Gladiators - a few questions

[Super Fun Pop]

Claudius? Do you have a source for that? I'm having trouble picturing Uncle Claw-Claw fighting in the arena, even for pretend.

Let me google that for you

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.[77] Claudius, characterised by his historians as morbidly cruel and boorish, fought a whale trapped in the harbor in front of a group of spectators.[78] Commentators invariably disapproved of such performances.[79]

Commodus was a fanatical participant at the ludi, much to the shame of the Senate, whom he loathed, and the probable delight of the populace at large. He fought as a secutor, styling himself "Hercules Reborn". As a bestiarius, he was said to have killed 100 lions in one day, almost certainly from a platform set up around 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.[80] He was said to have restyled Nero's colossal statue in his own image as "Hercules Reborn" and re-dedicated it to himself with the inscription; "Champion of secutores; only left-handed fighter to conquer twelve times one thousand men." For this, he drew a gigantic stipend from the public purse.

It doesn't say exactly that Claudius fought in formal gladiatorial matches, but did participate in games. I'm pretty certain, as history doesn't tell the whole tale, that he did more than just kill a trapped whale.

 

[TheMirrorMage]

Apparently he "fought" a beached whale single-handed, which kind of makes him a bestiarius/animal fighter but not the conventional, arena-bound gladiator. There are a few book previews on Google that tell of this ridiculous tale, just search for "claudius and the whale".

He also hosted a mock sea battle on a man-made lake which had 19,000 competitors. That all ended in tragedy when the crowd were drenched. Presumably this is either a myth or exaggerated.

 

[AWAbooks]

The “Gladiator" entry on Wikipedia can be read pretty quickly, and even though I thought I knew “a bit" about the subject, there's a lot to learn.

The Wiki entry on the revolt of the Thracian gladiator Spartacus is amazing.

Descriptions of the “big picture" of what went on in Roman arenas, as found in books like “The History of Torture" by Daniel Mannix, etc, defy belief, and are hard to stomache :-(