590 G L A'D I 
burn ! whip him !” and tliey liad even the cruelty to 
apply burning irons to the half-expiring viftims, that 
they might induce them to exert their fmall remains of 
power. — Sometimes the people pardoned fuch gladia¬ 
tors as excelled in agility, or courage. The raifing of 
the hand, with the thumb lowered, was a token that 
they fliould live. I'lie hand (hut, with the thumb 
raifed, was the (ign of death. It was ufual for the 
peopletocry, Recipe ferrum! “ Receive the fword ! ” As 
loon as a combatant was dead, flaves, whofe office it 
v/.as, entered, drove a hook into his body, and dragged 
him away through the Porta Libitina, or gate of death, 
to bury him.—I'luis did the mod renowned people in 
tlie world degrade themfelves below the condition of 
lavage cannibals, by the inhuman facrifices which pol¬ 
luted the a’mphitheatre of Rome ; nor is it fufficient 
that the admirers of tiiefe fangujnary combats infinuate, 
that tlie martial fpirit of the peopl®. was preferved by 
this fchool of fortitude, which accuftomed the Romans 
to the light of blood, and to the contempt of death; 
ftnee this vain and idle affertion has been nobly and ho¬ 
nourably confuted by the valour of ancient Greece, 
and of modern Europe, 
Some of tlie gladiators were prifoners of w'ar ; and 
fome were foundlings, whofe education deftined them 
to this trade. The inltruclor of thefe combatants was 
chilled lanijla. The fchool in which they were trained 
was a large building, in which thofe who were fet apart 
to murder, or to be murdered, were exercifed. They 
v/ere not at liberty to go where they pleafed, when not 
exercifing ; but were each Unit up in a different cell. 
In the latter times of the republic, thefe gladiators 
were often made fubfervient to the ambition of the 
powerful ; and were let loofe, among the people, like 
lb many v/ild beads. 
When the people granted a gladiator his life, it was 
frequently only for the day ; he mud again attend the 
games on th.e morrow; and, perhaps, during their 
vvhole continuance, though they Ihould be but jud be¬ 
gun. Vv hoever had vanquidied feveral opponents one 
after the other, received a Iword of wood, rudis\ which 
was encircled with palm ; and he was from that time 
leLeafed from the arena of the gladiators. He then 
hung up his fword, his ffiield, and Ids helmet, in the 
tempffi of Hercules. Horace has a beautiful allulionto 
this cudom, when Mascenas wiihes again to induce him 
to write: 
Prima didde mihi, fumma dicende Camaena, 
Spe£latum fatis, et donatum jam rude quasris, 
M^cenas, itcrum antique me includere ludo. 
Non eadem ed aetas, non mens. Vejanius, armis 
Herculis ad podem dxis, latet abditus agro, 
Nepopulumextrematotiesexoretarena. Lib.\.ep.\. i-6. 
Free gladiators, who hired themfelves, were paid a 
great price ; and the rudiarii, who had become free, a 
much greater : this epithet was bedowed on thofe who 
had received the wooden fword. In the times of the 
emperors, the Roman citizens, knights, and I'enators, 
often degraded themfelves by combating with hired 
gladiators and (laves. The emperor Commodus pre- 
fented himfelf as a gladiator, and, according to Dion 
Cadius, received for each day out of the gladiator’s 
trealury, ik ruv fA0V0[jea.^iy.uii about fifty thou- 
fand rix-dollars. He was alio remarkably fond of com¬ 
bating with wild beads. 
In the time of Domitian, female gladiators rofe up ; 
and the Romans were at lad Id addidted to this fan- 
giiinary game, that, like their predeceiTors the people 
of Campania, they had them at their feafts. Certain 
combatants fought in chariots, and were called ejjidiarii. 
tDiliers fought on horfeback, with deep helmets ; I'o 
that th.ey could not fee each other; and tlius ran the 
courfy, with their (pears, blindfold. When.once a pco- 
pie are, acci.i domed to the light of blood, the lull of in- 
A T O R. 
dulging fuch horrible fpeclacles increafes to the mod 
outrageous phrenfy, as was fatally experienced in the 
late revolution in France. Political confiderations (liould 
have taught the free Romans that a favage nation is in¬ 
capable of liberty. And how favage mud that nation 
be, whofe very matrons, and vedals, were accudomed 
to fuch fpedtacles ! 
The fubjebted Greeks were late in adopting thefe 
prabfices. When, in the time of the emperor Marcus 
Aurelius, it was propofed to the Athenians to introduce 
them, in imitation of the Corintltian gladiators, the 
philofopher Demonax exclaimed, with noble indigna¬ 
tion, Oh, men of Athens, rife, before you indulge in 
battles like thefe, rife, and demolilh the altars which 
your fath.ers have erected to Mercy. 
Condantine, the fird Chridian emperor, though not 
able entirely to fupprefs this horrid practice, forbad it.; 
being excited fo to do by Labtantius. Under the em¬ 
peror Honorius, when Prudentius, a Chridian poet, had 
endeavoured to obtain the abolition of thefe fpeftacles. 
Telemachos, a hernrit of the ead, appeared in the am¬ 
phitheatre. As foon as the combat had begun, he de- 
Icended, with a dignified limplicity, inflamed by the 
fpirit of benevolence and holy zeal, into the arena, and 
anxioudy endeavoured to prevent the combatants from 
murdering each other. T. he fpeffators, enraged, rofe 
and doned him to death. Perhaps there may be fome 
who w ill feel inclined to ridicule the (impiicity of this- 
dignified man, though, had it been tlte act of a heathen, 
philofopher, they would have admired and cited it as 
exemplary. Telemachos, however, was the lad facri- 
fice to this accurfed cudom. Honorius was moved,, 
forbad the games of the gladiators, and from that pe¬ 
riod they were entirely abolidied. 
There are two very celebrated remains of fculpture 
which are fuppofed to be datues of gladiators ; tlie one- 
dyled the Borghefe Gladiator, from being ereCted at the 
Villa Borghele; the other, which is the mod celebrious, 
and mod liighly finidied, is the Dying Gladiator, which 
for ages ornamented the palace of Chighi. With re- 
fpefl to the former datue, M. Gibelin alferts, that this 
fine antique does not reprefent a gladiator ; which in¬ 
deed has been long admitted, and various conjectures 
have been hazarded on the fubjebt. The idea of this- 
writer is, that it is the datue of a or what we 
call a tennis-player; and he fupports this opinion with ■ 
a great abundance of learning : adducing indances of 
datues being eredbed in Greece to the maders of this 
art. M, Mongez, on the contraiy,- luppofes that the 
datue at the Villa Borghefe, reprefents either a Grecian.. 
hero, or a divinity- After having fucccfsfully combated 
the opinion of Lelling, and others, who have endea¬ 
voured to attribute this figure to Chabrias, the Athe¬ 
nian general, M. Mongez declines any farther contro- 
verfy, but leaves it for the conlideration of other antiqua¬ 
rians. The datuenamed the Dying Gladiator, now removed 
to Paris amongd other of the Italian fpoils, he alfo 
imagines to liave been wrongly named. The fubdance 
which furrounds th.e neck, and which preceding anti, 
quaries had fuppoled to be a cord, he decides to be a 
collar worked in that form. Winckelman conceived 
that this was the datue of a Greek herald : but M. Mon. 
gez proves, from the facial line, and the arrangement 
of the hair, that it reprefents a barbarian. He adds a 
curious obfervation, that nioujlacltes, or whiikers, are 
found on the (fatues of barbari.uis only, and tiiat this 
word is almod entirely Greek, (avclo.^.) He hints that 
a dying Gaul may probably be Ueligned by this figure, 
but he advances no ablolute conjecture. 
GLADIA'TORS WAR, called alio the fervile tuar, 
was a war whicli the Romans (uftained abauc the year 
of their city 680. Spartacus, C.rin'.i;;, and Oenomaus,.^ 
having efcajicd, with otiier gladiators to the number of 
(eveuty-four, out of the place, wlicre they had been 
kept at Capua, gathered together a body of (laves, put 
4 ihemleivcs 
