousand years ago - you are performing these mock fights for public entertainment.It's very easy to get wrapped up in the violent aspects of this, and to my eyes at least, hugely disturbing that people would flock to watch two individuals fight for real, but the thrill of watching a sword fight taking place must have have been palpable and the entire reason for gladiatorial popularity. I wonder - how does the modern audience react to your displays?
Like all reenactment groups (no matter if Romans, Vikings, Medieval Knights etc.) we fight of course with blunt weapons. Our fights are not choreographed but free fights and either you pretend dying when you get hit at a lethal point or you give up when you receive a hit at a point which would injure you seriously with a sharp weapon. Mock fights would be for me fights which make fun out of the thing. This we do not.
The audience reacts positively to our displays as they are not mere fighting but also information on gladiators. Our next gig will be at Europ
All time favorite book
in Libri
Posted
The first two volumes were really thrilling but the later books of that series are not that good anymore.