Cruelty and Civilization: The Roman Games

249 Pages·1994·5.029 MB·English

by  Auguet, Roland

CRUELTY AND CIVILIZATION
The great spectacles of Ancient Rome were not merely casual
entertainment, a matter of choice for the audience, like the
modern theatre. Under the Empire, the games became a
public opiate and gave the daily life of Rome its rhythm and
lustre. From one year to the next, the Roman citizens lived
in anticipation of the games; they provided excitement
and helped the citizens forget the mediocrity of their own
condition and their lack of political power.
Roland Auguet has not restricted himself to the detailed
reconstruction of these spectacles, he has also analysed the
emotions of the crowd and the motives of the rulers. He
explains why the games were so important in the life of the
city and what the popularity of these spectacles, this strange
combination of Cruelty and Civilization, reveals about the
mentality of ancient Rome.

CRUELTY AND CIVILIZATION
The Roman Games
Roland Auguet
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London and New York
First published in 1972 by
George Allen & Unwin Ltd
Translated from the French
Cruaute et Civilization: Les Jeux Romains
(Flammarion, Paris, 1970)
Hardback reprinted and first paperback edition published in 1994
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York NY 10016
Transferred to Digital Printing 2006
© 1972 George Allen & Unwin Ltd
© 1994 Routledge
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Applied for
ISBN 0-415-10452-1 0-415-10453-X (pbk)
Publisher's Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint
but points out that some imperfections in the original may be apparent
PREFACE
Of all the monuments left to us by the Romans the amphitheatres
are the most imposing and undoubtedly the best known to the
public, perhaps because some of them are still to be seen almost
intact, like those at Nîmes and at Aries. Everyone knows, too,
the sort of spectacles—organized shame, as historians have often
stressed—which took place behind these arcades to which the
Roman architects gave such a grandiose nobility.
No general study of this immense subject exists. It is a subject
which involves the history of Rome and of the Roman Empire,
its monumental art and its sociology; it embraces one of the
most important features of the daily life of the masses and of
the ruler. Naturally, within the modest limits accorded us, we
have not been able to be exhaustive. We must make a choice
and reject many episodes which are often relevant to the history
of the games. Thus, to take one example, it is not possible to
speak of the votive games without entering at great length and
in the most complex detail into the political and religious problems
peculiar to a given period.
We have therefore been forced to proceed by suggestive
touches, with the aim of giving the reader, by a study of the
spectacles, a true feeling of the city and its masses, of a civiliza
tion, and of an empire.
Finally, the abundance of the bibliography to which we have
had to refer (which often means reference to articles difficult to
trace) has not permitted us to give detailed references on every
page. This would have forced us to overload the text of the book
which, moreover, has no pretensions to erudition. We have had
to content ourselves with indicating references to the most
important sources in the text.
7

CONTENTS
Preface page 7
Introduction: Roman Cruelty 13
I From Rite to Spectacle : the Gladiatorial
Combats 19
II In the Arena 46
III The Hunts of the Amphitheatre 81
IV Purveyors to the Carnage 107
V Chariot Races, Stables and Factions 120
VI The Reign of the Star 149
VII A Civilization Based on the Games 184
VIII The Ruins of the Circuses and Amphitheatres 200
Short Glossary 211
Index 217