Damnatio ad Bestias was a way of execution in Rome for condemned people to be killed by wild animals. This punishment was created in 2nd century BC and was derived from the Bestiarii, which was a form of entertainment in Rome where Romans voluntarily fought wild animals. Due to a lack of volunteers for Bestiarii and the expenses, damnatio ad bestias was created to entertain the lower classes in Rome. Around 80 AD, when the Colosseum was completed, damnatio ad bestias became more popular and was included in the inaugural games of the Flavian Amphitheatre, and with the growth of the event, the execution was sentenced not only to the condemned, but to runaway slaves, criminals, and Christians between 1st and 3rd centuries AD (Kennedy, p154).
In Damnatio ad Bestias, many different animals were used. Lions were the first animals to be used in the arenas, however, they were a
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Males were sent to die quickly in the arena, while women had a far worse punishment. It started with Carpophorus, a very famous and powerful bestiarius and animal trainer in Ancient Rome. His most shocking power was being able to command the animals to rape humans, which was used during damnatio ad bestias for women. These animals included zebras, bulls, wild boars, stallions, giraffes, and more. This command allowed ludi meridiani to be created, which combined sex and death, all while honoring Jupiter, the “shining father”. This came from the myths where Jupiter would take many different forms of animals to have his way with human women (Aptowicz, Cristin O'Keefe.).
At the end of the damnatio ad bestias, the condemned prisoners would have to undergo one last act of humiliation. This was to be removed from the arena. It became tradition to drag and remove the bodies of the prisoners out of the arena using hooks. Once out of the arena, they would then be denied to proper pagan burial rites (“Combats in the
They did this for embarrassment. If someone saw them with one hand, they would know you had stolen. “Many executions were witnessed by hundreds of people.” An execution only happened if a threat was made on royals or murder. An execution day is many commoners favorite day.
Over the course of time, the roles of men and women have changed dramatically. As women have increasingly gained more social recognition, they have also earned more significant roles in society. This change is clearly reflected in many works of literature, one of the most representative of which is Plautus's 191 B.C. drama Pseudolus, in which we meet the prostitute Phoenicium. Although the motivation behind nearly every action in the play, she is glimpsed only briefly, never speaks directly, and earns little respect from the male characters surrounding her, a situation that roughly parallels a woman's role in Roman society of that period. Women of the time, in other words, were to be seen and not heard. Their sole purpose was to please or to benefit men. As time passed, though, women earned more responsibility, allowing them to become stronger and hold more influence. The women who inspired Lope de Vega's early seventeenth-century drama Fuente Ovejuna, for instance, rose up against not only the male officials of their tiny village, but the cruel (male) dictator busy oppressing so much of Spain as a whole. The roles women play in literature have evolved correspondingly, and, by comparing The Epic of Gilgamesh, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and The Wife of Bath's Prologue, we can see that fictional women have just as increasingly as their real-word counterparts used gender differences as weapons against men.
This paper will discuss the well published work of, Pomeroy, Sarah B. Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity. New York: Schocken, 1975. Print. Sarah B. Pomerory uses this book to educate others about the role women have played throughout ancient history. Pomerory uses a timeline to go through each role, starting with mythological women, who were called Goddesses. She then talks about some common roles, the whores, wives, and slaves during this time. Pomerory enlightens the audience on the topic of women, who were seen as nothing at the time. Men were seen as the only crucial part in history; however, Pomerory’s focus on women portrays the era in a new light.
...uried. The way Heaney describes this cleansing of the body and clothing it was depicted in a very ritualistic and loving way. It showed how important it was to Heaney that his cousin was buried correctly and humanely.
The citizens of Rome loved to go to these bloody warfares. In the city of Rome, these events were held in the Colosseum. An arena so large that it could hold 50,000 spectators and host fights between men and animals.
Gladiatorial events were a token of the Roman civilization. A brutal form of sacrifice adapted from the earlier civilization of Etruscans, who believed when a person dies, his spirit relies on a blood sacrifice to survive in the afterlife. The first event to take place in Rome was in 264 BC, when Decimus Brutus held a sacrifice to honor his dead father (Roman Gladiator). Soon after these events became an undeniable part of the Romans lives, used for political power and general entertainment.
women had to sit in the highest level of the Colosseum. The rich and upper class had the best
As the ancient civilizations of the west grew their empires, they encountered something so powerful, beastly, and strong that no man could hold down with his own two bare hands, nor could they be tamed. As centuries go on, men learned the ways of the horse and learned to ride upon their backs. They found them to be a key component in transportation, carrying goods, and warfare. As time went on, for every footprint of a human left behind in the wet mud, there was a hoof print not far from the footprint. Ancient Greeks believe that the horse was a gift from the gods, and they were greatly valued in their society. During that whole time men were only written about riding and taming these creatures, not women. Ancient Greece was a civilization where men did all the rough tasks while women stayed home caring for kids and cleaning. In that world characterized by male dominance, one woman stood out. Kyniska of Sparta was the most important visionary for woman’s’ rights because of her understanding of class structure through participating in the Olympic Games. She became the first woman ever to win the four-horse chariot race with her own bred and tamed horses.
During the middle and late third century, the Roman republic era gave rise to the arena games and became a great phenomenon for the Romans. An amphitheater, also known as a coliseum, housed these dangerous games that potentially harmed the audience as well as those who participated in them. Gladiatorial combat originated as part of funerals for deceased influential Romans. These large gladiatorial games were held by emperors during funerals of important roman officials, but were also included during other occasions. Over time the connection among the gladiator games and funerals decreased, and the upper class put on the games mainly to raise their social standing and gain favor with the public.
Why were women treated like animals? Greek society would not function without women, everything a man needs for proper living, food, clothing, wealth, sex, the continuance of human existence were all traits that women inquired.
The basket was used to catch the falling heads. In the early revolution Richard Clark said that originally a wicker basket lined with an oil cloth had been used to catch the head. Later on a metal bucket was used to prevent the blood from flowing through the streets. Since they guillotined so any people the bucket became a necessity to have. Along with this it helped to prevent the smell of death in the streets.
--- Goddesses, Whores, Wives and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity. New York: Schocken Books. 1995, 2010. Kindle Edition. Location 2733 of 6360.
There were four different genres of such entertainment in the games held in amphitheatres (Amphi-theatres are outdoor arenas. "theatres in the round": Amphi- meaning "round" in Greek.) : Gladiatorial combat, the theatrical execution of foreigners, beast shows, as well as chariot racing. Watching someone or a beast kill another was applauded for the method, skill, or artistry used in the slaughter. The games themselves provided ways for Rome to demonstrate the power of their empire, as huge investments of wealth, time, and emotion was put into the games. Death became a spectator sport with the viewers and the viewed both contributing to a wild and gory performance. Already by the late Republic magistrates were spending huge amounts of money on these games. The Latin word for gladiatorial games is Munus which means obligatory offering. This reflects the origin of these games as funerary offerings to the dead. While magistrates in the Republic may well have put on games to gain popular favour, this was in their private capacity and not as magistrates. Only gradually did the gladiatorial shows come to be assimilated with the games put on by magistrates.
The ancient Roman tale known as the “Rape (or seizure) of Sabine Women” depicts women, taken against their will by Roman captures and married to Roman men. These women later, intervene in a battle between their new husbands and their angry brothers and fathers. The ancient tale depicts Roman ideology and practices of marriage. It shows how a bride was transferred from living under her father’s jurisdiction to being ruled by her husband. The capture of the Sabine women, the war that follows, and the final truce brought upon the Sabine women themselves are direct relation to the separation of a young bride from her maternal family, the transfer of authority, and her beginning in her new family. The tale is told by two philosophical figures of Roman history. Livy, whom writes about the events in 30 B.C.E and Ovid whom rights about them nearly a generation later1. Both have different views on the event, its meaning, and its relevance. The two men also share the same thoughts in regards to their view masculinity and power.
Women were often subjects of intense focus in ancient literary works. In Sarah Pomeroy’s introduction of her text Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves, she writes, “Women pervade nearly every genre of classical literature, yet often the bias of the author distorts the information” (x). It is evident in literature that the social roles of women were more restricted than the roles of men. And since the majority of early literature was written by men, misogyny tends to taint much of it. The female characters are usually given negative traits of deception, temptation, selfishness, and seduction. Women were controlled, contained, and exploited. In early literature, women are seen as objects of possession, forces deadly to men, cunning, passive, shameful, and often less honorable than men. Literature reflects the societal beliefs and attitudes of an era and the consistency of these beliefs and attitudes toward women and the roles women play has endured through the centuries in literature. Women begin at a disadvantage according to these societal definitions. In a world run by competing men, women were viewed as property—prizes of contests, booty of battle and the more power men had over these possessions the more prestigious the man. When reading ancient literature one finds that women are often not only prizes, but they were responsible for luring or seducing men into damnation by using their feminine traits.