The Arena.
That one of the modes of putting criminals to death in Rome was to throw them to the wild beasts to be torn to pieces on the arena, to glut the savage taste of the Roman people, is notorious; but that many of the gladiators and other actors were also frequently killed on the arena is not so generally known, and yet the evidence for it is too distinct to be doubted. Seneca mentions distinctly, in one of his Epistles[216], that a number of the bodies were exposed to view, of men who were unable to defend themselves by their swords or their shields. He justly says that the men were as savage as the lions or the bears, and the usual end of these fighting men was death on the arena. There is a representation of them in a fine mosaic picture in the Villa Borghese, with the letter θ, and others on two of the graffiti found in the Colosseum in 1875[217].
It is well known that the Roman people sometimes called upon the emperor to produce the most celebrated gladiators, who had been named in the programme for the show. Horace[218] alludes to this in his Epistles; and Martial[219] speaks of two of these gladiators, one called Myrinus, and the other Triumphus (a name which has misled some of the commentators). Another gladiator of that period was named Columbus, and was called for by the people under Claudius, who promised that he should be exhibited if he could be found, as is related by Suetonius[220]. Under Gordianus we are told that thirty-two elephants, and about a thousand gladiators were exhibited; it is probable that many of these were killed in the fight. It has already been stated that Commodus fought himself with the gladiators on the arena.
There was a particular costume for the athletes, and also for the emperor when he went on to the arena, and Commodus gave offence by not complying with the custom which had been established by Titus at the opening, as is mentioned by Suetonius[221]. The carrying out of the dead bodies from the arena is also mentioned by Quintilian[222] as done with pomp. Lampridius[223] expressly says that Commodus acted contrary to the established custom, and was not dressed in the proper manner; and that his helmet was carried out of the theatre by the gate by which the dead bodies were usually carried out, which was considered a bad omen, and he was murdered soon afterwards. This is also mentioned by Dio Cassius (as quoted on page 23).