Spartacus, the Gladiator

The amphitheatre of Capua I wrote about in my previous article Spartacus: Here the Gladiator Fought for Life was a kind of modern arenas where thousands of persons assist on the shows. The gladiators were very popular and they were heroes beloved by everybody.

We often think that they were "morituri", sentenced to death or war prisoners etc. Probably, it was so at the beginning. But this belief is not confirmed by the arcaeological excavations. And the amphitheater of Capua with it's underground part confirms the scientists. It was a real town with special entrances for participants and splendid (as you could see on my photos) part for spectators.

The little museum of gladiators near the amphitheatre presents very interesting pieces that you never would expect to see: the real armours of the gladiators and the reconstruction of the look of the arena.



Casually of fortunatelly (maybe because they were more numerous or more beloved) there are armours of the Thracians. The reconstructed look of these warriors was so:



And here are the pieses found in the amphitheatre:





Very interesting is this stone with the hunt of the wild boar. They say that the women-gladiators had the same clothes as the men but they had the breast bounded with a large belt. Here we see probably a hunt. Look at the woman: she is surely the protagonist. Look at her arms.

I noticed an interesting peculiarity: they have bracelets on the ankles.



This marble was a part of the decoration of the sittimngs for rich men (women had a special part where they could assist the battles, too, but they did not sit together with the men):