Editing Gladiator (section)

===Peak===
[[File:Nennig Roman Villa and Mosaics - 51134391753.jpg|thumb|A ''[[retiarius]]'' stabs at a ''[[secutor]]'' with his [[trident]] in this mosaic from the villa at [[Nennig]], Germany, c. 2nd–3rd century AD.]]
[[File:Gladiateur Begram Guimet 18117.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Roman glass]]ware decorated with a gladiator, dated 52–125 AD and found at [[Begram]], Afghanistan, a royal city of the [[Kushan Empire]] where, according to [[Warwick Ball]], it was likely on its way to [[Han dynasty]] [[Sino-Roman relations|China]] via the [[Silk Road]] along with other glass items.<ref>{{harvnb|Ball|2016|pp=153-154}}</ref>]]

Gladiatorial games offered their sponsors extravagantly expensive but effective opportunities for self-promotion, and gave their clients and potential voters exciting entertainment at little or no cost to themselves.<ref>{{harvnb|Mouritsen|2001|p=97}}; {{harvnb|Coleman|1990|p=50}}.</ref> Gladiators became big business for trainers and owners, for politicians on the make and those who had reached the top and wished to stay there. A politically ambitious ''[[privatus]]'' (private citizen) might postpone his deceased father's ''munus'' to the election season, when a generous show might drum up votes; those in power and those seeking it needed the support of the [[plebeian]]s and their [[tribune]]s, whose votes might be won with the mere promise of an exceptionally good show.<ref>{{harvnb|Kyle|2007|p=287}}; {{harvnb|Mouritsen|2001|pp=32, 109–111}}. Approximately 12% of Rome's adult male population could actually vote; but these were the wealthiest and most influential among ordinary citizens, well worth cultivation by any politician.</ref> [[Sulla]], during his term as ''[[praetor]]'', showed his usual acumen in breaking his own [[sumptuary]] laws to give the most lavish ''munus'' yet seen in Rome, for the funeral of his wife, Metella.<ref>{{harvnb|Kyle|2007|p=285}}.</ref>

In the closing years of the politically and socially unstable Late Republic, any aristocratic owner of gladiators had political muscle at his disposal.<ref>{{harvnb|Kyle|2007|p=287}}; such as Caesar's Capua-based gladiators, brought to Rome as a private army to impress and overawe.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Futrell|2006|p=24}}. Gladiator gangs were used by Caesar and others to overawe and "persuade".</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Mouritsen|2001|p=61}}. Gladiators could be enrolled to serve noble households; some household slaves may have been raised and trained for this.</ref> In 65 BC, newly elected ''[[curule aedile]]'' [[Julius Caesar]] held games that he justified as ''munus'' to his father, who had been dead for 20 years. Despite an already enormous personal debt, he used 320 gladiator pairs in silvered armour.<ref>{{harvnb|Mouritsen|2001|p=97}}. For more details see Plutarch's ''Julius Caesar'', 5.9.</ref> He had more available in Capua but the senate, mindful of the recent [[Spartacus]] revolt and fearful of Caesar's burgeoning private armies and rising popularity, imposed a limit of 320 pairs as the maximum number of gladiators any citizen could keep in Rome.<ref>{{harvnb|Kyle|2007|pp=285–287}}. See also Pliny's ''Historia Naturalis'', 33.16.53.</ref> Caesar's showmanship was unprecedented in scale and expense;<ref>{{harvnb|Kyle|2007|pp=280, 287}}</ref> he had staged a ''munus'' as memorial rather than funeral rite, eroding any practical or meaningful distinction between ''munus'' and ''ludi''.<ref>{{harvnb|Wiedemann|1992|pp=8–10}}.</ref>

Gladiatorial games, usually linked with beast shows, spread throughout the republic and beyond.<ref>{{harvnb|Welch|2007|p=21}}. Antiochus IV Epiphanes of Greece was keen to upstage his Roman allies, but gladiators were becoming increasingly expensive, and to save costs, all of his were local volunteers.</ref> Anti-corruption laws of 65 and 63 BC attempted but failed to curb the political usefulness of the games to their sponsors.<ref>{{harvnb|Kyle|2007|p=280}}. Kyle is citing Cicero's ''Lex Tullia Ambitu''.</ref> Following Caesar's assassination and the [[Roman Civil War]], [[Augustus]] assumed imperial authority over the games, including ''munera'', and formalised their provision as a civic and religious duty.<ref>{{harvnb|Richlin|1992|loc=Shelby Brown, "Death as Decoration: Scenes of the Arena on Roman Domestic Mosaics", p. 184}}.</ref> His revision of sumptuary law capped private and public expenditure on ''munera'', claiming to save the Roman elite from the bankruptcies they would otherwise suffer, and restricting gladiator ''munera'' to the festivals of [[Saturnalia]] and [[Quinquatria]].<ref>{{harvnb|Wiedemann|1992|p=45}}. Wiedemann is citing Cassius Dio, 54.2.3–4.</ref> Henceforth, an imperial [[praetor]]'s official ''munus'' was allowed a maximum of 120 gladiators at a ceiling cost of 25,000 denarii; an imperial ''ludi'' might cost no less than 180,000 denarii.<ref>Prices in denarii cited in "Venationes," [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/gladiators/venationes.html ''Encyclopaedia Romana''].</ref> Throughout the empire, the greatest and most celebrated games would now be identified with the state-sponsored [[Imperial cult (ancient Rome)|imperial cult]], which furthered public recognition, respect and approval for the emperor's divine ''[[numen]]'', his laws, and his agents.<ref>{{harvnb|Auguet|1994|p=30}}. Each of Augustus's games involved an average of 625 gladiator pairs.</ref><ref name="Lintott 2004 183"/> Between 108 and 109 AD, [[Trajan]] celebrated his [[Dacia]]n victories using a reported 10,000 gladiators and 11,000 animals over 123 days.<ref>{{harvnb|Richlin|1992|loc=Shelby Brown, "Death as Decoration: Scenes of the Arena on Roman Domestic Mosaics", p. 181}}. Brown is citing Dio Cassius, 68.15.</ref> The cost of gladiators and ''munera'' continued to spiral out of control. Legislation of 177 AD by [[Marcus Aurelius]] did little to stop it, and was completely ignored by his son, [[Commodus]].<ref>{{harvnb|Futrell|2006|p=48}}.</ref>