Editing Gladiator (section)

===Emperors===
[[Caligula]], [[Titus]], [[Hadrian]], [[Lucius Verus]], [[Caracalla]], [[Publius Septimius Geta|Geta]] and [[Didius Julianus]] were all said to have performed in the arena, either in public or private, but risks to themselves were minimal.<ref>{{harvnb|Barton|1993|p=66}}.</ref> [[Claudius]], characterised by his historians as morbidly cruel and boorish, fought a whale trapped in the harbor in front of a group of spectators.<ref>{{harvnb|Fox|2006|p=576}}. Fox is citing Pliny.</ref> Commentators invariably disapproved of such performances.<ref>{{harvnb|Futrell|2006|p=158}}.</ref>

[[Commodus]] was a fanatical participant at the ''ludi'', and compelled Rome's elite to attend his performances as gladiator, ''[[Bestiarii|bestiarius]]'' or ''[[Venatio|venator]]''. Most of his performances as a gladiator were bloodless affairs, fought with wooden swords; he invariably won. He was said to have restyled Nero's colossal statue in his own image as "[[Hercules]] Reborn", dedicated to himself as "Champion of ''secutores''; only left-handed fighter to conquer twelve times one thousand men."<ref>Cassius Dio. ''Commodus'', [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/73*.htm 73 (Epitome)]</ref> He was said to have killed 100 lions in one day, almost certainly from an elevated platform surrounding 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.<ref>{{harvnb|Gibbon|Womersley|2000|p=118}}.</ref> As reward for these services, he drew a gigantic stipend from the public purse.<ref>Cassius Dio. ''Commodus'', [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/73*.html 73 (Epitome)]. Commodus was assassinated and posthumously declared a public enemy but was later deified.</ref>