O'NEAL Available now In the Moment, features bassist Ben Rubens and drummer Itay Morchi, O’Neal’s regular working trio for the past year. The weightless swing and easy but deeply felt interplay the three share reveal the benefits of their regular residencies four and five nights a week including every Saturday at Smoke Jazz & Supper Club. The biggest names in jazz make a point of stopping by to hear O’Neal, and there’s no telling who might sit in during his sets on any given week. True to that policy, two very special guests dropped by the studio for this session—trumpet great Roy Hargrove and tenor-man Grant Stewart. The wide-ranging repertoire on In the Moment provides a cross-section of the hundreds of pieces that make up the O’Neal Trio’s ever-changing book.

The material ranges from blues to straight-ahead to post-bop to pop tunes to ballads, each one fully explored and deftly illuminated by O’Neal and his electrifying bandmates. Unlike most of his past recordings, it shows off several of O’Neal’s own compositions, some of which date back more than 20 years but have never been recorded. “I’ve come through all these trials and setbacks,” he says.

Mar 25, 2017. 21 of the best free sample packs to download, from classic drum machines to orchestral recordings. Detroit veteran Mike Huckaby gave away this sample pack via Groove magazine back in 2012, containing live percussion, synths recorded with his beloved Waldorf Wave synthesizer and samples from the. 20,000,000 Visitors and counting - fix my hit counter and earn credit$, LOL: We salute our Nation’s military, past and present. IN WONDERFUL ALBANY, NY, USA.

“Now I’m a veteran, and I’m grateful for that. Some people get so much praise when they're younger and they can't handle it. I can appreciate things much more now.”.

HERRING Available now There’s no avoiding the hard times. Every human being that’s walked this Earth has had his or her share of blues, from the personal to the political, the local to the global. But with another ominous headline coming every day, with news alerts constantly erupting from our various devices, with social media facilitating vitriolic shouting matches between friends and strangers alike, it’s not too much of a stretch to say that our present era offers more than its fair share of challenges and burdens. Herring has convened his own boisterous and soulful cabinet for the occasion, featuring a core quartet with pianist Cyrus Chestnut, bassist Yasushi Nakamura, and drummer Carl Allen. The band is bolstered on roughly half the tracks by the horn section of trumpeter Brad Mason, saxophonist Sam Dillon, and trombone virtuoso Steve Turre.

Guitar great Russell Malone casts his spell over two tracks, while the rich baritone of renowned vocalist Nicolas Bearde graces three tunes.The selection of repertoire for Hard Times came down to a single principle: these are quite simply songs that Herring has loved over the years and have seen him through his own hard times – and he hopes his renditions will do the same for listeners. “All through my life, whenever I’ve had ups and downs, music has been the one thing that’s always kept it positive for me,” he says. “It’s always been something that I could come back to and dig into to lift my spirits.

Download Soal Psikotes Free. This record is meant to be fun, it’s meant to be uplifting, it’s meant to be something that people will want to listen to over and over again.”. BERNSTEIN Available now A record release party two decades in the making and destined to become a classic of live jazz recording, Signs LIVE! Reunites the four master musicians who came together 20 years earlier to record the acclaimed Signs of Life, the second album by guitar great Peter Bernstein.

The album captures the long-awaited live debut of Bernstein’s once-in-a-lifetime quartet featuring pianist Brad Mehldau, bassist Christian McBride, and drummer Gregory Hutchinson. Bernstein’s second release for Smoke Sessions Records, Signs LIVE! (out July 28) allows audiences around the world to share the experience of the lucky few who were in the room for this summit meeting of four of modern jazz’s most revered artists. The two-disc set documents encompasses both sets of the quartet’s third and final night with each soloist given the space to work out—an opportunity which each of these musicians seizes brilliantly. The fame of each member of this band speaks for itself. Bernstein, of course, is one of the most prominent guitarists in jazz, working notably with Sonny Rollins, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Jimmy Cobb, Lee Konitz and Lou Donaldson as well as a generation of stars that includes his Signs of Life band mates, Joshua Redman, Diana Krall, Nicholas Payton, Larry Goldings and Bill Stewart.

The selection of mostly original material on Signs LIVE! Bridges past and present, including songs that were originally recorded for Signs of Life and have since become perennials in Bernstein’s repertoire (“Blues for Bulgaria”, “Jive Coffee”). The set list also features several pieces later recorded for Bernstein’s Smoke Sessions debut, Let Loose (“Let Loose”, “Resplendor”, “Cupcake”) along with other highlights from throughout the guitarist’s discography and a pair of Thelonious Monk classics.

DAVIS Available now In life as in jazz, you never know what’s coming around the next corner – so it’s always best to think ahead. Trombonist/composer Steve Davis not only offers those two words as a sound piece of advice on his new album, Think Ahead, but exemplifies the art of putting it into action. Think Ahead offers a master class in reacting to the unpredictable from an elite group of jazz all-stars whose ability to create spontaneously borders on the clairvoyant. In part, that’s simply due to the fact that Davis has assembled a stellar group of masters: the trombonist is joined by saxophonists Steve Wilson and Jimmy Greene, pianist Larry Willis, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Lewis Nash, each deserving the title of “jazz giant” in their own right.

But add the fact that the bandleader shares with every member of the ensemble a long and deep history, and you have the makings of a truly profound, flawlessly swinging, flat-out burning set of music. “I’ve been deeply involved with everyone in this band on not only a professional level but as friends for decades,” Davis says. “So it was more than an honor to have this group together.” Davis is also well known as an important composer and the program on Think Ahead features seven of his originals including six striking debuts.

The balance includes two beloved standards, Polka Dots and Moonbeams and Love Walked In, as well as two jazz classics by departed giants Tony Williams and Bobby Hutcherson. Williams’ “Warrior” and Hutcherson’s “Little B’s Poem”. WATSON Available now Jazz great Bobby Watsoncelebrates some of the vital but less well-known contributions of African-Americans on Made in America, his first recording on Smoke Sessions Records. Saxophonist and composer Watson does his part to call attention to black pioneers in a variety of fields, from politics to pop culture, science to sports. These compositions are inspired by a few names that should be familiar to jazz fans&emdash;Sammy Davis, Jr., and Grant Green&emdash;but also by more obscure historic figures such as Wendell Pruitt, Butterfly McQueen, Major Taylor, Madam C.J.

Walker, Isaac Murphy, Bass Reeves, and Dr. Watson explains, “This project has been a history lesson for me and I hope it will be a history lesson for the listeners.” Each piece paints its portrait with wit and feeling for the nuance of its subjects. The inspiration that Watson finds in these forgotten innovators comes through in his&emdash;and the band‘s&emdash;playing throughout the album. Watson‘s Kansas City roots shine through in the soulful swing and boisterous grooves that make for one hell of a funky history lesson. For this special project, Watson enlisted a few collaborators with whom he shares some significant history of his own: bassist Curtis Lundy, pianist Stephen Scott and drummer Lewis Nash. All four have tenures with the influential singer Betty Carter in common, while the album marks a welcome return to the scene for Scott, who has been largely silent for the last several years. “This is not your typical jazz record,” Watson concludes.

“I want to try, in the time I have left, to reflect the things that I‘m learning about history, about America and about the world and the people that came before me, and hopefully connect that with some of our young people and older people, both black and white.”. Heads of State Available now Heads of State made their debut in 2015 with Search for Peace, recorded just months after they played together for the first time as a quartet at Smoke Jazz Club in New York City. Now, with another year of playing together under their collective belts (on top of the nearly five decades of relationships shared by the various members), they return with a magnificent new album Four in One.

The title comes from the lesser-known Thelonious Monk composition that opens the record, but it also succinctly captures the group’s growing spirit and identity that have been forged by an all-star band that was originally meant to be a one-time thing. “We’re trying as best as we know how to establish our own identity,” Willis explains, “and not sound like a jam session band.” Given the impeccable taste and wealth of experience of all four members, there was very little chance of a “jam session” sensibility emerging in any case, but in the short time they’ve been working together the Heads of State have developed a lithe and lively group sound that’s equal parts burning and elegant, sharp-edged and gregarious.

While the bands’ first album was thrilling because it brought together four revered and masterful musicians in one place for the first time ever, Four in One may be even more exciting because it announces their intention to continue to collaborate and evolve together. Given what happens when these four join forces, that’s one enticing prospect.

VARIOUS Available now When I Fall in Love: The Ballad Collection, features some of the most powerful and poignant moments from the Smoke Sessions catalog. These romantic ballad selections include moving performances from piano greats like Harold Mabern, Larry Willis, Cyrus Chestnut, Eric Reed, Orrin Evans, Mike LeDonne, and Xavier Davis. There are legendary instrumentalists like Gary Bartz, Javon Jackson, Steve Turre, Vincent Herring, Eric Alexander, Steve Davis and a special vocal turn by Jane Monheit. This thematic program will delight everyone from the hardcore fan to the newcomer looking for an introduction to the jazz. EVANS Available now Pianist / composer Orrin Evans’ third album for Smoke Sessions Records, #knowingishalfthebattle, delivers the kind of edge-walking spontaneity that is familiar to anyone who’s ever seen him perform live. It is a raw, electrifying date that teams him with a pair of renowned guitarists who are also, not coincidentally, native sons of Evans’ own hometown of Philadelphia: Kevin Eubanks and Kurt Rosenwinkel. Invigorated by a thrilling sense of looseness and in-the-moment invention—an “anything could happen” vibe—the recording draws visceral performances from the full ensemble, but especially from the two six-string wizards that join in for the session.

Orrin also features the latest in a long line of inspired rhythm sections, bassist Luques Curtis and drummer Mark Whitfield, Jr., along with up-and-coming saxophonist Caleb Wheeler Curtis and a longtime collaborator, vocalist M’Balia. #knowingishalfthebattle shows Evans coming to terms with what he’s learned over his years on and off the bandstand—and more importantly, how to make use of that knowledge. The answer he’s come to involves letting go, forgetting what’s been learned and trusting the instincts that come along with it. By inviting such virtuosic musicians into his world, he’s asking them to do the same and making new discoveries through a collective act of forgetting. In Orrin’s words: “When you let go of everything that you’ve been taught, the possibilities of what can happen on the bandstand are endless.”.

COOKERS Available now The Cookers, the veteran jazz supergroup that The New York Times calls “a dream team of forward-leaning hard-bop,” returns with its fifth and most exhilarating album to date, The Call of the Wild and Peaceful Heart. After nine years together, The Cookers have evolved from a summit of swinging road warriors to become simply one of the most burning and hardest-hitting bands on the scene. The Call of the Wild and Peaceful Heart marks The Cookers’ debut on Smoke Sessions Records and is the follow up to their critically acclaimed release Time and Time Again, which was the iTunes’ Jazz Album of the Year in 2014. Once again, the core of the band consists of five legendary, long-undersung musicians whose credentials read like a who’s-who of classic-era jazz: tenor saxophonist Billy Harper was a member of groups led by Lee Morgan and Max Roach and served a two-year stint with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers; trumpeter Eddie Henderson and drummer Billy Hart were both part of Herbie Hancock’s electrifying Mwandishi ensemble; pianist George Cables played alongside Dexter Gordon and Art Pepper; and bassist Cecil McBee anchored Charles Lloyd’s famed 1960s quartet with Keith Jarrett and Jack DeJohnette. They’re joined by torchbearers Weiss and, in his second outing with the band, alto saxophonist Donald Harrison. As always, the album’s repertoire is plumbed from the members’ vast discographies, a bevy of riches that Weiss says continues to yield surprises. “These guys should all be considered giants on their own,” Weiss insists.

“The idea of The Cookers is to bring them to greater prominence, and a big part of that is this incredible legacy of compositions. I think this is our strongest record and top to bottom the strongest collection of tunes that we’ve done.”. TURRE Available now Trombonist and composer Steve Turre shows off his full spectrum of sounds on his latest album, Colors for the Masters. The album’s ten songs, evenly split between jazz standards and original tunes that carry the torch for the tradition, offer a dazzling array of hues played in tribute to and alongside some of the elders that have inspired Turre.

The leader’s own trombone virtuosity is only one color in a palette that also includes a variety of mutes and his wholly original conch shell artistry. Colors for the Masters teams Turre with a rhythm section of legendary elders, each of whom shaped the trombonist’s distinctive voice: pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Jimmy Cobb.

On four tunes the band is joined by saxophonist Javon Jackson, like Turre an alumni of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers; and for the album’s final tune, a stirring rendition of Jobim’s “Corcovado” on which Turre shows off his innovative shell playing, virtuoso percussionist Cyro Baptista also joins in. Together, they pay electrifying homage to other, departed luminaries like John Coltrane, J.J. Johnson, and Thelonious Monk. While he has shared the stage with each of them over the years in various bands and all-star configurations, he says, “I’ve never had them play my music.

I wanted to hear how their interpretations would open up new avenues of expression to me. I’m still trying to grow. I have a certain feeling and a certain direction in mind, and everybody on this record is in the same frame of mind about what jazz is and what this music means to them.”. ONE FOR ALL Available now At a time when jazz bandleaders from across the musical and generational spectrums regularly lament the difficulty of keeping a band together, it’s all the more remarkable that a supergroup like One For All has stuck it out for twenty years. But this impeccably swinging sextet, made up of some of the most in-demand players in modern jazz, is not just celebrating past achieve-ments but charging forward into the future. Their new recording, The Third Decade, marks the dawn of the band’s next chapter.

Their 16th release, The Third Decade, is its first in five years and the first in its history to feature original compositions by all six members. The Third Decade, due out June 3 via Smoke Sessions Records, brings together once again tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander, trumpeter Jim Rotondi, trombonist Steve Davis, pianist David Hazeltine, bassist John Webber, and drummer Joe Farnsworth. As always, the fiery and soulful musicianship is only match-ed by the warmth and spirit that results from a lifetime of musical friendships. BERNSTEIN Available now Guitarist Peter Berstein is justly renowned as an interpreter of other people’s music. His unerring, relaxed swing, his stunning gift for crafting and developing sophisticated melodies, the un-showy but absorbing narrative arc of his solos, the just plain rightness of his in-the-moment choices—all of these account for his well-established status as one of the most in-demand musicians on the New York jazz scene. Let Loose, Bernstein’s debut release for Smoke Sessions Records, shifts the focus to Bernstein the composer.

Five of the album’s nine tracks stem from the guitarist’s pen. It also features a quartet of artists who are equally well versed in tradition and innovation, who can breathe ecstatic life into these pieces while simultaneously anchoring them with deep roots.

Bassist Doug Weiss and drummer Bill Stewart are longtime collaborators stretching back nearly three decades. Gerald Clayton is the newcomer but brings along a reputation as one of the most respected pianists of his generation. The spirit of the session is pithily captured in the title of the album: Let Loose, a case of simplicity masking complexity. The surface meaning suggests an unbridling of passion, an opening of the floodgates of expression that definitely characterizes the playing of all four members of the quartet. But there’s also the suggestion of the need to allow oneself to be loose, free, open to whatever may come—a guiding principle on the stage as well as off. COLEMAN Available now Like the pronouncements of a sage, legendary tenor saxophonist George Coleman’s new recording A Master Speaks communicates both wisdom and wonder that bespeaks Coleman’s half century in music. At 80-years-old, Coleman sounds, as ever, both vital and timeless.

He’s obviously invigorated by the deep sense of swing and classic hard-bop feel of the quartet he’s assembled. A Master Speaks is Coleman’s first release as a leader in nearly 20 years and first recording since the 2002 all-star live tribute album Four Generations of Miles. The rarity of the session is remarkable in itself; even more special is the fact that it grew out of a desire shared by Coleman and his son, drummer George Coleman Jr., to finally record together.

They’re joined by a stellar band featuring pianist Mike LeDonne and bassist Bob Cranshaw, with guitarist Peter Bernstein making a special guest appearance. A man of few words, Coleman nonetheless conveys his thoughts with unparalleled eloquence when he speaks through his instrument, as profoundly evidenced by the nine tracks on A Master Speaks, his long-overdue return to the studio. ROTONDI Available March 4, 2016 When people hear Jim Rotondi for the first time, they aren’t likely to forget it. For 20+ years, Rotondi was one of the trumpet heroes of the New York City jazz scene and a musician whose fiery playing and daring solos firmly established him as a torchbearer of the Lee Morgan-Freddie Hubbard-Woody Shaw trumpet tradition. Like so many jazz greats before him, he’s based in Europe now, but he’s still blowing with the same intensity, if not more. His new recording, Dark Blue, uses the importance of place as a central theme and features music inspired by pivotal locations in his career from Europe to New York and beyond. While the title itself doesn’t reference any particular place, it’s a vivid description of this breathtaking music and this spectacular quintet that brings together hard-bop stalwarts David Hazeltine (piano) Joe Locke (vibes) David Wong (bass) and Carl Allen (drums).

Dark Blue is available for purchase as a deluxe 8-panel CD Album with liner notes, artist interview and original John Abbott photography, as a digital download (including Mastered for iTunes) and as 96kHz/24bit high resolution download. ROSNES Available February 5, 2016 Pianist/composer Renee Rosnes takes an intimate look at the wondrous sweep of the natural world on Written In The Rocks, her new album built around an ambitious new suite inspired by the evolution of life on Earth.

A sense of discovery lies at the core of “The Galapagos Suite,” which makes up the bulk of the recording and is named for the island chain that inspired Darwin’s theory of evolution. From the origins of life in the ocean billions of years ago through the unearthing of the human ancestor known as “Lucy” to the recent discovery of Tiktaalik, one of the earliest animals to venture out of the sea and onto the land, the progress of evolution and our own ever-evolving understanding of it, serves to inspire Rosnes’ compositional mind. Discovery is also a key element of the music created by Rosnes and her bandmates. Saxophonist and flutist Steve Wilson, vibraphonist Steve Nelson, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Bill Stewart excavate the riches and mysteries from the pianist’s gorgeous, densely layered compositions. “All of us have personal and musical relationships that have been growing for decades,” Rosnes says.

“As a band, we’ve developed a focused sound with a wide and nuanced palette of colors and rhythms. We play off of each other.”. EVANS Available now Orrin Evans embarks upon a new creative trajectory with The Evolution of Oneself and introduces an extraordinary new piano trio—featuring Christian McBride and Karriem Riggins—that takes listeners on a deeply personal journey that touches on jazz, folk, country, neo-soul, and hip hop. “This album is about personal evolution. The journey, the trip, and all the people you meet along the way.

The people I’ve learned from and the people that have helped me. It’s a conscious musical list to remind me of the things and people that wake my mind, encourage the expansion of the full picture, always force me to embrace my emotions and search for new personality traits. That’s what this record is all about.” explains Evans. Conceived and developed over the past several years, it was recorded live in the studio and includes recurring themes that bind the music together.

The album opens and closes with three very different arrangements of the jazz standard “All the Things You Are” including a penultimate track featuring his wife Dawn Warren Evans and a haunting album concluding version with vocalist JD Walter. Marvin Sewell contributes his ethereal guitar playing to a moving interpretation of the folk song “Wildwood Flower” made famous by the Carter Family and dedicated here to the memory of Matt Wilson’s wife, Felicia. Sewell also appears on Grover Washington’s soulful “A Secret Place.” Orrin himself has written several surprising new compositions including three “interludes” remixed by his son Matthew that are woven throughout the record. From start to finish, this arresting artistic odyssey reveals new layers of meaning with each listen. The Evolution of Oneself is available for purchase as an 8-panel CD-Deluxe Album complete with liner notes, interview and additional photos or as a high resolution download mastered for iTunes. Heads of State Available Now Heads of State, featuring four of the most respected and admired jazz artists of our time releases its first recording Search for Peace. A band over 50 years in the making, Gary Bartz, Larry Willis, Buster Williams, and Al Foster had performed together countless times in different combinations and contexts over their storied careers, but it wasn’t until September 2014 that they appeared as a quartet.

The occasion that night was a tribute to McCoy Tyner, and the results were so inspired and the response so overwhelming that they knew right away they had something worth keeping. As pianist Larry Willis puts it, “I don’t think there are any bands that are doing quite what we’re doing right now.” Now, their unique chemistry and musicianship is documented on Search for Peace. It features selections by John Coltrane (“Impressions”), Jackie McLean (“Capuchin Swing”), Benny Carter (“Summer Serenade”), Billy Strayhorn (“Lotus Blossom”) and, of course, the moving title track by Tyner (“Search for Peace”) Gary Bartz contributes two compositions (“Uncle Bubba” which Gary performed with McCoy and “Soulstice”) and there are two standards (“Crazy She Calls Me” and “I Wish I Knew” which Tyner famously recorded with Coltrane). It is a well-chosen and balanced set, but the selections are somewhat beside the point; this all-star quartet makes everything sound like magic.

DAVIS Available now Steve Davis, one of the most beloved trombonists in modern jazz, first dreamed of recording the music of J.J. Johnson some 20 years ago. “Something kept telling me— just wait, just wait.” he says, “Then finally, a year and a half ago, I did the first J.J. Weekend at Smoke with this sextet and I finally realized I think I’m ready.” During those 20+ years, Davis was doing a little more than simply waiting, he was busy establishing himself as a worthy heir to his idols: J.J., Curtis Fuller and Slide Hampton. Along the way, he worked with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, the Jackie McLean Sextet, Chick Corea’s Origin, Benny Golson’s New Jazztet, Horace Silver, Hank Jones, Larry Willis, One for All, Freddie Hubbard and the New Jazz Composer’s Octet, the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Stars, as well as the big bands of Christian McBride, Ron Carter, Jimmy Heath and Roy Hargrove.

HERRING Available now Vincent Herring, one of the great jazz saxophonists of our time, matches his soulful, expressive playing with one of the baddest trumpet players around, Jeremy Pelt, in a quintet that also features the hard-driving rhythm section of Mike LeDonne, Brandi Disterheft and Joe Farnsworth. It’s a group of musicians that Herring knows well and there is an obvious rapport and chemistry from the very first note of the funky bebop opener, “Grind Hog’s Day”. Herring was Cedar Walton’s saxophonist for more than 20 years and he remembers him with Walton’s Latin-tinged “Theme for Jobim” and Mike LeDonne’s poignant dedication, “Walton”. Vincent remarks, “All of us are Cedar’s musical children. I wish we could have played this one for him.” There are blistering hard bop anthems, too, like Herring’s original “The Adventures of Hyun Joo Lee” and Donald Byrd’s classic “Fly, Little Bird, Fly”. The full spotlight is on Vincent on a handful of quartet tunes that include “The Gypsy”, which is something of an “alto saxophone classic” made famous by Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt and Phil Woods.

Herring loves to play this one live and he give it an unforgettably moving reading. The other quartet numbers include Tex Allen’s beautiful “There Is Something about You (I Don’t Know)”, the bluesy “Wabash” by Vincent’s closest stylistic model and exemplar, Cannonball Adderley, and Cole Porter’s jubilant title track “Night and Day”. Herring also contributes the infectious, closing blues, “Smoking Paul’s Stash”. Vincent Herring is modern jazz at its best—unpretentious, smart, and timeless. Night and Day is available for purchase as an 8-panel deluxe CD album complete with 2,000-word artist interview and additional photos, as a Mastered for iTunes download with digital booklet, or as an audiophile 96khz/24bit digital download.

MABERN Available now Harold Mabern’s second release on Smoke Sessions Records, Afro Blue, is a very special recording featuring guest vocalists Gregory Porter, Norah Jones, Jane Monheit, Kurt Elling, and Alexis Cole. The chemistry of these artists with Harold—the sound of his piano voicings combined with their voices—is extraordinary. Well-known in jazz circles as a consummate accompanist for instrumental soloists, The Mabe also has a special gift for sensitive and supportive playing behind singers. It’s something he takes pride in and has been doing since he first hit the stage at Birdland half a century ago with Betty Carter.

“I love vocalists. I love to play for singers because that’s really how you learn how to play the piano jazz-wise. They go through every aspect of music— changing keys, slow tempos to fast, playing rubato, playing verses, all of the Great American Songbook—that’s really how you learn how to play,” says Mabern.

There is a lot of music and there are a lot of memorable performances on Afro Blue but Mabern’s soulful, blues-driven style is the constant highlight. He is joined by a stellar supporting cast—Jeremy Pelt, Eric Alexander and Steve Turre form a killer horn section while John Webber and Joe Farnsworth complete his reliable rhythm team. Guitarist Peter Bernstein also makes a special appearance on Steely Dan’s “Do It Again.” Mabern adds, I’ll tell you, it was really the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. It was definitely a challenge, but I think we pulled it off. I’m quite pleased with it, you know.” Afro Blue is available for purchase as an 8-panel deluxe CD album complete with 2,000-word artist interview and additional photos, as a Mastered for iTunes download with digital booklet, or as an audiophile 96khz/24bit digital download. TURRE Available now STEVE TURRE, ONE OF THE WORLD’S PREEMINENT JAZZ INNOVATORS releases, Spiritman, his debut recording for Smoke Sessions Records. It’s something of a back-to-basics project for Turre who says, “It’s the first record I’ve done in a long time that really focuses on my trombone playing.” It also employs an ideal foil in saxophonist Bruce Williams whose timbre on soprano and alto is a perfect match for the trombone.

Spiritman features several of Turre’s new compositions including “Trayvon’s Blues” a poignant, moving, jazz tone poem; “Bu” the record opener dedicated to his mentor Art Blakey; “Funky Thing” written for the Saturday Night Live Band; and “Nangadef” written for Senegalese percussionist Abdou Mboup and featuring Chembo Corniel on congas. His spirited rendition of Miles Davis’ “All Blues” begins with his own mystical “Spiritman“ played on shells. It’s a piece he performed to open the UN’s International Jazz Day concert in Osaka, Japan in 2014. This “All Blues” introduction is also the first recording of a newly developed technique where Turre plays into a piano with the pedal down and the strings open. The shell’s sound vibrates the open strings creating an ethereal, mystical, but acoustic sound. The rest of the band, Xavier Davis, Gerald Cannon, and Willie Jones III, know just what Turre wants and needs from a rhythm section and they help deliver this unforgettable music that also includes swinging standards and classic ballads. It’s music designed to make you feel better.

As Turre explains in his thoughts about this recording and music in general, “Music is about giving and about searching. Without spirit, music is just notes.” It’s a philosophy of life and music that continues to produce inspired results. Spiritman is available for purchase as an 8-panel deluxe CD album complete with 2,000-word artist interview and additional photos, as a Mastered for iTunes download with digital booklet, or as an audiophile 96khz/24bit digital download. HENDERSON Available now.

“I DON’T LIKE TO WRITE IN ALL OF THE NOTES,” says legendary trumpeter Eddie Henderson with a laugh, ”Miles always said, ‘just write a sketch and let all the musicians fill in.’ He’d say, ‘A collective portrait is better than a self portrait.’” It was advice that resonated with a young Eddie Henderson who, even after 40-something years, still relies on it as a primary organizing principle for his music. Eddie is someone who thrives on—requires really—a group that embodies the risk-taking and creative freedom that Miles encouraged and for Collective Portrait he has chosen some of the very best: Gary Bartz, George Cables, Doug Weiss and Carl Allen. Eddie says that he knew “instinctively” that this combination would have just the musical chemistry he wanted. Eddie, George and Gary have been making music together since the 1970s when he was still based in California and having them together again, he decided to revisit some of this Blue Note Records “hits” from that era, some of which have been famously sampled in recent years by acid jazz and hip hop artists. With updated arrangements, they breathe new life into “Sunburst,” “Dreams,” “Morning Song,” and “Beyond Forever.” They also delve into some of the iconic works of the hard-bop trumpet canon—“Gingerbread Boy,” “Zoltan” and “First Light”—giving Eddie an opportunity to put his personal stamp on these works made famous by Miles, Woody Shaw and Freddie Hubbard respectively. Of course, no one today plays a ballad quite like Eddie Henderson and there are several memorable ones in this set including “Together,” which Eddie’s wife, Natsuko wrote for him in celebration of their 20 years together. Collective Portrait is available for purchase as an 8-panel deluxe CD album complete with 2,000-word artist interview and additional photos, as a Mastered for iTunes download with digital booklet or as an audiophile 96khz/24bit digital download.

REED Available now. ERIC REED DIDN’T WANT TO MAKE A GOOD RECORD, he wanted to make a great one. The celebrated pianist and musician says, “I could have called guys who play exactly what I want; it would have been good and not very interesting.

It would have been swinging or it would have sounded nice—there wouldn’t have really been a spark. You don’t just want to sound good. You want it to be amazing.” And, his Groovewise is that killing record. It features a memorable quartet with Seamus Blake, Ben Williams, and Gregory Hutchinson and is the first recorded meeting of Reed and Hutchinson in over 15 years. They are clearly inspired performing in front of a live audience and the creative energy flies off the bandstand. They open with an impromptu rendition of “Powerful Paul Robeson” for Clifford Jordan whose wife, Sandy, who was in attendance and they close with the extended title track “Groovewise” bracketing a thrilling set of live jazz.

Several of the compositions are dedicated to the memories of Mulgrew Miller, Cedar Walton, and Marian McPartland and Eric’s “Until the Last Cat has Swung,” is a declaration that jazz remains alive and well in the hands of a new generation. Although Eric might not feel ready to be a “keeper of the flame,” jazz music is much better off that he already is. Groovewise is available for purchase as an 8-panel CD-Deluxe Album complete with liner notes, interview and additional photos or as a high resolution download mastered for iTunes.

EVANS Available now. ORRIN EVANS—PIANIST, BANDLEADER AND NOTORIOUS MUSICAL CATALYST—is a bona fide, jazz original.

Brimming with music and ideas, Orrin’s Liberation Blues debuts one of his most impressive projects yet, a new quintet lineup that includes Sean Jones, JD Allen, Luques Curtis, and Bill Stewart. The recording, made live at Smoke Jazz Club in New York City, occurred immediately following the passing of bassist Dwayne Burno, and the opening selections comprise the “Liberation Blues Suite” dedicated to his memory. Orrin explains, “In my eyes, Burno is now a ‘Free Man’ but with that freedom, we’ve lost a great man right here on earth. So, there’s still a blues we feel missing our brother and friend.” Simply put, the playing is inspired. Sean Jones and JD Allen are a brilliant pairing and it is hard to miss Bill Stewart’s presence.

Orrin says, “Let me do something that people wouldn’t expect, somethin’ that I wouldn’t even expect. Listen now is the time for Bill Stewart.” After mining the compositions of Paul Motian, Trudy Pitts, Miles Davis, and, of course, Orrin Evans, the night concludes with a memorable encore visit from Philadelphia vocalist Joanna Pascale for a sultry version of “The Night has a Thousand Eyes.” Liberation Blues is available for purchase as an 8-panel CD-Deluxe Album complete with liner notes, interview and additional photos or as a high resolution download mastered for iTunes. CHESTNUT Available now.

THIS NEARLY PERFECT PIANO TRIO SET BY CYRUS CHESTNUT, captured at Smoke Jazz & Supper Club in New York, is his first live recording date. It retains all of the feeling and power of his thrilling live performances but also benefits from Smoke’s Steinway B that Cyrus claims is the best piano in the city. “It’s just my ticket. It’s warm and it’s sharp at the same time with a lot of earth in it. I like clubs like the Jazz Standard or Smoke, where you can sit down at the piano and get down-home, because that’s the kind of audience they attract.” Joining Cyrus are bassist Curtis Lundy and drummer Victor Lewis who both worked with the late John Hicks who was an important mentor and friend to Chestnut. Together, they take listeners on a musical odyssey that includes the music by Billy Strayhorn, John Coltrane, and, of course, John Hicks. There are also originals by Victor Lewis and Cyrus culminating in an impressive extended version of “Naima’s Love Song.” Cyrus is one of the great piano voices of his generation—or any generation—as he proves again with this rewarding live debut.

Midnight Melodies is available for purchase as an 8-panel CD-Deluxe Album complete with liner notes, interview and additional photos or as a high resolution download mastered for iTunes. COBB Available Now. THERE’S NO ONE ELSE LIKE JIMMY COBB now in his seventh decade in music and swinging as hard today as he did when he started in 1950 with Earl Bostic. His surgical skill at the drums and his artistic genius generally is the stuff of legend from his work with Dinah and Cannonball to Sarah and Wes.

Jimmy is best known for his time with Miles Davis that included the recording of several history making albums including the classic Kind of Blue. His new release, The Original Mob, features three former students who have all become successful artists themselves. Brad Mehldau, Peter Bernstein, and John Webber were just getting their own careers started when they approached their teacher, Mr.

Cobb, about working together as a quartet. It wasn’t a hard sell, as Jimmy knew from experience that they were special talents. Soon after, they got some gigs as Jimmy Cobb’s Mob and the rest is history. The Original Mob is the first recording of this particular lineup in many years and their first recording together under Jimmy’s leadership. It’s a swinging affair that includes two of Jimmy’s original compositions, and one each by Brad, Peter, and John. The opening standard, “Old Devil Moon,” was spontaneously arranged at the date when Brad suggested this novel introduction.

Other highlights include the standards “Stranger in Paradise,” “Sunday in New York,” and “Nobody Else but Me.” The Original Mob is the first Smoke Sessions Records release to be recorded using Smoke Jazz Club as a traditional recording studio—a process that Jimmy compared to recording in master engineer Rudy Van Gelder’s living half a century earlier. He adds, “it just sounds like us…like when we first started to play together years ago, but I remember like it was yesterday.

I always enjoyed the way we played together.” The Original Mob is available for purchase as a 8-panel CD-Deluxe Album complete with liner notes, interview and additional photos or as a high resolution download mastered for iTunes. HAYES Available Now. DRUMMER LOUIS HAYES, one of the chief architects of modern jazz drumming, was the rhythmic drive for historic recordings by Horace Silver, Cannonball Adderley, Oscar Peterson, Joe Henderson, Dexter Gordon, and McCoy Tyner. His playing has a rhythmic intensity that is as subtle as it is complex creating a musical feel and vibe on every track that is unmistakably Louis Hayes.

When he reformed this band that he co-founded in the late ’60s with Freddie Hubbard and Joe Henderson—which Freddie dubbed the Jazz Communicators—Louis purposefully deviated from a conventional quintet lineup by featuring a vibraphone / tenor saxophone out front. It’s the esteemed pair of Steve Nelson and Abraham Burton, respectively, and their chemistry with Louis, pianist David Bryant and bassist Dezron Douglas makes The Return of the Jazz Communicators an inspired and rewarding set of music. The selections include a nice balance of standards and originals such as a ballad-feature for Nelson, Lush Life, and one for Burton, A Portrait of Jennie as well as the deep, loose groove of Mulgrew Miller’s Soul-Leo, which opens the record. Return of the Jazz Communicators captures this important jazz quintet in front of an enthusiastic and appreciative live audience. In the words of Louis Hayes, “I try to do what I do best and what makes me feel goodI guess I might as well keep on swinging.

And, that’s basically what I’m going to do.” Return of the Jazz Communicators is available for purchase as a 8-panel CD-Deluxe Album complete with liner notes, interview and additional photos or as a high resolution download mastered for iTunes. HAZELTINE Available Now. PIANIST DAVID HAZELTINE, a musician’s musician known for his harmonic sophistication and elegant pianism, delivers a thoroughly beautiful recording with his latest For All We Know. His rich sound and comping is often reminiscent of the late, great Cedar Walton and Hazeltine honors the piano master with several original compositions including “Et Cedra,” “Lord Walton,” and “Pooh,” as well as Kurt Weill’s “My Ship.” For All We Know also captures the first meeting between tenor saxophone sensation Seamus Blake and Hazeltine. It is abundantly clear on tracks like Charlie Parker’s “Cheryl” and Hazeltine’s “Eddie Harris,” that this collaboration is one worth returning to again and again. For All We Knowis available for purchase as a 8-panel CD-Deluxe Album complete with liner notes, interview and additional photos or as a high resolution download mastered for iTunes. JACKSON Available Now.

SOULFUL TENOR SAXOPHONE great Javon Jackson makes a crowd-pleasing statement with his new, Expression, featuring the Javon Jackson Band with Orrin Evans, Corcoran Holt, and McClenty Hunter. Expression is serious jazz music at its accessible best. Javon and company rework Stevie Wonder’s “Don’t You Worry ’Bout a Thing,” Hathaway and Flack’s “Where is the Love,” and Nat Cole’s “When I Fall in Love.” Actually, every track aims to please including George Cable’s ’70s classic “Think on Me,” Wayne Shorter’s “One by One,” as well as several Jackson originals. It’s a set you’ll return to again and again. Expressionis available for purchase as a 8-panel CD-Deluxe Album complete with liner notes, interview and additional photos or as a high resolution download mastered for iTunes.

HERRING Available Now. PLAYING ALTO SAXOPHONE that Cannonball, Stitt and Woods would love, not to mention Bird, Vincent Herring shows again on his new record The Uptown Shuffle why he belongs in their company.

Like his heroes, he doesn’t rely on gimmicks or tricks, he just flat out swings. It’s a timeless approach that is paired perfectly with the incomparable comper Cyrus Chestnut who contributes several powerful solos of his own. This entertaining record includes classics like, “Love Walked In,” “Tenderly,” and “Strike Up the Band” and originals like Herring’s “Elation,” and Chestnut’s “Uptown Shuffle.” Herring has himself a thrilling straight-ahead record propelled in no small part by Brandi Disterheft and Joe Farnsworth. The Uptown Shuffleis available for purchase as a 8-panel CD-Deluxe Album complete with liner notes, interview and additional photos or as a high resolution download mastered for iTunes. MABERN Available Now. ANY DAY THAT YOU GET to hear jazz pianist Harold Mabern is a great day, and on his new release, Right On Time, you get two of those days with his trio distilled into one irresistible record.

The recording weekend was a 77th birthday party, after all, and the extra energy on these tracks is unmistakable showcasing the complete Mabern experience. Right On Time delivers everything from classic blues and swinging standards to delicate ballads and modal tempests.

There are definitely all the makings of a new classic here, an important addition to the Harold Mabern discography. Right On Timeis available for purchase as a 8-panel CD-Deluxe Album complete with liner notes, interview and additional photos or as a high resolution download mastered for iTunes.

Part of the from (Leptis Magna), about 2nd century AD. It shows (left to right) a fighting a, a standing with another murmillo (who is signaling his defeat to the referee), and one of a matched pair. A gladiator (: gladiator, 'swordsman', from, 'sword') was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the and in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their lives and their legal and social standing by appearing in the arena. Most were despised as slaves, schooled under harsh conditions, socially marginalized, and segregated even in death. Irrespective of their origin, gladiators offered spectators an example of Rome's martial ethics and, in fighting or dying well, they could inspire admiration and popular acclaim.

They were celebrated in high and low art, and their value as entertainers was commemorated in precious and commonplace objects throughout the Roman world. The origin of gladiatorial combat is open to debate. There is evidence of it in funeral rites during the of the 3rd century BC, and thereafter it rapidly became an essential feature of politics and social life in the Roman world. Its popularity led to its use in ever more lavish and costly. The gladiator games lasted for nearly a thousand years, reaching their peak between the 1st century BC and the 2nd century AD. The games finally declined during the early 5th century after the adoption of as in 380, although beast hunts ( ) continued into the 6th century. Relief of gladiators from, Spain Early literary sources seldom agree on the origins of gladiators and the gladiator games.

In the late 1st century BC, believed they were. A generation later, wrote that they were first held in 310 BC by the in celebration of their victory over the. Long after the games had ceased, the 7th century AD writer derived Latin (manager of gladiators) from the Etruscan word for 'executioner,' and the title of (an official who accompanied the dead from the Roman gladiatorial arena) from, of the Etruscan underworld. This was accepted and repeated in most early modern, standard histories of the games. Reappraisal of pictorial evidence supports a Campanian origin, or at least a borrowing, for the games and gladiators. Campania hosted the earliest known gladiator schools ( ). Tomb from the Campanian city of (4th century BC) show paired fighters, with helmets, spears and shields, in a propitiatory funeral blood-rite that anticipates early Roman gladiator games.

Compared to these images, supporting evidence from Etruscan tomb-paintings is tentative and late. The Paestum frescoes may represent the continuation of a much older tradition, acquired or inherited from Greek colonists of the 8th century BC. Livy places the first Roman gladiator games (264 BC) in the early stage of Rome's against, when Decimus Iunius Brutus Scaeva had three gladiator pairs fight to the death in Rome's 'cattle market' Forum ( ) to honor his dead father, Brutus Pera. This is described as a (plural: ), a commemorative duty owed the of a dead ancestor by his descendants. The development of the munus and its was most strongly influenced by Samnium's support for and the subsequent punitive expeditions against the Samnites by Rome and her Campanian allies; the earliest and most frequently mentioned type was the.

The war in Samnium, immediately afterwards, was attended with equal danger and an equally glorious conclusion. The enemy, besides their other warlike preparation, had made their battle-line to glitter with new and splendid arms. There were two corps: the shields of the one were inlaid with gold, of the other with silver. The Romans had already heard of these splendid accoutrements, but their generals had taught them that a soldier should be rough to look on, not adorned with gold and silver but putting his trust in iron and in courage. The, as decreed by the, celebrated a triumph, in which by far the finest show was afforded by the captured armour.

So the Romans made use of the splendid armour of their enemies to do honour to their gods; while the Campanians, in consequence of their pride and in hatred of the Samnites, equipped after this fashion the gladiators who furnished them entertainment at their feasts, and bestowed on them the name Samnites. (Livy 9.40) Livy's account skirts the funereal, sacrificial function of early Roman gladiator combats and reflects the later theatrical ethos of the Roman gladiator show: splendidly, exotically armed and armoured, treacherous and degenerate, are dominated by Roman iron and native courage. His plain Romans virtuously dedicate the magnificent spoils of war to the Gods. Their Campanian allies stage a dinner entertainment using gladiators who may not be Samnites, but play the Samnite role. Other groups and tribes would join the cast list as Roman territories expanded. Most gladiators were armed and armoured in the manner of the enemies of Rome.

The munus became a morally instructive form of historic enactment in which the only honourable option for the gladiator was to fight well, or else die well. Development In 216 BC,, late and, was honoured by his sons with three days of gladiatora munera in the, using twenty-two pairs of gladiators. Ten years later, gave a commemorative munus in Iberia for his father and uncle, casualties in the Punic Wars.

High status non-Romans, and possibly Romans too, volunteered as his gladiators. The context of the and Rome's near-disastrous defeat at the (216 BC) link these early games to munificence, the celebration of military victory and the religious expiation of military disaster; these munera appear to serve a morale-raising agenda in an era of military threat and expansion. The next recorded munus, held for the funeral of in 183 BC, was more extravagant. It involved three days of funeral games, 120 gladiators, and public distribution of meat ( visceratio data) – a practice that reflected the gladiatorial fights at Campanian banquets described by Livy and later deplored by Silius Italicus.

The enthusiastic adoption of gladiatoria munera by Rome's Iberian allies shows how easily, and how early, the culture of the gladiator munus permeated places far from Rome itself. By 174 BC, 'small' Roman munera (private or public), provided by an of relatively low importance, may have been so commonplace and unremarkable they were not considered worth recording: Many gladiatorial games were given in that year, some unimportant, one noteworthy beyond the rest — that of which he gave to commemorate the death of his father, which lasted four days, and was accompanied by a public distribution of meats, a banquet, and scenic performances. The climax of the show which was big for the time was that in three days seventy four gladiators fought. In 105 BC, the ruling consuls offered Rome its first taste of state-sponsored ' combat' demonstrated by gladiators from Capua, as part of a training program for the military. It proved immensely popular.

Thereafter, the gladiator contests formerly restricted to private munera were often included in the state games ( ) that accompanied the major religious festivals. Where traditional ludi had been dedicated to a deity, such as, the munera could be dedicated to an aristocratic sponsor's divine or heroic ancestor. A stabs at a with his in this mosaic from the villa at, Germany, c. 2nd–3rd century AD.

Gladiator games offered their sponsors extravagantly expensive but effective opportunities for self-promotion, and gave their clients and potential voters exciting entertainment at little or no cost to themselves. Gladiators became big business for trainers and owners, for politicians on the make and those who had reached the top and wished to stay there. A politically ambitious (private citizen) might postpone his deceased father's munus to the election season, when a generous show might drum up votes; those in power and those seeking it needed the support of the and their, whose votes might be won with the mere promise of exceptionally good show., during his term as, showed his usual acumen in breaking his own laws to give the most lavish munus yet seen in Rome, on occasion of his wife's funeral. In the closing years of the politically and socially unstable Late Republic, any aristocratic owner of gladiators had political muscle at his disposal. In 65 BC, newly elected held games that he justified as munus to his father, who had been dead for 20 years. Despite an already enormous personal debt, he used three hundred and twenty gladiator pairs in silvered armour. He had more available in Capua but the Senate, mindful of the recent revolt and fearful of Caesar's burgeoning private armies and rising popularity, imposed a limit of 320 pairs as the maximum number of gladiators any citizen could keep in Rome.

Caesar's showmanship was unprecedented in scale and expense; he had staged a munus as memorial rather than funeral rite, eroding any practical or meaningful distinction between munus and ludi. Gladiatorial games, usually linked with beast shows, spread throughout the Republic and beyond. Anti-corruption laws of 65 and 63 BC attempted but failed to curb the political usefulness of the games to their sponsors. Following Caesar's assassination and the, assumed Imperial authority over the games, including munera, and formalised their provision as a civic and religious duty.

His revision of sumptuary law capped private and public expenditure on munera, claiming to save the Roman elite from the bankruptcies they would otherwise suffer, and restricted their performance to the festivals of and. Henceforth, the ceiling cost for a 's 'economical' official munus employing a maximum 120 gladiators was to be 25,000 denarii; a 'generous' Imperial ludi might cost no less than 180,000 denarii. Throughout the Empire, the greatest and most celebrated games would now be identified with the state-sponsored, which furthered public recognition, respect and approval for the Emperor's divine, his laws, and his agents. Between 108 and 109 AD, celebrated his victories using a reported 10,000 gladiators and 11,000 animals over 123 days. The cost of gladiators and munera continued to spiral out of control.

Legislation of 177 AD by did little to stop it, and was completely ignored by his son,. Organisation The earliest took place at or near the tomb of the deceased and these were organised by their munerator (who made the offering). Later games were held by an editor, either identical with the munerator or an official employed by him. As time passed, these titles and meanings may have merged. In the Republican era, private citizens could own and train gladiators, or lease them from a lanista (owner of a gladiator training school).

From the Principate onwards, private citizens could hold munera and own gladiators only under Imperial permission, and the role of editor was increasingly tied to state officialdom. Legislation by required that, the lowest rank of Roman magistrate, personally subsidise two-thirds of the costs of games for their small-town communities – in effect, both an advertisement of their personal generosity and a part-purchase of their office. Bigger games were put on by senior magistrates, who could better afford them. The largest and most lavish of all were paid for by the emperor himself. The gladiators.

Main article: The earliest types of gladiator were named after Rome's enemies of that time: the, and. The Samnite, heavily armed, elegantly helmed and probably the most popular type, was renamed and the Gaul renamed, once these former enemies had been conquered then absorbed into Rome's Empire. In the mid-republican munus, each type seems to have fought against a similar or identical type. In the later Republic and early Empire, various 'fantasy' types were introduced, and were set against dissimilar but complementary types. For example, the bareheaded, nimble ('net-man'), armoured only at the left arm and shoulder, pitted his net, trident and dagger against the more heavily armoured, helmeted Secutor. Most depictions of gladiators show the most common and popular types. Passing literary references to others has allowed their tentative reconstruction.

Other novelties introduced around this time included gladiators who fought from, or from. The trade in gladiators was empire-wide, and subjected to official supervision. Rome's military success produced a supply of soldier-prisoners who were redistributed for use in State mines or amphitheatres and for sale on the open market. For example, in the aftermath of the, the gladiator schools received an influx of Jews – those rejected for training would have been sent straight to the arenas as noxii (lit. The best – the most robust – were sent to Rome. In Rome's military ethos, enemy soldiers who had surrendered or allowed their own capture and enslavement had been granted an unmerited gift of life.

Their training as gladiators would give them opportunity to redeem their honour in the munus. ('With a Turned Thumb'), an 1872 painting by Two other sources of gladiators, found increasingly during the Principate and the relatively low military activity of the, were slaves condemned to the arena ( damnati), to gladiator schools or games ( ad ludum gladiatorium) as punishment for crimes, and the paid volunteers ( ) who by the late Republic may have comprised approximately half – and possibly the most capable half – of all gladiators. The use of volunteers had a precedent in the Iberian munus of; but none of those had been paid. For the poor, and for non-citizens, enrollment in a gladiator school offered a trade, regular food, housing of sorts and a fighting chance of fame and fortune. Chose a troupe of gladiators to be his personal bodyguard. Gladiators customarily kept their prize money and any gifts they received, and these could be substantial.

Offered several retired gladiators 100,000 sesterces each to return to the arena. Gave the gladiator Spiculus property and residence 'equal to those of men who had celebrated triumphs.' Women From the 60s AD appear as rare and 'exotic markers of exceptionally lavish spectacle'. In 66 AD, had Ethiopian women, men and children fight at a munus to impress. Romans seem to have found the idea of a female gladiator novel and entertaining, or downright absurd; Juvenal titillates his readers with a woman named 'Mevia', hunting boars in the arena 'with spear in hand and breasts exposed', and Petronius mocks the pretensions of a rich, low-class citizen, whose munus includes a woman fighting from a cart or chariot.

A munus of 89 AD, during 's reign, featured a battle between female gladiators, described as 'Amazons'. In Halicarnassus, a 2nd-century AD relief depicts two female combatants named 'Amazon' and 'Achillia'; their match ended in a draw. In the same century, an epigraph praises one of 's local elite as the first to 'arm women' in the history of its games. Female gladiators probably submitted to the same regulations and training as their male counterparts. Roman morality required that all gladiators be of the lowest social classes, and emperors who failed to respect this distinction earned the scorn of posterity.

Takes pains to point out that when the much admired emperor used female gladiators, they were of acceptably low class. Some regarded female gladiators of any type or class as a symptom of corrupted Roman appetites, morals and womanhood.

Before he became emperor, may have attended the Olympic Games, which had been revived by the emperor and included traditional Greek female athletics. His attempt to give Rome a similarly dignified display of female athletics was met by the crowd with ribald chants and cat-calls. Probably as a result, he banned the use of female gladiators in 200 AD.

Emperors,,,,, and were all said to have performed in the arena, either in public or private, but risks to themselves were minimal., characterised by his historians as morbidly cruel and boorish, fought a whale trapped in the harbor in front of a group of spectators. Commentators invariably disapproved of such performances. Was a fanatical participant at the ludi, much to the shame of the Senate, whom he loathed, and the probable delight of the populace at large.

He was said to have restyled Nero's colossal statue in his own image as ' Reborn', dedicated to himself as 'Champion of secutores; only left-handed fighter to conquer twelve times one thousand men.' As a, he was said to have killed 100 lions in one day, almost certainly from an elevated platform surrounding the arena perimeter, which allowed him to safely demonstrate his marksmanship. On another occasion, he decapitated a running ostrich with a specially designed dart, carried the bloodied head and his sword over to the Senatorial seats and gesticulated as though they were next. As reward for these services, he drew a gigantic stipend from the public purse. The games Preparations Gladiator games were advertised well beforehand, on billboards that gave the reason for the game, its editor, venue, date and the number of paired gladiators ( ordinarii) to be used.

Other highlighted features could include details of venationes, executions, music and any luxuries to be provided for the spectators, such as an awning against the sun, water sprinklers, food, drink, sweets and occasionally 'door prizes'. For enthusiasts and gamblers, a more detailed program ( libellus) was distributed on the day of the munus, showing the names, types and match records of gladiator pairs, and their order of appearance. Left-handed gladiators were advertised as an interesting rarity; they were trained to fight right-handers, which gave them advantage over most opponents and produced an interestingly unorthodox combination. The night before the munus, the gladiators were given a banquet and opportunity to order their personal and private affairs; Futrell notes its similarity to a ritualistic or sacramental 'last meal'. These were probably both family and public events which included even the noxii, sentenced to die in the arena the following day; and the damnati, who would have at least a slender chance of survival. The event may also have been used to drum up more publicity for the imminent game.

The ludi and munus Official munera of the Imperial era seem to have followed a standard form. A procession ( pompa) entered the arena, led by who bore the that signified the magistrate- editor's power over life and death. They were followed by a small band of trumpeters ( tubicines) playing a fanfare. Images of the gods were carried in to 'witness' the proceedings, followed by a scribe to record the outcome, and a man carrying the palm branch used to honour victors. The magistrate editor entered among a retinue who carried the arms and armour to be used; the gladiators presumably came in last. The entertainments often began with venationes (beast hunts) and bestiarii (beast fighters). Next came the ludi meridiani, which were of variable content but usually involved executions of noxii, some of whom were condemned to be subjects of fatal re-enactments, based on Greek or Roman myths.

Gladiators may have been involved in these as executioners, though most of the crowd, and the gladiators themselves, preferred the 'dignity' of an even contest. There were also comedy fights; some may have been lethal. A crude Pompeian graffito suggests a burlesque of musicians, dressed as animals named Ursus tibicen (flute-playing bear) and Pullus cornicen (horn-blowing chicken), perhaps as accompaniment to clowning by during a 'mock' contest of the ludi meridiani. A duel, using whip, cudgel and shields, from the Nennig mosaic (Germany). The gladiators may have held informal warm-up matches, using blunted or dummy weapons – some munera, however, may have used blunted weapons throughout. The editor, his representative or an honoured guest would check the weapons ( probatio armorum) for the scheduled matches. These were the highlight of the day, and were as inventive, varied and novel as the editor could afford.

Armatures could be very costly – some were flamboyantly decorated with exotic feathers, jewels and precious metals. Increasingly the munus was the editor's gift to spectators who had come to expect the best as their due. Combat A single bout probably lasted 10 to 15 minutes, or 20 minutes at most. Lightly armed and armoured fighters, such as the, would tire less rapidly than their heavily armed opponents. In late Republican munera, between 10 and 13 matches could have been fought on one day; this assumes one match at a time in the course of an afternoon. Spectators preferred well matched ordinarii with complementary fighting styles but other combinations are found, such as several gladiators fighting together or the serial replacement of a match loser by a new gladiator, who would fight the winner. See also: A match was won by the gladiator who overcame his opponent, or killed him outright.

Victors received the palm branch and an award from the editor. An outstanding fighter might receive a laurel crown and money from an appreciative crowd but for anyone originally condemned ad ludum the greatest reward was manumission (emancipation), symbolised by the gift of a wooden training sword or staff ( rudis) from the editor.

Martial describes a match between and, who fought so evenly and bravely for so long that when both acknowledged defeat at the same instant, awarded victory and a rudis to each. Flamma was awarded the rudis four times, but chose to remain a gladiator. His gravestone in includes his record: 'Flamma,, lived 30 years, fought 34 times, won 21 times, fought to a draw 9 times, defeated 4 times, a by nationality.

Delicatus made this for his deserving comrade-in-arms.' A gladiator could acknowledge defeat by raising a finger ( ad digitum), in appeal to the referee to stop the combat and refer to the editor, whose decision would usually rest on the crowd's response. In the earliest munera, death was considered a righteous penalty for defeat; later, those who fought well might be granted remission at the whim of the crowd or the editor. During the Imperial era, matches advertised as sine missione (without remission from the sentence of death) suggest that missio (the sparing of a defeated gladiator's life) had become common practice.

The contract between editor and his lanista could include compensation for unexpected deaths; this could be 'some fifty times higher than the lease price' of the gladiator. Under Augustus' rule, the demand for gladiators began to exceed supply, and matches sine missione were officially banned; an economical, pragmatic development that happened to match popular notions of 'natural justice'. When Caligula and Claudius refused to spare defeated but popular fighters, their own popularity suffered. In general, gladiators who fought well were likely to survive. At a Pompeian match between chariot-fighters, Publius Ostorius, with previous 51 wins to his credit, was granted missio after losing to Scylax, with 26 victories. In any event, the final decision of death or life belonged to the editor, who signalled his choice with a gesture described by Roman sources as meaning 'with a turned thumb'; a description too imprecise for reconstruction of the gesture or its symbolism.

Whether victorious or defeated, a gladiator was bound by oath to accept or implement his editor's decision, 'the victor being nothing but the instrument of his [editor's] will.' Not all editors chose to go with the crowd, and not all those condemned to death for putting on a poor show chose to submit: Once a band of five in tunics, matched against the same number of, yielded without a struggle; but when their death was ordered, one of them caught up his trident and slew all the victors. Bewailed this in a public proclamation as a most cruel murder. Death and disposal A gladiator who was refused missio was despatched by his opponent. To die well, a gladiator should never ask for mercy, nor cry out.

A 'good death' redeemed the gladiator from the dishonourable weakness and passivity of defeat, and provided a noble example to those who watched: For death, when it stands near us, gives even to inexperienced men the courage not to seek to avoid the inevitable. So the gladiator, no matter how faint-hearted he has been throughout the fight, offers his throat to his opponent and directs the wavering blade to the vital spot. Epistles, 30.8) Some mosaics show defeated gladiators kneeling in preparation for the moment of death. Seneca's 'vital spot' seems to have meant the neck. Gladiator remains from Ephesus confirm this.

A flask depicting the final phase of the fight between a (winning) and a The body of a gladiator who had died well was placed on a couch of and removed with dignity to the arena morgue, where the corpse was stripped of armour, and probably had its throat cut to prove that dead was dead. The Christian author, commenting on ludi meridiani in Roman during the peak era of the games, describes a more humiliating method of removal. One arena official, dressed as the 'brother of Jove', (god of the underworld) strikes the corpse with a mallet.

Another, dressed as, tests for life-signs with a heated 'wand'; once confirmed as dead, the body is dragged from the arena. Whether these victims were gladiators or noxii is unknown. Modern pathological examination confirms the probably fatal use of a mallet on some, but not all the gladiator skulls found in a gladiators' cemetery. Kyle (1998) proposes that gladiators who disgraced themselves might have been subjected to the same indignities as noxii, denied the relative mercies of a quick death and dragged from the arena as carrion.

Whether the corpse of such a gladiator could be redeemed from further ignominy by friends or familia is not known. The bodies of noxii, and possibly some damnati, were thrown into rivers or dumped unburied; Denial of funeral rites and memorial condemned the shade ( manes) of the deceased to restless wandering upon the earth as a dreadful. Ordinary citizens, slaves and freedmen were usually buried beyond the town or city limits, to avoid the ritual and physical pollution of the living; professional gladiators had their own, separate cemeteries. The taint of infamia was perpetual. Remembrance and epitaphs Gladiators could subscribe to a union ( collegia), which ensured their proper burial, and sometimes a pension or compensation for wives and children. Otherwise, the gladiator's familia, which included his lanista, comrades and blood-kin, might fund his funeral and memorial costs, and use the memorial to assert their moral reputation as responsible, respectful colleagues or family members. Some monuments record the gladiator's career in some detail, including the number of appearances, victories - sometimes represented by an engraved crown or wreath - defeats, career duration, and age at death.

Some include the gladiator's type, in words or direct representation: for example, the memorial of a retiarius at Verona included an engraved trident and sword. A wealthy editor might commission artwork to celebrate a particularly successful or memorable show, and include named portraits of winners and losers in action; the Borghese is a notable example. Most gladiators, however, would have had less costly forms of memorial. Tomb inscriptions from the Eastern Roman Empire include these brief examples: 'The familia set this up in memory of Saturnilos.' 'For Nikepharos, son of Synetos, Lakedaimonian, and for Narcissus the secutor. Titus Flavius Satyrus set up this monument in his memory from his own money.'

Paitraeites with his cell-mates set this up in memory'. Very little evidence survives for the religious beliefs of gladiators as a class, or their expectations of an afterlife. Modern scholarship offers little support for the once-prevalent notion that gladiators, venatores and bestiarii were personally or professionally dedicated to the cult of the Graeco-Roman goddess. Rather, she seems to have represented a kind of 'Imperial ' who dispensed Imperial retribution on the one hand, and Imperially subsidised gifts on the other - including the munera. One gladiator's tomb dedication clearly states that her decisions are not to be trusted.

Many gladiator epitaphs claim Nemesis, fate, deception or treachery as the instrument of their death, never the superior skills of the flesh-and-blood adversary who defeated and killed them. Having no personal responsibility for his own defeat and death, the losing gladiator remains the better man, worth avenging. 'I, Victor, left-handed, lie here, but my homeland was in Thessalonica. Doom killed me, not the liar Pinnas. No longer let him boast. I had a fellow gladiator, Polyneikes, who killed Pinnas and avenged me. Claudius Thallus set up this memorial from what I left behind as a legacy.'

Life expectancy A gladiator might expect to fight in two or three munera annually, and an unknown number would have died in their first match. Few gladiators survived more than 10 contests, though one survived an extraordinary 150 bouts; and another died at 90 years of age, presumably long after retirement. A natural death following retirement is also likely for three individuals who died at 38, 45, and 48 years respectively. George Ville, using evidence from 1st century gladiator headstones, calculated an average age at death of 27, and mortality 'among all who entered the arena' at 19/100. Marcus Junkelmann disputes Ville's calculation for average age at death; the majority would have received no headstone, and would have died early in their careers, at 18–25 years of age. Between the early and later Imperial periods the risk of death for defeated gladiators rose from 1/5 to 1/4, perhaps because missio was granted less often. Hopkins and Beard tentatively estimate a total of 400 arenas throughout the Roman Empire at its greatest extent, with a combined total of 8,000 deaths per annum from executions, combats and accidents.

Schools and training The earliest named gladiator school (singular: ludus; plural: ludi) is that of Aurelius Scaurus at Capua. He was lanista of the gladiators employed by the state circa 105 BC to instruct the legions and simultaneously entertain the public. Few other lanistae are known by name: they headed their familia gladiatoria, and had lawful power over life and death of every family member, including servi poenae, auctorati and ancillaries. Socially, they were infames, on a footing with pimps and butchers and despised as price gougers.

No such stigma was attached to a gladiator owner ( munerarius or editor) of good family, high status and independent means; congratulated his friend Atticus on buying a splendid troop – if he rented them out, he might recover their entire cost after two performances. The had originated in a gladiator school privately owned by, and had been suppressed only after a protracted series of costly, sometimes disastrous campaigns by regular Roman troops. In the late Republican era, a fear of similar uprisings, the usefulness of gladiator schools in creating private armies, and the exploitation of munera for political gain led to increased restrictions on gladiator school ownership, siting and organisation. By 's time, many had been more or less absorbed by the State, including those at,, and Capua. The city of Rome itself had four; the (the largest and most important, housing up to about 2,000 gladiators),, Ludus Gallicus, and the Ludus Matutinus, which trained bestiarii. In the Imperial era, volunteers required a magistrate's permission to join a school as auctorati. If this was granted, the school's physician assessed their suitability.

Their contract ( auctoramentum) stipulated how often they were to perform, their fighting style and earnings. A condemned bankrupt or debtor accepted as novice ( novicius) could negotiate with his lanista or editor for the partial or complete payment of his debt. Faced with runaway re-enlistment fees for skilled auctorati, Marcus Aurelius set their upper limit at 12,000. All prospective gladiators, whether volunteer or condemned, were bound to service by a sacred oath ( ). Novices ( novicii) trained under teachers of particular fighting styles, probably retired gladiators. They could ascend through a hierarchy of grades (singular: palus) in which primus palus was the highest. Lethal weapons were prohibited in the schools – weighted, blunt wooden versions were probably used.

Fighting styles were probably learned through constant rehearsal as choreographed 'numbers'. An elegant, economical style was preferred. Training included preparation for a stoical, unflinching death. Successful training required intense commitment. Those condemned ad ludum were probably or marked with a ( stigma, plural stigmata) on the face, legs and/or hands. These stigmata may have been text – fugitive slaves were marked thus on the forehead until Constantine banned the use of facial stigmata in 325 AD. Soldiers were marked on the hand.

Gladiators were typically accommodated in cells, arranged in barrack formation around a central practice arena. Describes the segregation of gladiators according to type and status, suggestive of rigid hierarchies within the schools: 'even the lowest scum of the arena observe this rule; even in prison they're separate'. Retiarii were kept away from damnati, and 'fag targeteers' from 'armoured heavies'. As most ordinarii at games were from the same school, this kept potential opponents separate and safe from each other until the lawful munus. Discipline could be extreme, even lethal.

Remains of a Pompeian ludus site attest to developments in supply, demand and discipline; in its earliest phase, the building could accommodate 15–20 gladiators. Its replacement could have housed about 100 and included a very small cell, probably for lesser punishments and so low that standing was impossible. Diet and medical care. Gladiators after the fight, (1882). Despite the harsh discipline, gladiators represented a substantial investment for their lanista and were otherwise well fed and cared for. Their daily, high-energy, vegetarian diet consisted of barley, boiled beans, oatmeal, ash and dried fruit.

Gladiators were sometimes called hordearii ('eaters of barley)'. Romans considered barley inferior to wheat — a punishment for replaced their wheat ration with it — but it was thought to strengthen the body.

Regular massage and high quality medical care helped mitigate an otherwise very severe training regimen. Part of 's medical training was at a gladiator school in Pergamum where he saw (and would later criticise) the training, diet, and long term health prospects of the gladiators. Legal and social status 'He vows to endure to be burned, to be bound, to be beaten, and to be killed by the sword.'

The gladiator's oath as cited by Petronius (Satyricon, 117). Modern customs and institutions offer few useful parallels to the legal and social context of the gladiatoria munera In Roman law, anyone condemned to the arena or the gladiator schools ( damnati ad ludum) was a servus poenae (slave of the penalty), and was considered to be under sentence of death unless manumitted. A of Hadrian reminded magistrates that 'those sentenced to the sword' (execution) should be despatched immediately 'or at least within the year', and those sentenced to the ludi should not be discharged before five years, or three years if granted. On the one hand, only slaves found guilty of specific offences could be sentenced to the arena; citizens were legally exempt from this sentence. On the other hand, citizens found guilty of particular offenses could be stripped of citizenship, formally enslaved, then sentenced as slaves; and freedmen or freedwomen offenders could be legally reverted to slavery.

Arena punishment could be meted for banditry, theft and arson, or treasonous acts such as rebellion, census evasion to avoid paying due taxes and refusal to swear lawful oaths. Offenders seen as particularly obnoxious to the state ( noxii) received the most humiliating punishments. By the 1st century BC, noxii were being condemned to the beasts ( ) in the arena, with almost no chance of survival, or were made to kill each other.

From the early Imperial era, some were forced to participate in humiliating and novel forms of mythological or historical enactment, culminating in their execution. Spain; mural of beast hunt, showing a (or ) and lioness Those judged less harshly might be condemned ad ludum venatorium or ad gladiatorium – combat with animals or gladiators – and armed as thought appropriate. These damnati at least might put on a good show and retrieve some respect. They might even – and occasionally did – survive to fight another day. Some may even have become 'proper' gladiators. The phenomenon of the 'volunteer' gladiator is more problematic. All contracted volunteers, including those of equestrian and senatorial class, were legally enslaved by their auctoratio because it involved their potentially lethal submission to a master.

Nor does the citizen or free volunteer's 'professional' status translate into modern terms. All arenarii (those who appeared in the arena) were ' by reputation', a form of social dishonour which excluded them from most of the advantages and rights of citizenship. Payment for such appearances compounded their infamia. The legal and social status of even the most popular and wealthy auctorati was thus marginal at best.

They could not vote, plead in court nor leave a will; unless they were manumitted, their lives and property belonged to their masters. Nevertheless, there is evidence of informal if not entirely lawful practices to the contrary. Some 'unfree' gladiators bequeathed money and personal property to wives and children, possibly via a sympathetic owner or familia; some had their own slaves and gave them their freedom. One gladiator was even granted 'citizenship' to several Greek cities of the Eastern Roman world. Among the most admired and skilled auctorati were those who, having been granted manumission, volunteered to fight in the arena. Some of these highly trained and experienced specialists may have had no other practical choice open to them.

Their legal status — slave or free — is uncertain. Under Roman law, a former gladiator could not 'offer such services [as those of a gladiator] after manumission, because they cannot be performed without endangering [his] life.' Caesar's munus of 46 BC included at least one equestrian, son of a Praetor, and possibly two senatorial volunteers. Under Augustus, senators and equestrians and their descendants were formally excluded from the infamia of association with the arena and its personnel (arenarii). However, some magistrates – and some later Emperors – tacitly or openly condoned such transgressions and some volunteers were prepared to embrace the resulting loss of status. Some did so for payment, some for military glory and, in one recorded case, for personal honour.

In 11 AD, Augustus, who enjoyed the games, bent his own rules and allowed equestrians to volunteer because 'the prohibition was no use'. Under, the Larinum decree (19AD) reiterated the laws which Augustus himself had waived. Thereafter, flouted them and strengthened them. And ignored them., some hundreds of years later, protested against the same infractions and repeated similar laws: his was an officially Christian empire.

One very notable social renegade was an aristocratic descendant of the, infamous for his marriage, as a bride, to a male horn player. He made a voluntary and 'shameless' arena appearance not only as a lowly but in woman's attire and a adorned with gold ribbon. In Juvenal's account, he seems to have relished the scandalous self-display, applause and the disgrace he inflicted on his more sturdy opponent by repeatedly skipping away from the confrontation. A photograph of the best known era amphitheatre taken in the early evening. Gladiatorial combats were the main event and usually held around this time of day [ ] As munera grew larger and more popular, open spaces such as the were adapted (as the Forum Boarium had been) as venues in Rome and elsewhere, with temporary, elevated seating for the patron and high status spectators; they were popular but not truly public events: A show of gladiators was to be exhibited before the people in the market-place, and most of the magistrates erected scaffolds round about, with an intention of letting them for advantage.

Commanded them to take down their scaffolds, that the poor people might see the sport without paying anything. But nobody obeying these orders of his, he gathered together a body of labourers, who worked for him, and overthrew all the scaffolds the very night before the contest was to take place. So that by the next morning the market-place was cleared, and the common people had an opportunity of seeing the pastime. In this, the populace thought he had acted the part of a man; but he much disobliged the tribunes his colleagues, who regarded it as a piece of violent and presumptuous interference.

Towards the end of the Republic, Cicero ( Murena, 72–3) still describes gladiator shows as ticketed — their political usefulness was served by inviting the rural tribunes of the plebs, not the people of Rome en masse – but in Imperial times, poor citizens in receipt of the were allocated at least some free seating, possibly by lottery. Others had to pay. ( Locarii) sometimes sold or let out seats at inflated prices. Wrote that 'Hermes [a gladiator who always drew the crowds] means riches for the ticket scalpers'. The earliest known Roman amphitheatre was built at by colonists, around 70 BC. The first in the city of Rome was the extraordinary wooden amphitheatre of (built in 53 BC). The first part-stone amphitheatre in Rome was inaugurated in 29–30 BC, in time for the triple triumph of Octavian (later Augustus).

Shortly after it burned down in 64 AD, began its replacement, later known as the Amphitheatrum Flavium (), which seated 50,000 spectators and would remain the largest in the Empire. It was by in 80 AD the personal gift of the Emperor to the people of Rome, paid for by the Imperial share of booty after the. Roman arena at, inside view. Amphitheatres were usually oval in plan. Their seating tiers surrounded the arena below, where the community's judgments were meted out, in full public view.

From across the stands, crowd and editor could assess each other's character and temperament. For the crowd, amphitheatres afforded unique opportunities for free expression and free speech ( theatralis licentia). Petitions could be submitted to the editor (as magistrate) in full view of the community. Factiones and claques could vent their spleen on each other, and occasionally on Emperors. The emperor Titus's dignified yet confident ease in his management of an amphitheatre crowd and its factions were taken as a measure of his enormous popularity and the rightness of his imperium. The amphitheatre munus thus served the Roman community as living theatre and a court in miniature, in which judgement could be served not only on those in the arena below, but on their judges.

Amphitheatres also provided a means of social control. Their seating was 'disorderly and indiscriminate' until prescribed its arrangement in his Social Reforms. To persuade the Senate, he expressed his distress on behalf of a Senator who could not find seating at a crowded games in: In consequence of this the senate decreed that, whenever any public show was given anywhere, the first row of seats should be reserved for senators; and at Rome he would not allow the envoys of the free and allied nations to sit in the orchestra, since he was informed that even freedmen were sometimes appointed.

He separated the soldiery from the people. He assigned special seats to the married men of the commons, to boys under age their own section and the adjoining one to their preceptors; and he decreed that no one wearing a dark cloak should sit in the middle of the house. He would not allow women to view even the gladiators except from the upper seats, though it had been the custom for men and women to sit together at such shows. Only the Vestal virgins were assigned a place to themselves, opposite the praetor's tribunal.

These arrangements do not seem to have been strongly enforced. Factions and rivals. The Amphitheatre at, depicting the riot between the and the.

Popular factions supported favourite gladiators and gladiator types. Under Augustan legislation, the Samnite type was renamed ('chaser', or 'pursuer'). The secutor was equipped with a long, heavy 'large' shield called a ); Secutores, their supporters and any heavyweight secutor-based types such as the were. Lighter types, such as the, were equipped with a smaller, lighter shield called a, from which they and their supporters were named parmularii ('small shields'). Titus and Trajan preferred the parmularii and Domitian the secutarii; Marcus Aurelius took neither side. Nero seems to have enjoyed the brawls between rowdy, enthusiastic and sometimes violent factions, but called in the troops if they went too far. There were also local rivalries.

At Pompeii's amphitheatre, during Nero's reign, the trading of insults between Pompeians and spectators during public ludi led to stone throwing and riot. Many were killed or wounded.

Nero banned gladiator munera (though not the games) at Pompeii for ten years as punishment. The story is told in Pompeian graffiti and high quality wall painting, with much boasting of Pompeii's 'victory' over Nuceria. Role in Roman life Role in the military A man who knows how to conquer in war is a man who knows how to arrange a banquet and put on a show. Rome was essentially a landowning military aristocracy. From the early days of the Republic, ten years of military service were a citizen's duty and a prerequisite for election to public office. (willingness to sacrifice one’s life to the greater good) was central to the Roman military ideal, and was the core of the Roman military oath. It applied from highest to lowest alike in the chain of command.

As a soldier committed his life (voluntarily, at least in theory) to the greater cause of Rome's victory, he was not expected to survive defeat. The Punic Wars of the late 3rd century BC – in particular the near-catastrophic defeat of Roman arms at Cannae – had long-lasting effects on the Republic, its citizen armies, and the development of the gladiatorial munera.

In the aftermath of Cannae, Scipio Africanus crucified Roman deserters and had non-Roman deserters thrown to the beasts. The Senate refused to ransom Hannibal's Roman captives: instead, they consulted the, then made drastic preparations: In obedience to the Books of Destiny, some strange and unusual sacrifices were made, human sacrifices amongst them. A Gaulish man and a Gaulish woman and a Greek man and a Greek woman were buried alive under the Forum Boarium. They were lowered into a stone vault, which had on a previous occasion also been polluted by human victims, a practice most repulsive to Roman feelings.

When the gods were believed to be duly propitiated. Armour, weapons, and other things of the kind were ordered to be in readiness, and the ancient spoils gathered from the enemy were taken down from the temples and colonnades.

The dearth of freemen necessitated a new kind of enlistment; 8,000 sturdy youths from amongst the slaves were armed at the public cost, after they had each been asked whether they were willing to serve or no. These soldiers were preferred, as there would be an opportunity of ransoming them when taken prisoners at a lower price.

Late 3rd century gladiator mosaic from a private residence in,. All the participants are named, including the referee The account notes, uncomfortably, the bloodless human sacrifices performed to help turn the tide of the war in Rome's favour.

While the Senate mustered their willing slaves, Hannibal offered his dishonoured Roman captives a chance for honourable death, in what Livy describes as something very like the Roman munus. The munus thus represented an essentially military, self-sacrificial ideal, taken to extreme fulfillment in the gladiator's oath. By the devotio of a voluntary oath, a slave might achieve the quality of a Roman ( Romanitas), become the embodiment of true virtus (manliness, or manly virtue), and paradoxically, be granted missio while remaining a slave.

The gladiator as a specialist fighter, and the ethos and organization of the gladiator schools, would inform the development of the Roman military as the most effective force of its time. In 107 BC, the Reforms established the Roman army as a professional body. Two years later, following its defeat at Arausio.weapons training was given to soldiers by P. Rutilius, consul with C. For he, following the example of no previous general, with teachers summoned from the gladiatorial training school of C. Aurelus Scaurus, implanted in the legions a more sophisticated method of avoiding and dealing a blow and mixed bravery with skill and skill back again with virtue so that skill became stronger by bravery's passion and passion became more wary with the knowledge of this art.

The military were great aficionados of the games, and supervised the schools. Many schools and amphitheatres were sited at or near military barracks, and some provincial army units owned gladiator troupes. As the Republic wore on, the term of military service increased from ten to the sixteen years formalised by Augustus in the Principate. It would rise to twenty, and later, to twenty five years. Roman military discipline was ferocious; severe enough to provoke mutiny, despite the consequences. A career as a volunteer gladiator may have seemed an attractive option for some.

In AD 69, the, 's troops at included 2000 gladiators. Opposite him on the field, 's army was swollen by levies of slaves, plebs and gladiators. In 167 AD, troop depletions by plague and desertion may have prompted Marcus Aurelius to draft gladiators at his own expense. During the Civil Wars that led to the Principate, Octavian (later Augustus) acquired the personal gladiator troop of his erstwhile opponent, Mark Antony. They had served their late master with exemplary loyalty but thereafter, they disappear from the record. Religion, ethics and sentiment Roman writing as a whole demonstrates a deep ambivalence towards the gladiatoria munera.

Even the most complex and sophisticated munera of the Imperial era evoked the ancient, ancestral dii manes of the underworld and were framed by the protective, lawful rites of sacrificium. Their popularity made their co-option by the state inevitable; acknowledged their sponsorship as a political imperative. Despite the popular adulation of gladiators, they were set apart, despised; and despite Cicero's contempt for the mob, he shared their admiration: 'Even when [gladiators] have been felled, let alone when they are standing and fighting, they never disgrace themselves. And suppose a gladiator has been brought to the ground, when do you ever see one twist his neck away after he has been ordered to extend it for the death blow?'

His own death would later emulate this example. Yet, Cicero could also refer to his popularist opponent, publicly and scathingly, as a bustuarius – literally, a 'funeral-man', implying that Clodius has shown the moral temperament of the lowest sort of gladiator. Such finer distinctions aside, 'gladiator' could be (and was) used as an insult throughout the Roman period, and 'Samnite' doubled the insult, despite the popularity of the Samnite type.

Wrote, as the games approached their peak, that the degenerate had devised the very worst of precedents, which now threatened the moral fabric of Rome: 'It was their custom to enliven their banquets with bloodshed and to combine with their feasting the horrid sight of armed men [(Samnites)] fighting; often the combatants fell dead above the very cups of the revelers, and the tables were stained with streams of blood. Thus demoralised was Capua.' Death could be rightly meted out as punishment, or met with equanimity in peace or war, as a gift of fate; but when inflicted as entertainment, with no underlying moral or religious purpose, it could only pollute and demean those who witnessed it. Detail of the, 4th century AD. The munus itself could be interpreted as pious necessity, but its increasing luxury corroded Roman virtue, and created an un-Roman appetite for profligacy and self-indulgence. Caesar's 46 BC ludi were mere entertainment for political gain, a waste of lives and of money the would have been better doled out to his legionary veterans.

Yet for Seneca, and for Marcus Aurelius – both professed – the degradation of gladiators in the munus highlighted their Stoic virtues: their unconditional obedience to their master and to fate, and equanimity in the face of death. Having 'neither hope nor illusions', the gladiator could transcend his own debased nature, and disempower death itself by meeting it face to face.

Courage, dignity, altruism and loyalty were morally redemptive; idealised this principle in his story of Sisinnes, who voluntarily fought as a gladiator, earned 10,000 drachmas and used it to buy freedom for his friend, Toxaris. Seneca had a lower opinion of the mob's un-Stoical appetite for ludi meridiani: 'Man [is].now slaughtered for jest and sport; and those whom it used to be unholy to train for the purpose of inflicting and enduring wounds are thrust forth exposed and defenceless.' These accounts seek a higher moral meaning from the munus, but 's very detailed (though satirical) instructions for seduction in the amphitheatre suggest that the spectacles could generate a potent and dangerously sexual atmosphere.

Augustan seating prescriptions placed women – excepting the Vestals, who were legally inviolate – as far as possible from the action of the arena floor; or tried to. There remained the thrilling possibility of clandestine sexual transgression by high-caste spectators and their heroes of the arena. Such assignations were a source for gossip and satire but some became unforgivably public: What was the youthful charm that so fired Eppia? What hooked her? What did she see in him to make her put up with being called 'the gladiator's moll'? Her poppet, her Sergius, was no chicken, with a dud arm that prompted hope of early retirement. Besides his face looked a proper mess, helmet-scarred, a great wart on his nose, an unpleasant discharge always trickling from one eye.

But he was a gladiator. That word makes the whole breed seem handsome, and made her prefer him to her children and country, her sister, her husband. Steel is what they fall in love with. Eppia – a senator's wife – and her Sergius eloped to Egypt, where he deserted her. Most gladiators would have aimed lower.

Two wall in Pompeii describe Celadus the Thraex as 'the sigh of the girls' and 'the glory of the girls' – which may or may not have been Celadus' own wishful thinking. In the later Imperial era, Servius Maurus Honoratus uses the same disparaging term as Cicero – bustuarius – for gladiators. Tertullian used it somewhat differently – all victims of the arena were sacrificial in his eyes – and expressed the paradox of the arenarii as a class, from a Christian viewpoint: On the one and the same account they glorify them and they degrade and diminish them; yes, further, they openly condemn them to disgrace and civil degradation; they keep them religiously excluded from council chamber, rostrum, senate, knighthood, and every other kind of office and a good many distinctions. The perversity of it!

They love whom they lower; they despise whom they approve; the art they glorify, the artist they disgrace. In Roman art and culture.

An found at in Tunisia, depicting a gladiator with shield and dagger In this new Play, I attempted to follow the old custom of mine, of making a fresh trial; I brought it on again. In the first Act I pleased; when in the meantime a rumor spread that gladiators were about to be exhibited; the populace flock together, make a tumult, clamor aloud, and fight for their places: meantime, I was unable to maintain my place. Images of gladiators could be found throughout the Republic and Empire, among all classes. Walls in the 2nd century BC 'Italian ' at were decorated with paintings of gladiators. Mosaics dating from the 2nd through 4th centuries AD have been invaluable in the reconstruction of combat and its rules, gladiator types and the development of the munus.

Throughout the Roman world, ceramics, lamps, gems and jewellery, mosaics, reliefs, wall paintings and statuary offer evidence, sometimes the best evidence, of the clothing, props, equipment, names, events, prevalence and rules of gladiatorial combat. Earlier periods provide only occasional, perhaps exceptional examples. The in the displays several gladiator types, and the mosaic from shows as gladiators. Souvenir ceramics were produced depicting named gladiators in combat; similar images of higher quality, were available on more expensive articles in high quality ceramic, glass or silver.

Gives vivid examples of the popularity of gladiator portraiture in and an artistic treat laid on by an adoptive aristocrat for the solidly plebeian citizens of the Roman: When a of Nero was giving a gladiatorial show at, the public porticoes were covered with paintings, so we are told, containing life-like portraits of all the gladiators and assistants. This portraiture of gladiators has been the highest interest in art for many centuries now, but it was Gaius Terentius who began the practice of having pictures made of gladiatorial shows and exhibited in public; in honour of his grandfather who had adopted him he provided thirty pairs of Gladiators in the Forum for three consecutive days, and exhibited a picture of the matches in the Grove of Diana. Decline The decline of the munus was a far from straightforward process. The imposed increasing military demands on the imperial purse, from which the Roman Empire never quite recovered, and lesser magistrates found the obligatory munera an increasingly unrewarding tax on the doubtful privileges of office. Still, emperors continued to subsidize the games as a matter of undiminished public interest. In the early 3rd century AD, the Christian writer had acknowledged their power over the Christian flock, and was compelled to be blunt: the combats were murder, their witnessing spiritually and morally harmful and the gladiator an instrument of pagan human sacrifice. In the next century, Augustine deplored the youthful fascination of his friend (and later fellow-convert and Bishop) Alypius, with the munera spectacle as inimical to a Christian life and salvation.

Amphitheatres continued to host the spectacular administration of Imperial justice: in 315 condemned child-snatchers in the arena. Ten years later, he banned the gladiator munera: In times in which peace and peace relating to domestic affairs prevail bloody demonstrations displease us. Therefore, we order that there may be no more gladiator combats. Those who were condemned to become gladiators for their crimes are to work from now on in the mines. Thus they pay for their crimes without having to pour their blood. A 5th-century mosaic in the depicts two venatores fighting a tiger.

An imperially sanctioned munus at some time in the 330s suggests that yet again, imperial legislation failed to entirely curb the games, not least when Constantine defied his own law. 364–375) threatened to fine a judge who sentenced Christians to the arena and in 384 attempted, like most of his predecessors, to limit the expenses of munera. 379–395) adopted Christianity as the and banned pagan festivals. The ludi continued, very gradually shorn of their stubbornly pagan munera. 395–423) legally ended munera in 399, and again in 404, at least in the Western half of the Empire. According to, the ban was in consequence of martyrdom by spectators at a munus.

425–455) repeated the ban in 438, perhaps effectively, though venationes continued beyond 536. By this time, interest in munera had waned throughout the Roman world. In the Eastern Empire, and continued to attract the crowds, and drew a generous Imperial subsidy. It is not known how many gladiatoria munera were given throughout the Roman period. Many, if not most, involved venationes, and in the later Empire some may have been only that. In 165 BC, at least one munus was held during April's.

In the early Imperial era, munera in Pompeii and neighbouring towns were dispersed from March through November. They included a provincial magnate's five-day munus of thirty pairs, plus beast-hunts. A single late primary source, the Calendar of Furius Dionysius Philocalus for 354, shows how seldom gladiators featured among a multitude of official festivals. Of 176 days reserved for spectacles of various kinds, 102 were for theatrical shows, 64 for and just 10 in December for gladiator games and venationes. Thomas Wiedemann interprets this in the much earlier context of the Historia Augusta, in which (r.

222–235) was said to intend the redistribution of munera throughout the year. This would have broken with what had become the traditional positioning of the major gladiator games, at the year's end: as Wiedemann points out, December was the month for, the festival in which the lowest became the highest, and in which death was linked to renewal. Modern reconstructions. This section does not any. Unsourced material may be challenged and. (December 2017) () 1940s–1960s peplum films Gladiator fights have been depicted in a number of (also known as 'sword-and-sandal' movies).

This is a genre of largely Italian-made historical epics (costume dramas) that dominated the Italian film industry from 1958 to 1965. They can be immediately differentiated from the competing Hollywood product by their use of.

The pepla attempted to emulate the big-budget Hollywood historical epics of the time, such as. Inspired by the success of Spartacus, there were a number of Italian peplums that emphasized the gladiatorial arena fights in their plots, with it becoming almost a peplum subgenre in itself; One group of supermen known as 'The Ten Gladiators' appeared in a trilogy, all three films starring in the lead role.

• (1948) a.k.a. The Fighting Gladiator • (1961) Richard Harrison • (1965) a.k.a. Seven Against All, starring Roger Browne • (1965) a.k.a. Seven Slaves Against Rome, a.k.a. The Strongest Slaves in the World, starring Roger • Spartacus and the Ten Gladiators (1964) a.k.a. Ten Invincible Gladiators, • Ten Gladiators, The (1963) • Triumph of the Ten Gladiators (1965) • Ursus, the Rebel Gladiator (1963) a.k.a.

Rebel Gladiators, Dan Vadis 1970s–2000s (also known as the Naked Warriors) is a 1974 gladiator, starring and, and directed by and an uncredited. Grier and Markov portray female gladiators in ancient Rome, who have been enslaved and must fight for their freedom. Is a 2000 British-American directed by, and starring and. Crowe portrays a fictional general who is reduced to slavery and then rises through the ranks of the gladiatorial arena to avenge the murder of his family. Amazons and Gladiators is a 2001 directed and written by Zachary Weintraub starring and. •, p. 17;, p. 82. •, pp. 16–17.

Nicolaus cites 's support for a origin and Hermippus' for a (therefore ) origin. Futrell is citing Livy, 9.40.17. •, pp. 14–15. •, p. 18;, pp. 3–5. •, p. 4;, p. 226. Paestum was colonized by Rome in 273 BC.

•, pp. 15, 18. •, pp. 18–19.

Livy's account (summary 16) places beast-hunts and gladiatorial munera within this single. • A single, later source describes the gladiator type involved as. Welch is citing Ausanius: Seneca simply says they were 'war captives'. •, p. 33;, p. 2;, p. 273. Evidence of 'Samnite' as an insult in earlier writings fades as Samnium is absorbed into the Republic. • Quoted in, pp. 4–5.

•, p. 67 (Note #84). Livy's published works are often embellished with illustrative rhetorical detail. • The velutes and later, the provocatores were exceptions, but as 'historicised' rather than contemporary Roman types. •, pp. 80–81. Welch is citing Livy, 23.30.15. The Aemilii Lepidii were one of the most important families in Rome at the time, and probably owned a gladiator school ( ludus).

• ^, pp. 8–9. • Livy, 39.46.2. • Silius Italicus quoted in, pp. 4–5. • Livy, Annal for the Year 174 BC (cited in, p. 21). • ^, pp. 6–7. Wiedemann is citing Valerius Maximus, 2.3.2.

• The games were always referred to in the plural, as ludi. Gladiator schools were also known as ludi when plural; a single school was ludus • ^, p. 183. •, p. 97;, p. 50. •, p. 287;, pp. 32, 109–111. Approximately 12% of Rome's adult male population could actually vote; but these were the wealthiest and most influential among ordinary citizens, well worth cultivation by any politician. •, p. 287; such as Caesar's Capua-based gladiators, brought to Rome as a private army to impress and overawe.

Gladiator gangs were used by Caesar and others to overawe and 'persuade'. Gladiators could be enrolled to serve noble households; some household slaves may have been raised and trained for this. For more details see Plutarch's Julius Caesar, 5.4.

•, pp. 285–287. See also Pliny's Historia Naturalis, 33.16.53. •, pp. 280, 287 •, pp. 8–10. Antiochus IV Epiphanes of Greece was keen to upstage his Roman allies, but gladiators were becoming increasingly expensive, and to save costs, all his were local volunteers.

Kyle is citing Cicero's Lex Tullia Ambitu. •, Shelby Brown, 'Death as Decoration: Scenes of the Arena on Roman Domestic Mosaics', p.

Wiedemann is citing Cassius Dio, 54.2.3–4. • Prices in denarii cited in 'Venationes,'. Augustus's games each involved an average 625 gladiator pairs. •, Shelby Brown, 'Death as Decoration: Scenes of the Arena on Roman Domestic Mosaics', p. Brown is citing Dio Cassius, 68.15.

•, pp. 440–446. •, p. 313 • Josephus. The Jewish War, 6.418, 7.37–40;, p. 93. Noxii were the most obnoxious of criminal categories in Roman law. •, pp. 120–125. • Ludus meant both a game and a school — see entries 1 to 2.C, at Lewis and Short ().

See also Cassius Dio's accusation of entrapment by informers to provide 'arena slaves' under Claudius;, p. 103. 'the best gladiators', Futrell citing Petronius's Satyricon, 45.

Futrell is citing Cassius Dio. Lives, 'Tiberius',.

Lives, 'Nero',. • ^, pp. 153–156.

•, p. 112;, p. 17, citing Cassius Dio, 62.3.1. •, p. 17, citing Juvenal's Saturae, 1.22–1.23. •, p. 18, citing Petronius's Satyricon, 45.7.

•, p. 18, citing Dio Cassius 67.8.4, Suetonius's Domitianus 4.2, and Statius's Silvae 1.8.51–1.8.56: see also Brunet (2014) p.480. • ^, p. 18;, p. 408. •, p. 18, citing Dio Cassius 75.16. •, p. 407, citing Dio Cassius 75.16.1. Fox is citing Pliny. • Cassius Dio.

Commodus, •, p. 118. • Cassius Dio. Commodus was assassinated and posthumously declared a public enemy but was later deified. •, pp. 85, 101, 110. Based on fragmentary Pompeian remains and citing of Pliny's Historia Naturalis, 19.23–25. • ^ Coleman, Kathleen (17 February 2011)..

Retrieved 21 April 2017. Moral Essays, 1099B (fully cited in, pp. 86–87): 'Even among the gladiators, I see those who.find greater pleasure in freeing their slaves, and commending their wives to their friends, than in satisfying their appetites.' Gladiatorial banquet on mosaic, El Djem. •, p. 23;, p. 84.

See for the similar procession before games were held in the circus. • Sometimes beasts were simply exhibited, and left unharmed; see, p. 88. •, pp. 94–95. Futrell is citing Seneca's On Providence, 3.4. Author's drawing. •, pp. 43, 46–49. In the Eastern provinces of the later Empire the state archiereis combined the roles of editor, Imperial cult priest and lanista, giving gladiatoria munera in which the use of sharp weapons seems an exceptional honour.

• Marcus Aurelius encouraged the use of blunted weapons: see Cassius Dio's Roman History,. •, pp. 99–100;, p. 14. •, p. 313 •, pp. 313–314. • Fagan, Garrett (2011). The Lure of the Arena: Social Psychology and the Crowd at the Roman Games.

217 - 218, 273, 277: Cambridge University Press.. Fagan speculates that Nero was perversely defying the crowd's expectations, or perhaps trying to please a different kind of crowd. • The gravestones of several musicians and gladiators mention such modulations; see Fagan, pp. 225 - 226, and footnotes. •, pp. 15–16. Wiedemann is citing Kraus and von Matt's Pompei and Herculaneum, New York, 1975, Fig. • Though not always: the gladiator Diodorus blames 'murderous Fate and the cunning treachery of the summa rudis' for his death, not his own error in not finishing off his opponent when he had the chance: see Robert, Gladiateurs, no.

79 = SgO 11/02/01 •, p. 101; based on mosaics and a Pompeian tomb relief. • Even more rarely, perhaps uniquely, a stalemate ended in the killing of one gladiator by the editor himself;, p. 102 (The evidence is on a stylised mosaic from Symmachus; the spectators praise the editor for 'doing the right thing'). • Barton, Carlin A.

Representations (27): pp. 27, 28, note 33.. CS1 maint: Extra text () (subscription required) • Martial.

Liber de Spectaculis, 29. Kyle is citing Robert. •, p. 101 •, p. 141. Carter, 'Gladiatorial Combat: The Rules of Engagement', The Classical Journal, Vol. – Jan., 2006/2007), p. •, pp. 144–145.

Futrell is citing Suetonius's Lives, 'Augustus', 45, 'Caligula', 30, 'Claudius', 34. This is evidenced on a roughly inscribed libellus. • Barton, Carlin A. Representations (27): pp. 27, 28, note 33.. CS1 maint: Extra text () (subscription required) • Suetonius. Lives, 'Caligula', 30.3.

Futrell is citing Cicero's Tuscullan Disputations, 2.17. •, pp. 38–39. •, pp. 66–67. Marks on the bones of several gladiators suggest a sword thrust into the base of the throat and down towards the heart.

• By Tertullian's time, Mercury was identified with Greek, who led souls into the underworld. Tertullian describes these events as examples of hollow impiety, in which Rome's false deities are acceptably impersonated by low and murderous persons for the purposes of human sacrifice and evil entertainment. See, pp. 155–168. •, pp. 207–216. •, pp. 155–168.

Dis Pater and Jupiter Latiaris rituals in Tertullian's Ad Nationes, 1.10.47. • Tertullian describes the offering of a fallen gladiator's blood to by an officiating priest – a travesty of the offering of the blood of martyrs – but places this within a munus (or a festival) dedicated to Jupiter Latiaris. Tertullian may have mistaken or reinterpreted what he saw: no such practice is otherwise recorded. •, p. 14 (including note #74).

Kyle contextualises Juvenal's panem et circenses – bread and games as a sop to the politically apathetic plebs (Satires, 4.10) – within an account of the death and damnatio of, whose body was torn to pieces by the crowd and left unburied. Lives, 'Tiberius', 75. Suetonius has the populace wish the same fate on 's body, a form of damnatio: to be thrown in the Tiber, or left unburied, or 'dragged with the hook'. •, pp. 128–159. • ^ HOPE, VALERIE (January 2000).

'FIGHTING FOR IDENTITY: THE FUNERARY COMMEMORATION OF ITALIAN GLADIATORS*'. Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies. 44 (S73): 93–113..

•, pp. 133, 149–153. The single name form on a gladiator memorial usually indicates a slave, two a freedman or discharged auctoratus and, very rare among gladiators, three ( ') a freedman or a full Roman citizen. See also on Roman names.

Futrell is citing Robert, #12, #24, and #109. • Nemesis, her devotees and her place in the Roman world are fully discussed, with examples, in Hornum, Michael B., Nemesis, the Roman state and the games, Brill, 1993. Fagan, Gladiators, combatants at games, Oxford Classical Dictionary online, Jul 2015 DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/135.013.2845: 'This refusal to concede honest defeat in the face of superior skill again speaks to professional pride and a certain braggadocio that is still operative today in combat sports.' (accessed April 2, 2017 •, p. 149. Futrell is citing Robert, #34. •, p. 145 •, p. 144 • ^, p. 144.

Futrell is citing George Ville. •, pp. 92–94. •, pp. 85, 149;, p. 31. Edict, Book 6;, pp. 137–138. Futrell is citing Digest, 3.1.1.6. •, pp. 285–287, 312. This had probably began under Augustus.

Futrell is citing Petronius's Satyricon, 45.133. See also Tiberius's inducement to re-enlist. • ^ Petronius. Satyricon, 117: 'He vows to endure to be burned, to be bound, to be beaten, and to be killed by the sword.' • palus: named after the training poles, 6 Roman feet high, erected in the training arena. Futrell is citing Quintilian's Oratorical Institute, 5.13.54;, p. 140.

Futrell is citing Cicero's Tuscullan Disputations, 2.17;, p. 139. Futrell is citing Epictetus's Discourse, 3.15. •, pp. 139–155. Facial stigmata represented extreme social degradation. Futrell is citing Juvenal's Satire, 6 [Oxford Fragment 7.13], in the translation of.

The burning alive of a soldier who refused to become an auctoratus at a Spanish school in 43 BC is exceptional only because he was a citizen, technically exempt from such compulsion and penalty. •, pp. 148–149. • Follain, John (15 December 2002)..

Times Online. Archived from on 29 April 2011. Retrieved 24 March 2009. •, pp. 141–142;, pp. 41–68. Manumission was seldom absolute. Terms of release were negotiated between master and slave; Digests 28.3.6.5–6 and 48.19.8.11–12. Futrell is citing Ulpian's 8th book of Proconsular Functions, CMRL, 11.7.

•, Shelby Brown, 'Death as Decoration: Scenes of the Arena on Roman Domestic Mosaics', p. •, Preface, p. •, pp. 40–46. Metamorphoses, 4.13;, p. 71;, Shelby Brown, 'Death as Decoration: Scenes of the Arena on Roman Domestic Mosaics', p.

Survival and 'promotion' would have been extremely rare for damnati – and unheard of for noxii – notwithstanding 's moral tale of. • Smith, William. A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. London: John Murray, 1875, '.

Futrell is citing Tertullian's De Speculates, 22. •, pp. 86–87.

Futrell is citing Plutarch's Moral Essays, 1099B. •, pp. 52–56. •, Shelby Brown, 'Death as Decoration: Scenes of the Arena on Roman Domestic Mosaics', p. • D.38.1.38 pr in, p. 95.

Barton is citing Cassius Dio, 43.23.4–5; Suetonius, in Caesar 39.1, adds the two Senators. •, pp. 115–116 (Note #102)., pp. 153, 156. Under Caligula, participation by men and women of senatorial rank may have been encouraged, and sometimes enforced; Cassius Dio, 59.10, 13–14 and Tacitus, Caligula, 15.32. Barton is citing Cassius Dio, 56.25.7. • David Potter (trans.), '. Futrell is citing Cassius Dio, 62.17.3; see Cassius Dio, 59.10.13–14 and Tacitus's Caligula, 15.32 for Caligula's extraordinary behaviour as editor; Valentinian/Theodosius, 15.9.1; Symacchus, Relatio, 8.3. Barton is citing Juvenal, 8.199ff.

Caius Gracchus,. • Some Roman writers interpret the earliest attempts to provide permanent venues as populist political graft, rightly blocked by the Senate as morally objectionable; too-frequent, excessively 'luxurious' munera would corrode traditional Roman values. The provision of permanent seating was thought a particularly objectionable luxury. See Appian, The Civil Wars, 128; Livy, Perochiae, 48. Futrell is citing Martial's Epigrams, 5.24. Welch is citing CIL, X.852. Potter and Mattingly are citing Pliny the Elder, 36.117.

•, p. 226 (see also Pliny's Natural History, 36.113–5). The amphitheatre was commissioned by T. Statilius Taurus. According to Pliny, its three storeys were marble-clad, housed 3,000 bronze statues and seated 80,000 spectators. It was probably wooden-framed in part. •, pp. 151–152. •, Shelby Brown, 'Death As Decoration: Scenes of the Arena on Roman Domestic Mosaics', pp.

Even emperors who disliked munera were thus obliged to attend them. •, pp. 37–42, 105. Lives, 'Augustus', 44. •, p. 105 • Examples are in Martial's Epigrams 14, 213 and Suetonius's Caligula. • Also scutarii, scutularii, or secutoriani. •, pp. 96,104-105.

•, pp. 107–108. See also Tacitus's Annals, 14.17. • Livy, 45.32–3. It was notably fulfilled and celebrated in the battlefield devotio of two consular; firstly by and later by his. •, pp. 19–45; Livy, 22.51.5–8, has wounded Romans at Cannae stretch out their necks for the death blow by comrades: cf Cicero's death in Seneca's Suasoriae, 6.17. • Livy, 22.55–57. •, p. 15;, p. 274.

•, pp. 126–128. Mattern is citing Tacitus's Annals, 1.17. Mattern is citing Cassius Dio, 72, 73.2.3. Futrell is citing Cicero's Letters to Friends, 2.3. • Cicero's admiration: Tusculan Disputations, 2.41.

Barton is citing Seneca's Suasoriae, 6.17 for Cicero's death. For bustuarius, with reference to Clodius's alleged impious disturbance at the funeral of, see Cicero's In Pisonem (Against Piso). See, p. 26, for the bustuarius as a lower class of gladiator than one employed in the public munus. Cicero's unflattering references to Marcus Antonius as gladiator are in his 2nd Phillipic. • Silius Italicus, 11.51 (cited in, p. 3).

•, Shelby Brown, 'Death As Decoration: Scenes of the Arena on Roman Domestic Mosaics', p. Tacitus, in Annals 15.44, describes the public repugnance towards Nero's punishment of Christians, which seemed based on his appetite for cruelty, rather than a desire for the public good. Roman commentators associated munera with Capua's proverbial luxury and excess. • Cassius Dio, 43.24.

•, p. 16;, p. 154. Futrell is citing Lucian's Toxaris, 58–59. •, p. 105 •, p. 85. This should be considered scandalous and noteworthy, rather than common. Satires, 6.102ff. Futrell is citing, 4.4342 and 4.4345.

Commentary on the 'Aeneid' of Vergil, 10.519. • Tertullian.

De Spectaculis, 22;, p. 80. Bustuarius is found in Tertullian's De Spectaculis, 11. Hecyra, Prologue II. •, Shelby Brown, 'Death As Decoration: Scenes of the Arena on Roman Domestic Mosaics', p. Natural History, 30.32 (cited in, p. 21. •, pp. 130–131.

•, pp. 30, 32. • Tertullian. De Spectaculis, 22.

• Saint Augustine, Confessions, 6.8. • Constantine, 9.18.1 and 15.12.1 (see also, p. 215).

• See Tertullian's Apologetics, 49.4 for Tertullian's condemnation of officials who sought their own 'glory' by sponsoring the martyrdom of Christians. Compared to 'pagan' noxii, Christian deaths in the arena would have been few. • Codex Theodosianus,; Symacchus. Relatio, 8.3. • Codex Theodosianus, 2.8.19 and 2.8.22. • Telemachus had personally stepped in to prevent the munus. See Theoderet's Historia Ecclesiastica, 5.26.

• Codex Justinianus, 3.12.9. Cooley and MGL Cooley, Pompeii, A Sourcebook, Routledge, 2004, p. •, pp. 11–12. Retrieved 9 November 2013.