(J1THAOIN. 



GLADIATORS. 



obtain a reprieve for him, but in this they failed. They then began 

 to feel their weakness ; they struggled for several months agaimt the 

 a*eeodancy of the HonUgne or Terrorist party, which wan nipported 

 by the mob ; the Qiroodini wiabed for legal forms, they denounced the 

 popular nma-srras, but they had no rapport out of doors to depend 

 uftm. At the same time they excited the republican enthusiasm of 

 the French, and it was Briatot, one of their leaders, who proclaimed 

 the principle of democratic proeelytwn, afterwards sanctioned by the 

 Convention, by ita decree of the 17th of December, 1792. But thin 

 turned to the profit of the Terrorists at home, who were the men of 

 the lower clisses, which the Girondins were not. The latter en- 

 deavoured to create an opposition in the department*, to counter- 

 balance the influence of the Pari* demagogue*, but they were denounced 

 as wishing and conspiring to split France into as many republics as 

 there were department*. At last, on the 31st of May, 1793, the Con- 

 ToiUon was assailed by armed multitudes, demanding the imprison- 

 ment of twenty -nine deputies of the Oirondin party. The Assembly 

 was obliged to give them up, and on the 31st of October following 

 twenty-one of them were executed, including Vergniaud, Qaudet, 

 Gensonne', and Brissot. Others were beheaded afterwards. A few 

 escaped, and reappeared again in the Convention after the fall of 

 Robespierre. Dumont, in his ' Recollections of Mirabeau,' ch. 18-20, 

 gives some vivid sketches of several of the leaders of the Girondins ; 

 and Lamartine has written a ' History of the Girondists.' 



(J1THAOIN, a peculiar kind of Saponin, obtained from the corn 

 lychnis (Li/fhnit githago and Agrottemmn yithago). [SAPONIN.] 



GLACIS, an elevation of earth surrounding a fortress on the 

 exterior of the covered-way, to which it serves as a parapet, [s, g, fy. 

 1, BASTION.] Its crest is eight feet above the terreplein of the 

 covered-way, and its superior surface, which descends with a gentle 

 slope towards the country, meets the natural ground at about fifty 

 yards from the covered-way. 



The glacis conceals the upper part of the masonry of the escarp from 

 distant breaching batteries, and by forming an inclined plane ascending 

 towards the fortress, serves to expose the approaches of the besiegers, 

 when they arrive near the place, to the fire of artillery from the 

 bastions or ravelins; and a banquette, or step, at the foot of its 

 interior slope, enables the defenders to graze its superior surface by a 

 fire of musketry, and gives the further defence of another lino of 

 simultaneous fire. 



Any elevation of earth beyond the ditch of a fortress, and forming 

 an inclined plane descending towards the latter, is called a reverse or 

 counter-slope glacis. 



GLADIATORS were men who fought with swords, 'gladii,' and 

 other weapons, and wounded and killed one another in the circus, the 

 amphitheatre, and other public places, for the entertainment of the 

 Roman people. They were either slaves, prisoners or convicts, and as 

 such obliged to fight ; or volunteers, who exhibited for money. There 

 were establishments in the Roman towns, in which the gladiators were 

 boarded and taught their art, and in which a certain number of those 

 who had been trained were always kept in readiness fur the fight. 

 Their master and keeper was called Lanista, Uladiators were c'asse 1 

 and named according to the weapons they used, and their manner of 

 fighting: thus Oroinam were those who fought in pairs in tin- 

 ordinary way ; Cbferrorii, those who fought several together ; Kijuitti, 

 those who fought on horseback ; Keliani, those who used a sort of 

 fork called a tridens, and a net which they threw over their opponent, 

 who usually carried a short sword and shield ; Andabalir, who fought 

 blindfold, their heads being covered with helmets which had no 

 apertures, and whose manoeuvres were consequently exceedingly 

 ludicrous ; Hoplomaeki, who fought in complete armour, Sic. All bore 

 armour on the right arm, if nowhere else ; and except the Retiarii, 



wore helmets, and carried shields. The Hmiarii, who fought with wild 

 animals for money, were not ranked among the gl*h itort. When a 

 wealthy man wanted to give a gladiators' fight, either at a funeral or on 

 any other public or private occasion, he bargained with the Lanista for 

 a certain price to give him so many pairs of gladiators. Out of each 

 pair one was to die, if so required by the spectator*. Palms were 

 given to the victors. When a gladiator was severely wounded, so as to 

 be unable to fight any longer, his antagonist stood over him with his 

 sword ready to kill him, and looked up to the assembly for its fiat. If 

 the majority turned their thumbs downwards, that was the signal of 

 death. The origin of this barbarous custom seems to have boon 

 derived from the practice of killing a certain number of captives at the 

 funeral of a chieftain. Homer represents Achilles as sacrificing i 

 young Trojans at the funeral of his friend Patroclus. Afterwards, 

 instnad of butchering the prisoners like so many cattle, it was thought 

 better to make them fight round the funeral pyre, when the con- 

 querors had a chance of escaping with their lives. By degrees the 

 custom was extended to all great festivals, for the amusement of the 

 spectators, and the waste of human life thus wantonly sacrificed was 

 increased to a fearful extent in the later times of the Roman republic 

 and under the empire : on the occasion of Trajan's triumph over the 

 Daciaos 10,000 gladiators are said to have fought. The practice was 

 defended even by grave men, and Cicero among the rest, as serving to 

 keep up a martial spirit and a contempt of death among the people. 

 It certainly contributed to render the people ferocious and cruel. 

 Constantino prohibited gladiators' fights by an edict ('Cod.' xi., tit. 43), 

 but the practice, it is said, was not totally extinct in the West till tin- 

 time of Theodoric. The Greek republics did not adopt the custom of 

 gladiators' fights. It was a practice essentially Roman, and the Romans 

 are said to have adopted it from the Campanians, who had gladiators' 

 fights even at their banquets. (Lipeius, ' Saturnalia ;' Ferrari Octavius, 

 ' Dissertatio de Gladiatoribus.') 



Rome was at one time near paying very dearly for this inhuman 

 pastime. In the year 76 B.C. seventy-four gladiators at Capua rose 

 against their master, overpowered the guards and fled to the moun- 

 tains, where they were joined by runaway slaves and peasants, to 

 the number of several thousands. Being led by a gladiator of the 

 name of Spartacus, a Thracian by birth and a man of superior abilities, 

 they defeated several Roman armies, overran Campania, Lucania, and 

 other provinces, took and plundered Nola, Nuceria, and other towns, 

 and spread alarm almost to the gates of Rome. But dissension grew 

 up among their ranks. One portion of them, chiefly Gauls, separated 

 from the rest under one Crixus, and were defeated and cut to pieces 

 by the consul Gellius. Spartacus, who was on his march towards 

 North Italy, having retraced his steps on hearing thin news, defeated 

 Gellius, as well as the other consul Lentulus, and then fortified himself 

 in the mountains of Lucania. He performed a solemn funeral in 

 honour of Crixus, who hail fallen in battle, and obliged 300 Roman 

 captives to fight as gladiators round the pyre. The war lasted three 

 \ years, at the end of which Spartacus was defeated by the pretor M. 

 Crassus, and was killed after ]>erforming prodigies of valour. (Livy, 

 ' Epitome,' 95-97 ; Eutropius, b. 6.) [CRASSUS, in Bioo. Drv.] 



There are several ancient statues, highly praised for their workmau- 

 nhip. which represent or are supposed to represent gladiators in several 

 attitudes. One of the best is the ' Fighting Gladiator' of the Borghese 

 collection, now in the Museum of the Louvre. The ' Dying Gladiator' 

 of the Capitoline Museum has furnished Byron with the subject of one 

 of the finest stanzas of his ' Childe Harold :' " I see before me the 

 Gladiator lie." In the tomb of Scaurus at Pompeii is a series of bassi- 

 rolievi, which aided by the inscriptions placed above each group, illus- 

 trate very clearly t^e manner of fighting of the gladiators. The annexed 

 cut is from a portion of the upper frieze. The pair on the right are 



a Thrax (Thracian) and a Myrmillo (supposed to be one of the Gaulish 

 tribes). The Myrmillo, who, the Inscription state*, hu been a con- 

 queror fifteen times, in now vanquished by one who has conquered 

 thirty-four times ; he begs his life, but the letter e (the initial of Auwr) 

 indicates that he was to be put to death. The other group are two 



. with two urulnrrt, or followers, so called because being com- 

 monly matched against the retiarii, their system was to pursue their 

 antagonists who sought to elude them, till they found an <>]>| > 

 to cast the net. In this case, a secutor has been defeated, and pleads for 

 mercy; the spectators however have turned down their thumb*. ' 



