@conference {36381,
	title = {A Gladiatorial Duel in Pontus: The Lucian Version.},
	booktitle = {16th TACMRS International Conference},
	year = {2022},
	month = {22 October},
	address = {Tamkang University, Taipei, China},
	abstract = {Gladiatorial spectacles became an integral part of the Roman experience in the second century CE. Texts such as the Martyrdom of Polycarp (6-19) help illucidate the details of gladiation in Smyrna and the medical treatises of Galen (13.599; 18B. 567) discuss flesh wounds suffered at Pergamon. A considerable amount of inscriptions that offer skeletal information and its spread in the Greek-speaking part of the Roman empire (Robert 1971; Mann 2011). What is less clear is how spectacles were actually arranged, who attended and participated.
This paper wishes to take a closer look at the two questions through the lens of Lucian{\textquoteright}s tale of a gladiatorial duel in Toxaris or On Friendship. Toxaris is Lucian{\textquoteright}s Scythian persona who claimed to have been saved by a friend called Sisinnes. The two of them found their possessions stolen at Amastris, and Sisinnes volunteered to fight at a local gladiatorial event for money and won a large sum that more than recuperated their losses. Lucian{\textquoteright}s clear fondness for Amastris elsewhere and his vignette here suggests an attempt to create resonance with an Amastrian audience, whom he addresses at the end of the story ( Luc. Tox. 60; Cumont 1903: 274 fn. 5; Kokolakis 1958: 335-343). This paper would like to suggest that Lucian{\textquoteright}s narrative provides us with a version of what his knowledgeable Amastrian audience would have expected a gladiatorial spectacle to be like, as well as how local variations may have been a separate driver of gladiation{\textquoteright}s popularity in different Anatolian localities.
Bibliography
Cumont, F. 1903. "Gladiateurs et Acteurs dans le Pont." Festschrift Zu Otto Hirschfelds Sechzigsten Geburtstage. Nabu Press.
Kokolakis, M. 1958. "Gladiatorial Games and Animal-Baiting in Lucian." Platon 10: 328-349.
Mann, C. 2011. "Um keinen Kranz, um das Leben k{\"a}mpfen wir!" Gladiatoren im Osten des R{\"o}mischen Reiches und die Frage der Romanisierung. Berlin, Verlag Antike.
Robert, L. Les gladiateurs dans l{\textquoteright}orient Grec. Amsterdam, Adolf Hakkert.},
	author = {Ching-Yuan Wu}
}
