The combatants from the schools of Caesar and Nero were especially popular, and were generally victorious; but gladiators belonging to other proprietors are mentioned, as in the inscriptions of a house on Nola Street, which will be mentioned again presently. Here we find gladiators who were evidently freemen named with others who were slaves of different masters. In only one of these inscriptions, however, do we find the name of an owner that is known to us: Essed[arius] Auriolus Sisen[nae]. The chariot fighter Auriolus belonged to a Sisenna, seemingly either the Sisenna Statilius Taurus, who was consul in 16 A.D., or his son of the same name. As we have seen, it was a Statilius Taurus who built the first permanent amphitheatre in Rome, in 29 B.C. The control of this building remained in the hands of the family. In the columbarium in which the ashes of their slaves and freedmen were placed, we find inscriptions of a 'guard of the amphitheatre,' and of a 'doorkeeper'—custos de amphitheatro, ostiarius ab amphitheatro. It is highly probable that the family—the first in Rome after the imperial house—possessed a training school, and derived an income from furnishing gladiators to those who gave exhibitions.
In view of these facts, we must suppose that the 'troop' (familia gladiatoria) of Suettius Certus, for example, was simply a band of gladiators brought together for a particular engagement, not a permanent organization. The giver of an exhibition would make a contract for the gladiators that he might need. At the close of the combats the dead would be counted, the surviving freemen paid off and dismissed, and the surviving slaves returned to their masters, 'the troop' thus going out of existence.
Occasionally the individual who provided the combats would erect a monument to the fallen, by way of perpetuating the memory of his munificence. A familiar example is the memorial set up by Gaius Salvius Capito at Venosa, of which the inscription is extant. The names are given of the gladiators who were killed, together with the number of their previous combats and victories. They were slaves of different masters, only one of them, Optatus, being owned by Capito himself. Optatus was a tiro, who fell thus in his first contest. Possibly his master had obliged him, on account of some misdemeanor, to enter the arena with little previous training.
Besides the classes of inscriptions of which examples have been presented, all sorts of scratches upon the plastered walls bear witness to the general enthusiasm for gladiatorial sports. Sometimes there is simply the name of a gladiator, with his school and the number of combats, as Auctus, Iul[ianus], XXXXX; sometimes we find a rough outline of a figure with a boastful legend, as Hermaïscus invictus hac, 'Here's the unconquered Hermaïscus.'
There are also memoranda in regard to particular combats, illustrated by rude sketches. Thus on a wall in the house of the Centenary we find a drawing of a gladiator in flight, pursued by another, with the note: Officiosus fugit VIII Idus Nov[embres] Druso Caesare M. Iunio Silano cos.,—'Officiosus fled on November 6, in the year 15 A.D.' A similar sketch has been found in another house, with these words written beside the fleeing gladiator, Q. P[e]tronius O[c]ta[v]us XXXIII, m[issus]; beside the pursuer, Severus lib[ertus], XXXXXV, v[icit]. Severus was thus a gladiator who had been a slave, and had gained his freedom: he had fought fifty-five combats. Petronius Octavus may have been a freeman, who had fought on his own account from the beginning. In taverns a painting of a gladiator with an inscription like the record of a programme was a favorite subject of decoration.
Athletes in all ages have won the admiration of the gentler sex; and it would be surprising if among so many gladiatorial graffiti there were not some containing references to female admirers. In the peristyle of a house on Nola Street (V. v. 3) the names of about thirty gladiators are found; the kinds of weapons and the owners are designated, and the number of previous combats given, as in the programmes, while records of the results of the combats are entirely lacking. Terms of endearment are lavished upon two, Celadus, Threx, and Crescens, net fighter; Celadus is suspirium puellarum, 'maidens' sigh,' and puellarum decus, 'glory of girls'; while Crescens is puparum dominus, 'lord o' lassies,' and puparum medicus, 'the darlings' doctor.'
Another graffito informs us that at one time—before the year 63—a gladiator lived in this house: Samus / Ↄ / m[urmillo], idem eq[ues], hic hab[itat],—'Samus, who has fought once, and once conquered (Ↄ is for corona, 'crown'), Myrmillo, and at the same time fighter on horseback, lives here.' Other gladiators, no doubt, shared the dwelling with him; and the amatory graffiti may have been written by one and another miles gloriosus, referring to conquests outside the arena, or by companions in bitter scorn.
CHAPTER XXXI
STREETS, WATER SYSTEM, AND WAYSIDE SHRINES
