Editing Gladiator (section)

==Amphitheatres==
{{Main|List of Roman amphitheatres}}
[[File:Amphitheatre 1 Pompeii.jpg|thumb|The [[Amphitheatre of Pompeii]], built around 70 BC and buried by [[eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79|the eruption]] of [[Mount Vesuvius]] 79 AD, once hosted spectacles with gladiators.]]

As ''munera'' grew larger and more popular, open spaces such as the [[Forum Romanum]] were adapted (as the Forum Boarium had been) as venues in Rome and elsewhere, with temporary, elevated seating for the patron and high status spectators; they were popular but not truly public events:
<blockquote>
A show of gladiators was to be exhibited before the people in the market-place, and most of the magistrates erected scaffolds round about, with an intention of letting them for advantage. [[Gaius Gracchus|Caius]] commanded them to take down their scaffolds, that the poor people might see the sport without paying anything. But nobody obeying these orders of his, he gathered together a body of labourers, who worked for him, and overthrew all the scaffolds the very night before the contest was to take place. So that by the next morning the market-place was cleared, and the common people had an opportunity of seeing the pastime. In this, the populace thought he had acted the part of a man; but he much disobliged the tribunes his colleagues, who regarded it as a piece of violent and presumptuous interference.<ref>Plutarch. ''Caius Gracchus'', [http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/gracchus.html 12.3–4].</ref><ref>Some Roman writers interpret the earliest attempts to provide permanent venues as populist political graft, rightly blocked by the Senate as morally objectionable; too-frequent, excessively "luxurious" ''munera'' would corrode traditional Roman values. The provision of permanent seating was thought a particularly objectionable luxury. See Appian, ''The Civil Wars'', 128; Livy, ''Perochiae'', 48.</ref></blockquote>

Towards the end of the Republic, Cicero (''Murena'', 72–73) still describes gladiator shows as ticketed—their political usefulness was served by inviting the rural tribunes of the plebs, not the people of Rome ''en masse''–but in Imperial times, poor citizens in receipt of the [[Grain supply to the city of Rome|corn dole]] were allocated at least some free seating, possibly by lottery.<ref>{{harvnb|Mouritsen|2001|p=82}}.</ref> Others had to pay. [[Ticket resale|Ticket scalpers]] (''Locarii'') sometimes sold or let out seats at inflated prices. [[Martial]] wrote that "Hermes [a gladiator who always drew the crowds] means riches for the ticket scalpers".<ref>{{harvnb|Futrell|2006|p=136}}. Futrell is citing Martial's ''Epigrams'', 5.24.</ref>
[[File:Colosseum in Rome, Italy - April 2007.jpg|thumb|The [[Colosseum]] in [[Rome]], [[Italy]]]]
The earliest known Roman amphitheatre was built at [[Pompeii]] by [[Sulla]]n colonists, around 70 BC.<ref>{{harvnb|Welch|2007|p=197}}. Welch is citing ''CIL'', X.852.</ref> The first in the city of Rome was the extraordinary wooden amphitheatre of [[Gaius Scribonius Curio (praetor 49 BC)|Gaius Scribonius Curio]] (built in 53 BC).<ref>{{harvnb|Potter|Mattingly|1999|p=226}}. Potter and Mattingly are citing Pliny the Elder, 36.117.</ref> The first part-stone amphitheatre in Rome was inaugurated in 29–30 BC, in time for the triple triumph of Octavian (later Augustus).<ref>{{harvnb|Potter|Mattingly|1999|p=226}} (see also Pliny's ''Natural History'', 36.113–115). The amphitheatre was commissioned by T. Statilius Taurus. According to Pliny, its three storeys were marble-clad, housed 3,000 bronze statues and seated 80,000 spectators. It was probably wooden-framed in part.</ref> Shortly after it burned down in 64 AD, [[Vespasian]] began its replacement, later known as the Amphitheatrum Flavium ([[Colosseum]]), which seated 50,000 spectators and would remain the largest in the Empire. It was [[Inaugural games of the Flavian Amphitheatre|inaugurated]] by [[Titus]] in 80 AD as the personal gift of the Emperor to the people of Rome, paid for by the imperial share of booty after the [[First Jewish–Roman War|Jewish Revolt]].<ref>{{harvnb|Mattern|2002|pp=151–152}}.</ref>
[[File:arlesarena.jpg|thumb|left|[[Arles Amphitheatre]], inside view]]
Amphitheatres were usually oval in plan. Their seating tiers surrounded the arena below, where the community's judgments were meted out, in full public view. From across the stands, crowd and ''editor'' could assess each other's character and temperament. For the crowd, amphitheatres afforded unique opportunities for free expression and free speech (''theatralis licentia''). Petitions could be submitted to the ''editor'' (as magistrate) in full view of the community. ''Factiones'' and claques could vent their spleen on each other, and occasionally on Emperors. The emperor Titus's dignified yet confident ease in his management of an amphitheatre crowd and its factions were taken as a measure of his enormous popularity and the rightness of his imperium. The amphitheatre ''munus'' thus served the Roman community as living theatre and a court in miniature, in which judgement could be served not only on those in the arena below, but on their judges.<ref>{{harvnb|Richlin|1992|loc=Shelby Brown, "Death As Decoration: Scenes of the Arena on Roman Domestic Mosaics", pp. 184–185}}. Even emperors who disliked ''munera'' were thus obliged to attend them.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Futrell|2006|pp=37–42, 105}}.</ref><ref name="autogenerated2">{{harvnb|Kyle|1998|p=3}}.</ref> Amphitheatres also provided a means of social control. Their seating was "disorderly and indiscriminate" until [[Augustus]] prescribed its arrangement in his Social Reforms. To persuade the Senate, he expressed his distress on behalf of a senator who could not find seating at a crowded games in [[Pozzuoli|Puteoli]]:

<blockquote>
In consequence of this the senate decreed that, whenever any public show was given anywhere, the first row of seats should be reserved for senators; and at Rome he would not allow the envoys of the free and allied nations to sit in the orchestra, since he was informed that even freedmen were sometimes appointed. He separated the soldiery from the people. He assigned special seats to the married men of the commons, to boys under age their own section and the adjoining one to their preceptors; and he decreed that no one wearing a dark cloak should sit in the middle of the house. He would not allow women to view even the gladiators except from the upper seats, though it had been the custom for men and women to sit together at such shows. Only the Vestal virgins were assigned a place to themselves, opposite the praetor's tribunal.<ref>Suetonius. ''Lives'', "Augustus", 44.</ref>
</blockquote>

These arrangements do not seem to have been strongly enforced.<ref name="Futrell 205">{{harvnb|Futrell|2006|p=105}}</ref>

===Factions and rivals===
[[File:Pompeii - Battle at the Amphitheatre - MAN.jpg|thumb|The Amphitheatre at Pompeii, depicting the riot between the [[Nocera Inferiore|Nucerians]] and the [[Pompeii|Pompeians]]]]

Popular factions supported favourite gladiators and gladiator types.<ref>Examples are in Martial's ''Epigrams'' 14, 213 and Suetonius's ''Caligula''.</ref> Under Augustan legislation, the Samnite type was renamed ''[[Secutor]]'' ("chaser", or "pursuer"). The secutor was equipped with a long, heavy "large" shield called a ''[[Scutum (shield)|scutum]]''; ''Secutores'', their supporters and any heavyweight ''secutor''-based types such as the [[Murmillo]] were ''secutarii''.<ref>Also ''scutarii'', ''scutularii'', or ''secutoriani''.</ref> Lighter types, such as the [[Thraex]], were equipped with a smaller, lighter shield called a ''[[Parma (shield)|parma]]'', from which they and their supporters were named ''parmularii'' ("small shields"). Titus and Trajan preferred the ''parmularii'' and Domitian the ''secutarii''; Marcus Aurelius took neither side. Nero seems to have enjoyed the brawls between rowdy, enthusiastic and sometimes violent factions, but called in the troops if they went too far.<ref name="Futrell, 96, 104, 105">{{harvnb|Futrell|2006|pp=96, 104–105}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Kyle|1998|p=111}}.</ref>

There were also local rivalries. At Pompeii's amphitheatre, during Nero's reign, the trading of insults between [[Pompeii|Pompeians]] and [[Nuceria]]n spectators during public ''ludi'' led to stone throwing and riot. Many were killed or wounded. Nero banned gladiator ''munera'' (though not the games) at Pompeii for ten years as punishment. The story is told in Pompeian graffiti and high quality wall painting, with much boasting of Pompeii's "victory" over Nuceria.<ref>{{harvnb|Futrell|2006|pp=107–108}}. See also Tacitus's ''Annals'', 14.17.</ref>