Roman gladiator games
Upvote:0
Games were not normally free. Sometimes emperors would sponsor events as a way of winning popularity with the public. Julius Caesar was, I believe, the first to do this.
Late in the empire the emperor subsidized games out of the public purse.
Women did attend. The Romans had no problem with women appearing in public. In fact, not only did women attend, sometimes well known free women actually fought in the arena for money or fame, even though it was considered "disreputable" to do so.
--- UPDATE
Fine. Force me to be the professor. Reading materials for the student:
The Story of Civilization volumes 4 and 5 have articles on Roman gladiatorial games.
Encyclopedia Britannica volume 11, article on gladiators
Among modern works is "Gladiators and Caesars: The Power of Spectacle in Ancient Rome" by Eckart Köhne, Cornelia Ewigleben, Ralph Jackson. In this book, it proves my point that entrance money was charged in many cases on page 20 where it says:
[Private organizers] derived high profits from the entrance money...
As it says in the answer above, even when the games were "free" because some famous person like Caesar was paying for them, there were still tickets required and those tickets were resold by scalpers, thus making the "free" event actually quite costly to attend.
Upvote:8
The book "Those About to Die" by Daniel Mannix (Panther 1960) relates that women were among the spectators, including
...noble ladies on the podium [who] often lost their heads. When one handsome young Myrmillo, only a few weeks before a simple farmboy living on the slopes of Apennine, paraded before the podium with his bloody sword upraised a great lady screamed uncontrollably and flung her brooch and necklace into the arena. Then she stripped off her rings, tossed them onto the sand, and finally ripped off her undergarments and threw them also. When the young Myrmillo came on to the crumpled garments, he thought that the lady had simply thrown him her scarf or cloak. As he picked up the clothing to toss it back, the underwear unfolded. The simple boy stood gazing horrified at what he was holding. Then he dropped the garmnents and fled from the arena "more terrified of a woman's underwear than he had been of his enemy's sword." The crowd thought this was killingly funny and nearly died laughing. The patrician lady's husband was not so amused.
Op. cit. p.122.
Upvote:15
I will answer the first question
the Gladiatorial games were free for everyone to watch?
Not really, quoting from Wikipedia (I don't know how to re-write it in my own words so I'll just paste it)
Towards the end of the Republic, Cicero (Murena, 72–3) 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 corn dole were allocated at least some free seating, possibly by lottery.[165] Others had to pay. 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".
More post
- 📝 What coin denominations were used in the US before Dollars and Cents?
- 📝 Did Japan ever retaliate for the Russian attacks of 1806?
- 📝 Libya: Did Gaddafi forbid locks in private homes and order people to swap jobs?
- 📝 Why does the Navy’s army need its own air force (U.S. Marine Corps)?
- 📝 Did King Porus's men use snake poison against Alexander's troops?
- 📝 What was the largest battle fought by ancient Rome?
- 📝 Confusion re the naming of Roman freedman
- 📝 18th-century understanding of the word "colony?"
- 📝 How many USA men dodged the draft in Vietnam, and how?
- 📝 Time of day first traffic light exploded
- 📝 Who presided over the election and swearing in of the first Speaker of the House?
- 📝 Were Russian female spies caught, because they exclaimed in Russian during child birth?
- 📝 Building of the pyramids
- 📝 What was the summer uniform of the streltsy?
- 📝 Vatican hidden (secret) rooms and passages?
- 📝 What did the smaller values from the "Percentages Agreement" actually mean?
- 📝 Were there any Chinese expeditions to explore the world? If not, why not?
- 📝 Was WW1 generally foreseen?
- 📝 Which French Revolutionary figure thought black slaves could oversee monkeys for labor?
- 📝 What "other property" was considered for representation at the Constitutional Convention?
- 📝 What political party did Stalin belong to?
- 📝 How did the British and French train their troops during the colonial eras?
- 📝 in what form did William the Conqueror write the date of his own coronation?
- 📝 What were the native North American concepts of property rights and market exchange?
- 📝 Has the US Congress ever repealed a law?
- 📝 Can anybody identify the cap-badge and/or uniform in this image?
- 📝 In the US, why did anti-authoritarian sentiment grow only in the 1960s?
- 📝 Did the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki contribute to Japan's surrender?
- 📝 In what year did Charles Proteus Steinmetz fix Ford's Generator for the famed $10,000 invoice?
- 📝 What did indigenous North Americans trade amongst themselves before Europeans arrived?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Roman gladiator games
- 📝 Why didn't Roman emperors have harems?
- 📝 Why did the Western Roman Empire collapse but not the Eastern Roman Empire?
- 📝 Were Roman public roads built by private companies?
- 📝 Why did the Roman military start to favour swords over the spear phalanx?
- 📝 Could women be crucified under Roman law?
- 📝 How did the Roman state verify citizenship?
- 📝 Did Roman troops suffer from PTSD?
- 📝 When did the Roman Empire fall according to contemporaries?
- 📝 Were Medieval Britons aware of the existence of the Roman Empire?
- 📝 Did Roman unmarried men have a preferred hand and finger for wearing their seal ring?
- 📝 What language(s) were spoken within the Holy Roman Empire?
- 📝 Did the communication lag become a problem for the ever expanding Roman Empire?
- 📝 What is the difference between the Ancient Greek religion and the Ancient Roman religion?
- 📝 Which war games did Napoleon practice with his generals?
- 📝 How much did it cost to attend events at the ancient Roman colosseum?
- 📝 Do Real Roman and Greek warriors have big muscles and six-pack abs like in the movie?
- 📝 Why did the term "Byzantine Empire" enter common usage instead of "Eastern Roman Empire" or "Roman Empire"
- 📝 Why was the Roman Empire considered an empire rather than a kingdom (again)?
- 📝 What was the average height of Roman men and women?
- 📝 Why did Roman women have no praenomen?
- 📝 What role did the Eastern Roman Empire play in the fall of the Western Roman Empire?
- 📝 What is the last historical mention of people worshipping the Roman gods?
- 📝 What did an ancient Roman certificate of land ownership look like; or, what did it consist of?
- 📝 How did Roman armies survive in the desert?
- 📝 Are there historical texts in England querying where Roman structures came from?
- 📝 Why would Jesus' parents travel to their birthplace for a Roman census?
- 📝 What would a Roman slave be legally required to do if his master vanished?
- 📝 When did the Roman Forum fall into disuse?
- 📝 How quickly could the Roman legions march? How did it compare to their cavalry?