Date Presented:

22 October

摘要:

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's tale of a gladiatorial duel in Toxaris or On Friendship. Toxaris is Lucian'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’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’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'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 kämpfen wir!" Gladiatoren im Osten des Römischen Reiches und die Frage der Romanisierung. Berlin, Verlag Antike. Robert, L. Les gladiateurs dans l'orient Grec. Amsterdam, Adolf Hakkert.