GLACIS GLADIATORS. 



151 



U\A, near the Grindelberg, in Switzerland, it has been 

 found, by examination, that stones have been pushed 

 forward twenty-five feet in one year. Stones of con- 

 siderable bulk are also seen in the moraines of an 

 entirely different formation from those of the valley, 

 and must therefore have been pushed down from the 

 higher regions in the course of time. As glaciers, in 

 some positions, and in hot summers, decrease, they 

 often also increase for a number of years so as to 

 render a valley uninhabitable. Their increase is 

 caused partly by alternate thawing and freezing ; 

 their decrease, by the mountain rivers, which often 

 flow under them, and thus form an arch of ice over 

 the torrent. Streams are seen at the bottom of the 

 deepest fissures, which, in the Helvetic Alps, are 

 called dust or powder avalanches, because they 

 consist of newly fallen snow, which is carried by 

 the wind into the depths. There are also, particu- 

 larly in the Norwegian Alps, dirt avalanches, so 

 called, which carry along stones and earth with 

 them, and increase the moraines of the glaciers. In 

 the Tyrol, Switzerland, Piedmont and Savoy, the 

 glaciers are so numerous that they have been calcu- 

 lated to form altogether a superficial extent of 1484 

 square miles. There are some glaciers, in Savoy, 

 more tlian fourteen miles long, two and a fourth miles 

 wide, and from sixty to 600 feet thick. One of the 

 most famous glaciers is the mer de glace (sea of 

 ice) in the valley of Chamouni, about 5700 feet above 

 the level of the sea. In France, near Beaume, and 

 in the Carpathian mountains, near Dselitz, are sub- 

 terraneous glaciers, which never melt, because the 

 sun cannot act upon them. From this account, it is 

 evident that there can be no glaciers in the Andes, 

 because the temperature continues the same the 

 whole year between the tropics. The noise which 

 is produced by the opening of fissures in the glaciers 

 is immense, and resembles thunder among the moun- 

 tains. These fissures are often immediately covered 

 with snow, and are therefore very dangerous to tra- 

 vellers. See Avalanches. 



GLACIS, in fortification, is the sloping covering 

 of the outer breastwork along the covered way, which 

 descends to the. level ground, and covers the ditch 

 upon the outside. It must be so placed, that the 

 guns of the fort will rake it at every point. 



GLADIATORS were combatants, who fought at 

 the public games, in Rome, for the entertainment of 

 the spectators. They were at first prisoners, slaves, 

 or condemned criminals ; but afterwards freemen 

 fought in the arena, either for hire, or from choice. 

 The regular gladiators were instructed in schools 

 intended for this purpose. The overseer of this 

 school purchased the gladiators, and maintained 

 them. They were hired of him by those who wished 

 to exhibit games to the people. The games were 

 commenced by a pralusio, in which they fought with 

 weapons of wood, till, upon a signal, they assumed 

 their arms, and began in earnest to fight in pairs. 

 In case the vanquished was not killed in the combat, 

 his fate was decided by the people. If they decreed 

 his death, the thumb was held up in the air: the 

 opposite motion was the signal to save him. In 

 general, they suffered death' with wonderful firmness, 

 and the vanquished often exposed himself to the 

 death-blow. If he wished to appeal to the people, 

 he raised his hand. When a gladiator was killed, 

 attendants, appointed for the purpose, dragged the 

 body, with iron hooks, into a room destined for this 

 purpose. The victor received a branch of palm, or 

 a palm garland. The gladiators were often released 

 from further service, and received as a badge of free- 

 dom, a wooden sword (rudis.) 



The following cut represents two armed gladiators 

 from a painting at Pompeii : 



The first wears a helmet, having a vizor, with the 

 long buckler or scutum. Like other gladiators, he 

 wears the subligaculum, a short apron fixed above 

 the hips by a girdle of bronze or embroidered 

 leather. On the right leg is a kind of buskin made 

 of leather, and on the left a greave. The left leg- 

 was best protected, because that side of the body was 

 most exposed by the ancients, whose guard, on ac- 

 count of the buckler, was the reverse of the modem 

 guard. The rest of the body was quite naked. The 

 second figure has a smaller buckler, but is better 

 protected by thigh pieces formed of plates of iron, 

 and on each leg the high greave. In another paint- 

 ing found at Pompeii (a cut of which is here given), 

 the figures are more lightly armed. One of them 

 has fallen wounded, and the conqueror awaits tlie 

 answering sign from the spectators, whether to 

 spare his antagonist or strike the death-blow. 



We refer the reader to Bulwer's " Last Days of 

 Pompeii," which gives a very graphic description of 

 the combats of gladiators, and furnishes also a 

 spirited view of the character of these unhappy men. 

 Gladiatorial Statues. The most celebrated gladi- 

 atorial statues are I. The gladiator Borghese, which 

 Winckelmann considered to be the statue of a war- 

 rior, or of a caster of the discus. Lessing thought it 

 the statue of Chabrias ; Nibby supposed it to be the 

 statue of a Gaul, from the acroterium of the temple 

 of Apollo at Delphi, which had been placed there 

 in commemoration of the defeat of the Gauls before 

 the city. It is a combatant, with extended arm, in 

 the act of warding off a blow. It is a statue of 

 the first rank, made of fine grained marble, and is 

 now in the capitol, to which it was restored from 

 Paris, 1815. 2. The dying gladiator, purchased 

 from the Ludovisian collection for the Museum Ca- 

 pitolinum. It is a dying warrior, according to 

 Zoega, a barbarian, who has received a wound in his 

 breast, and is in the act of falling, with an < xpres- 

 Sri 



