1. Roman Spectacle
Games and entertainment in the
Ancient world
Jessica Di Benedetto
Session 5, 2010

2. “The consequences of Roman Imperialism,
however, was not so much Romanization as
the forging of distinctive Romano-Iberian,
African, Gallic or British cultures through the
fusion of local and Imperial elements.” –
Garnsey and Saller

3. “To some extent, Roman presentation of
lavish events was meant to demonstrate
Roman capacity beyond the military, to
show that, culturally, Rome was fully able
to engage in leadership.” - Futrell

4. Munera – games organised by a private
benefactor as a display of personal largesse,
importance and power.
Ludi – state organised games, usually in
conjunction with a religious festival.

5. “People spent much of their free time at the
public entertainment provided in the towns.
Charters of towns like Urso show that by the
end of the republic public games had become
institutionalised and celebrated annually.”
- Keay

6. Tarraco

7. Italica

8. Emerita

9. “The games in the amphitheatre lasted for
four days, consisting on animal baiting and
gladiatorial combats. In the latter gladiators
fought either mock contests with blunted
weapons or battles to the death. The
bullfights of today are, in some ways, heirs to
this tradition.” - Keay

10. “An even more extravagant form of
entertainment was the staging of mock
naval battles (naumachiae) in the larger
amphitheatres. The arena was flooded,
and specially trained gladiators fought
each other on board ships.” - Keay

11. Pollice Verso – Jean-Léon Gérôme
(1872)

12. “...the sponsorship of circus games is much
better attested in Spanish euergistic
inscriptions than are other forms of
spectacle. Enjoyment of the circus,
moreover, went unchallenged by the
adoption of Christianity. Thus people kept
going to the circus at Toledo not just
throughout the fourth century, but well
beyond it.” - Kulikowski

13. “...nam qui dabat olim
imperium fasces legiones omnia, nunc se
continet atque duas tantum res anxius opt
at, panem et circenses.” – Iuvenal
“A body that used to confer commands,
legions, rods, and everything else, has now
narrowed its scope, and is eager and
anxious for only two things: bread and
games.” - Rudd

14. Bibliography
Primary Sources
Juvenal, Satires x, trans Rudd, N., Oxford University Press, Oxford
(1991)
Secondary Sources
Futrell, A., The Roman Games: A Source Book, Blackwell Publishing,
Oxford (2006)
Garnsey, P., & Saller, R. P., The Roman Empire: Economy, Society, and
Culture, University of California Press, Berkeley (1987)
Keay, S. J., Roman Spain, University of California Press, California (1988)
Kulikowski, M., Late Roman Spain and its Cities, Johns Hopkins
University Press, Baltimore (2004)