It is common that in ancient Rome, a gladiatorial battle began with the fact that its participants uttered a cry addressed to the ruler. We checked whether this idea corresponds to reality.
The image of the gladiators, who, before a deadly fight in the arena of the Coliseum, pass in front of the emperor’s lodge and greet him, is signed by almost everyone according to numerous books, paintings, films, TV shows and video games On ancient topics. Similar scenes, for example, are in the novel by Henryr Senkevich "Kamo is stuck" and the play of Bernard show "Andrrole and lion". The poet Dmitry Merezhkovsky even wrote a poem MorituriIn which he compared himself and his generation with doomed gladiators. The phrase is associated with gladiators in numerous reference publications and even in quite authoritative works - for example, in the book of French historian Jerome Karkopino published in 1940 “The everyday life of ancient Rome. Apogee of the Empire ".
In ancient sources of mention of the famous click “Glory to Caesar! (Glory, Emperor!) Walking to death greet you! " Extremely small. Only two authors cite it: Suetonius Transville in the famous "Life of the Twelve Caesars" (written around 120) and who lived about a century later, Dion Cassius in Roman History. Moreover, both of them describe the same event - a staging of naval battle (the so -called Netmachy), arranged by Emperor Claudius in 52 on Lake Fucinsky, east of Rome.
Suetonius Writes: “Before the descent of Lake Fucinsky, he [Claudius] arranged a sea battle on it. But when the fighters shouted to him: "Hello, the emperor, who go to death welcome you!" - He answered them: “Or maybe not,” and, seeing a pardon in these words, they all refused to fight. Claudius hesitated for a long time, whether to deal with them with fire and a sword, but then he jumped up and, nastily hobbing, went along the coast with threats and persuasion, until he forced them to go out to battle. The Sicilian and Rhodes fleet fought in this battle, twelve triremes each, and a silver triton handed the sign with a pipe, with the help of a machine rising from the water ”(translation by M. L. Gasparov).
And so this is the event Describes Dion Cassius: “Claudius caught fire to arrange Navmakhia on the lake. Having built a wooden wall around him and having arranged places for the audience, he gathered countless people. Claudius and Nero dressed in a military one, Agrippina dressed up in goldmaker, and the rest of the spectators were dressed as anyone would like to. The criminals sentenced to death were to fight in this naval battle; Opponents had fifty ships and were called "tribalmen" and "Sicilians." At first, they, gathered in one system, together turned to Claudius with such a greeting: "Hello, the emperor, who go to death greet you!" But they did not receive pardon - they were ordered to fight, as expected. Then they simply began to swim past the enemy’s ships and did not enter the battle with each other until they were forced to fight for real ”(the translation of A. V. Makhlyuka).
Claudius Sea Battle Described Also, Cornelius Tacitus, the senior contemporary of Suetonius, but he does not mention the appeal of the fighters to the emperor.
Thus, we have evidence that the famous cry sounded only once, and not in the Coliseum, which during the time of Claudius even Not built, and on Lake Fucinsky. How Notes Harry Leon historian, hardly this greeting was traditional, because, according to the story of Suetonius, the emperor’s answer “Or maybe not” caused embarrassment. If it was a traditional ceremony, a misunderstanding would hardly have arisen.
In addition, the participants of the Netmachia were not professional gladiators, but prisoners of war and criminals sentenced to execution. These people were really doomed to death and could turn to the emperor in a desperate hope of pardon. On the contrary, the life of prepared gladiators It was expensive, and for them the probability of dying in the arena was not so great. It is known that in the era of the empire, only in exceptional cases, the fights of the gladiators were carried out until the obligatory death of one of them (the so -called battles “without mercy” - Sine Mission).
To summarize. Judging by the sources that have survived to this day, the phrase “Glory, Caesar! Walking to death welcome you! " It was said only during one specific event (staging of naval battle), and was said by convicted criminals, and not by professional gladiators. The traditions to pronounce it never existed. However, thanks to the popularity of the book, Suetonius, these expressive words began to be firmly associated with ancient Roman bloody games.
Photo on the cover: Jean-Leon Jerome. Ave Caesar Morituri Te Salutant (1859, art gallery of Yale University)
Most of the untruth
- J. Borio. Rome History: Metamorphoses of the Eternal City
- Arzamas. Genrik Senkevich. “Kamo is riding”: how slaves and gladiators lived in ancient Rome and how the author of books about Polish history managed to reliably describe the times of Nero
- Documentary “Gladiators. Legend of Spartak "
- D. Voloshin. Gladiator battles as a political mass sight and a means of "social dressing" (Rome of the Empire)
If you find a spelling or grammatical error, please inform us of this, highlighting the text with an error and by pressing Ctrl+Enter.
