CLAS 220: Arena and Circus - The Roman Games
compiled by John Porter, University of Saskatchewan

Terms, Relevant Links Elsewhere on the WWW, and Bibliography for Course Lectures on the Games in Ancient Rome.

NOTE: For the most part, links on this page are to relevant material on other WWW sites.
Please do not assume that the material is mine unless the page to which you are directed is clearly marked as being part of this WWW site.

Terms

(Those terms marked with an asterisk are of particular importance.)

The Arena

• 264 B.C. — *Ludi Funebres of Junius Brutus Pera
  • Forum Boarium
• *Circus Maximus
• *Munera
• Optimates vs. Populares
• *Noxii
  • *Damnati ad bestias
  • Damnati ad gladium
• Prolusiones
• Paegniarii
• *Tunica Molesta
• Ludi
• *Lanista
• Munerarius
• Cicero and Atticus
• Milo and Clodius
• *Familia
• *Tirones vs. Veterani
• *Rudis
• Gladiators with heavy or medium armor:
  • *Secutor / Samnis
  • Murmillo / Gallus
  • Hoplomachus
  • Andabata
• Gladiators with light or no armor:
  • *Thraex
  • *Retiarius
  • Dimachaerus
  • [Laquearius / Laqueator]
• Essedarius
• Gear
  • Galea
  • Manica
  • Galerus
  • Scutum vs. Parma
  • Gladius vs. Sica
  • Ocrea
• Parmularii vs. Scutarii
• Pollicem Premere ("Missos!")
• Pollicem Vertere ("Iugula!")
• Stans Missus
• Rude Donari
• Mercury (Psychopompos)
• *Charun (Charon)
• Spoliarium
• Carnaria
• Venatio [see as well the entry s.v. "Venatio" in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities]
  • *Bestiarius vs. *Venator
• Cochlea
• *Amphitheater
• *Colosseum (*Flavian Ampitheater): A.D. 80
  • Vespasian, Titus, Domitian
  • Colossus of Nero
• *Arena
• Rotuli
• *Naumachiae
• Hypogeum
• Calplurnius Siculus
• Septimius Severus
• Selurus (Sicily)
• Hercules
  • Deianeira
  • Nessus
  • Mt. Oeta
• Dirce
• Orpheus — Maenads
• Daedalus and Icarus
• Pasiphae
  • Apuleius, Metamorphoses
  • ps.-Lucian, Lucius, or the Ass
• Leander and Hero
  • Abydus — Sestos
• Mucius Scaevola and King Porsenna (Livy 2.12)
• Attis
  • Magna Mater (Great Mother)
  • Galli
• Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

The Circus

• [UNFORTUNATELY, WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO DEAL WITH EVENTS IN THE CIRCUS THIS TERM]

Links to Relevant Sites Elsewhere on the WWW

• Roman Entertainment: the Arena and the Circus   [useful links]
• Arena: Gladiatorial Games
• Roman Gladiatorial Games
• Gladiators
• The Roman Gladiator
• Amphitheatrum (excerpt from William Smith's A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities)
• Gladiatores (excerpt from William Smith's A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities)
• Venatio (excerpt from William Smith's A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities)
• Naumachia (excerpt from William Smith's A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities)
• The Colosseum (Flavian Amphitheater) [Platner and Ashby, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome]
• Images of the Roman Colosseum (Flavian Amphitheater)
• Gladiatrix (Grave of female gladiator in London?)
• Amphitheatres of El Jem
• Circus (excerpt from William Smith's A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities)
• The Circus: Roman Chariot Racing
• Circus Maximus

Bibliography

For a list of journal abbreviations and call numbers, see the
Journals Relating to Classics in the University of Saskatchewan Libraries page.

• Albu, E. "Gladiator at the Millennium," Arethusa 41.1 (2008) 185-204.
• Arenas, A. "Popcorn and Circus: Gladiator and the Spectacle of Virtue," Arion 9 (2001) 1-12.
• Auguet, R. Cruelty and Civilization: The Roman Games. New York, 1972.
• Aurigemma, S. I mosaici di Zliten. Rome, 1926.
• Baker, A. The gladiator: the secret history of Rome's warrior slaves. New York, 2002.
• Baldwin, B. "The Sports Fans of Rome and Byzantium," LCM 9 (1984) 28-30.
• Balsdon, J.P.V.D. Life and Leisure in Ancient Rome. New York,1969.
• Barron, J.A. "The turning of the thumb," McGill University Magazine, 1905. [microform]
• Barton, C.A. "The Scandal of the Arena," Representations 27 (1989) 1-36.
• Barton, C.A. The Sorrows of the Ancient Romans. Princeton, 1993.
• Bartsch, S. Actors in the Audience: Theatricality and Doublespeak from Nero to Hadrian. Cambridge, 1994.
• Beacham, R.C. Spectacle Entertainments of Early Imperial Rome. New Haven, 1999.
• Bergmann, B., and C. Kondoleon, eds. The Art of Spectacle. New Haven, 2000.
• Berlan-Bajard, A. Les spectacles aquatiques romains. Rome, 2006.
• Bertrand, J.-M., ed. La violence dans les mondes grec et romain: actes du colloque international, Paris, 2-4 mai, 2002. Paris, 2005.
• Bingham, S. "Security at the Games in the Early Imperial Period," EMC 18 (1999) 369-79.
• Bomgardner, D.L. The Story of the Roman Amphitheatre. London and New York, 2000.
• Bretler, M.Z., and M. Poliakoff. "Rabbi Simeon ben Lakish at the Gladiator's Banquet: Rabbinic Observations on the Roman Arena," HTR 83 (1990) 93-98.
• Brown, S. "Death as Decoration" in A. Richlin, ed., Pornography and Representation in Greece and Rome (New York, 1992) 180-211.
• Brown, S. "Explaining the Arena: Did the Romans 'Need' Gladiators?" JRA 8 (1995) 376-84.
• Brunet, S. "Female and Dwarf Gladiators," Mouseion 3.4 (2004) 145-71.
• Cagniart, P. "The Philosopher and the Gladiator," CW 93 (2000) 607-18.
• Cameron, A. Circus Factions. Blues and Greens at Rome and Byzantium. Oxford, 1976.
• Cameron, A. Porphyrius the Charioteer. Oxford, 1973.
• Carter, M. "(Un)Dressed to Kill: Viewing the Retiarius," in J. Edmondson and A. Keith, eds., Roman Dress and the Fabrics of Roman Culture (Toronto, Buffalo, and London, 2008) 113-35.
• Carter, M.J. "Gladiatorial Combat: The Rules of Engagement," CJ 102 (2006) 97-114.
• Carter, M. "Archiereis and Asiarchs: A Gladiatorial Perspective," GRBS 44 (2004) 41-68.
• Carter, M. "Artemidorus and the Arbelas Gladiator," ZPE 134 (2001) 109-15.
• Cerutti, S.M., and L. Richardson, Jr. "The Retiarius Tunicatus Of Suetonius, Juvenal, And Petronius," AJP 110 (1989) 589-94.
• Coleman, K.M. "The Contagion of the Throng: Absorbing Violence in the Roman World," Hermathena 164 (1998) 65-88.
• Coleman, K.M. "Fatal Charades. Roman Executions Staged as Mythological Enactments," JRS 80 (1990) 44-73.
• Coleman, K.M. "Launching into History: Aquatic Displays in the Early Empire," JRS 83 (1993) 48ff.
• Corbeill, A. "The Power of Thumbs," in id., Nature Embodied. Gesture in Ancient Rome (Princeton, 2004) 41-66.
• Cozzo, G. Il Colosseo. Rome, 1971.
• Curtis, R. I. "A slur on Lucius Asicius, the Pompeian gladiator TAPA CX (1980) 51-61.
• Dill, S. Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius. London, 1920.
• Dodge, H. "Amusing the Masses: Buildings for Entertainment and Leisure in the Roman World," in D.S. Potter and D.J. Mattingly, eds., Life, Death, and Entertainment in the Roman Empire (Ann Arbor, 1999) 205-55.
• Dunbabin, K.M.D. The Mosaics of Roman North Africa: Studies in Iconography and Patronage. Oxford, 1978.
• Edmonson, J.C. "Dynamic Arenas," in W.J. Slater, ed., Roman Theater and Society (Ann Arbor, 1996).
• Edwards, C. The Politics of Immorality in Ancient Rome. Cambridge, 1993.
• Edwards, C. "Unspeakable Professions: Public Performance and Prostitution in Ancient Rome," in J.P. Hallett and M.B. Skinner, eds., Roman Sexualities (Princeton, 1997) 66-95.
• Ehrman, R.K. "Martial, De spectaculis 8: Gladiator or Criminal ?" Mnemosyne XL (1987) 422-425.
• Epplett, C. "The Capture of Animals by the Roman Military," G&R 48 (2001) 210-22.
• Étienne, R. "La naissance de l'amphithéâtre: le mot et la chose," REL 43 (1965) 213-20.
• Fagan, G.G. The Lure of the Arena: Social Psychology and the Crowd at the Roman Games. Cambridge and New York, 2011.
• Feldherr, A. Spectacle and Society in Livy's History. Berkeley, 1998.
• Feldherr, A. "Ships of State: Aeneid 5 and Augustan Circus Spectacle," ClassAnt 14 (1955) 245-65.
• Futrell, A. Blood in the Arena: The Spectacle of Roman Power. Austin, 1997.
• Futrell, A. The Roman Games. A Sourcebook. Oxford, 2005.
• Gabucci, A., ed. The Colosseum. Los Angeles, 2001.
• Gardiner, N. Athletics in the Ancient World. Oxford, 1930.
• Goldman, N. "Reconstructing the Roman Colosseum Awning," Archaeology 35.2 (1982) 57-65.
• Grandi, L. "The Photography of Ben Hur," American Cinematographer 40 (1959) 604-5 and 622-5.
• Grant, M. Gladiators. London, 1967.
• Guilland, R. "The Hippodrome at Constantinople," Speculum 23 (1948) 676-682.
• Gunderson, E. "The Ideology of the Arena," ClassAnt 15 (1996) 113-51.
• Gunderson, E. "The Flavian Amphitheatre: All The World As Stage," in A.J. Boyle and W.J. Dominik, eds., Flavian Rome: Culture, Image, Text (Boston, 2003) 637-58.
• Guttmann, A. "Roman Sports Violence," in J.H. Goldstein, ed., Sports Violence (New York, 1983) 7-19.
• Harris, H.A. Sport in Greece and Rome. New York, 1972.
• Heintz, F. "Circus Curses and their Archaeological Contexts," JRA 11 (1998) 337-42.
• Hengel, M. Crucifixion in the Ancient World and the Folly of the Message of the Cross. Philadelphia and London, 1977.
• Hönle, A., and A. Henze. Römische Amphitheater und Stadien. Zurich, 1981.
• Hope, V.M. "Negotiating Identity: The Gladiators of Roman Nîmes," in J. Berry and R. Laurence, eds., Cultural Identity in the Roman Empire (London, 1998) 176-95.
• Hope, V.M. "Fighting for Identity: The Funerary Commemoration of Italian Gladiators," in A. Cooley, ed., The Epigraphic Landscape of Roman Italy (London, 2000) 93-113.
• Hopkins, K. Death and Renewal, vol. 2. Cambridge, 1983.
• Hopkins, K., and M. Beard. The Colosseum. Cambridge [Mass.], 2005.
• Humphrey, J.H. Roman Circuses. Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1986.
• Jackson, R. "The Chester Gladiator Rediscovered," Britannia XIV (1983) 87-95.
• Jacobelli, L. Gladiators at Pompeii. Los Angeles, 2003.
• Jennison, G. Animals for Show and Pleasure in Ancient Rome. Manchester, 1937.
• Jory, E.J. "Gladiators in the Theatre," CQ 36 (1986) 537-39.
• Junkelmann, M. Hollywoods Traum von Rom. Gladiator und die Tradition des Monumentalfilms. Mainz am Rhein, 2004.
• Kayser, F. "La gladiature en Égypte," REA 102 (2000) 459-78.
• Kleijvegt, M. "The Social Dimensions of Gladiatorial Combat in Petronius' Cena Trimalchionis," in H. Hofmann and M. Zimmermann, eds., Groningen Colloquia on the Novel vol. 9 (Groningen, 1998) 75-96.
• Köhne, E., C. Ewigleben, and R. Jackson. Gladiators and Caesars: The Power of Spectacle in Ancient Rome. Berkeley, 2000.
• Kokolakis, M. Gladiatorial Games and Animal-Baiting in Lucian. Athens, 1959.
• Konig, J. Athletics and Literature in the Roman Empire. Cambridge, 2005.
• Kyle, D.G. Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World. Malden and Oxford, 2006.
• Kyle, D.G. Spectacles of Death in Ancient Rome. New York, 1998.
• Kyle, D. "Rethinking the Roman Arena: Gladiators, Sorrows and Games," AHB 11.2/3 (1997) 94-98. [review article]
• Lee, H "Athletics and the Bikini Girls from Piazza Amerina," Stadion 10 (1984) 45-76.
• Lendon, J.R. "Gladiators," CJ 95 (2000) 399-406. [review article]
• Leon, H.J. "Morituri te salutamus," TAPA 70 (1939) 46-50.
• Lintott, A.W. Violence in Republican Rome. Oxford, 1968. [pp.35-51]
• Lomas, K., and T. Cornell, eds. "Bread and Circuses." Euergetism and Municipal Patronage in Roman Italy. New York, 2002.
• Mahoney, A. Roman Sports and Spectacles. Newburyport, 2001.
• Malamud, M. "Roman Entertainments for the Masses in Turn-of-the-Century New York," CW 95 (2001) 49-57.
• Marton, A. "Filming the Chariot Race for Ben Hur," American Cinematographer 41 (1960) 94ff. 112-5.
• Matz, D. Greek and Roman Sport. Jefferson [N.C.], 1991.
• McCullough, A. "Female Gladiators in Imperial Rome: Literary Context and Historical Fact," CW 101 (2008) 197-209.
• Morgan, M.G. "Three Non-Roman Blood Sports," CQ 25 (1975) 117-122.
• Mechikoff, R.A. A History and Philosophy of Sport. Madison, 1993.
• Meijer, F. Gladiators: History's Most Deadly Sport. New York, 2004.
• Meijer, F. Wagenrennen. Spektakelshows in Rome and Constantinopel. Amsterdam, 2004.
• Olivová, V. Sports and Games in the Ancient World. New York, 1984.
• Pearson, J. Arena: The Story of the Colosseum. New York, 1973.
• Plass, P. The Game of Death in Ancient Rome: Arena Sport and Political Suicide. Madison, 1995.
• Poliakoff, M.B. Combat Sports in the Ancient World. New Haven and London, 1987.
• Potter, D.S., and D.J. Mattingly, eds. Life, Death, and Entertainment in the Roman Empire. Ann Arbor, 1999.
• Potter, D. "Martyrdom as Spectacle," in R. Scodel, ed., Theater and Society in the Classical World (Ann Arbor, 1993) 53-88.
• Poynton, J.B. "Public Games and the Romans," G&R 7 (1937) 27-35.
• Rawson, E. "Chariot-Racing in the Roman Republic," BSR 49 (1981) 1-16.
• Rawson, E. "Discrimina ordinum: The Lex Julia Theatralis," BSR 55 (1987) 83-114.
• Robert, J.-N. Les Plaisirs à Rome. Paris, 1986.
• Roueché, C. Performers and partisans at Aphrodisias in the Roman and late Roman periods. London, 1993.
• Scanlon, T.F. Greek And Roman Athletics: A Bibliography. Chicago, 1984.
• Schnurr, C. "The Lex Julia Theatralis of Augustus: Some Remarks on Seating Problems in Theatre, Amphitheatre and Circus," LCM 17.10 (1992) 147-160.
• Scobie, A. "Spectator Security and Comfort at Gladiatorial Games," Nikephoros 1 (1988) 191-243.
• Slater, W.J. "The Theatricality of Justice," CB 71 (1995) 143-57.
• Small, D.B. "Social Correlations of the Greek Cavea in the Roman Period," in S. MacReady and F.H. Thompson, eds., Roman Architecture in the Greek World (London, 1987) 85-93.
• Spyridakis, S. "Circus Factions in Sixth-Century Crete," GRBS 8 (1967) 249-250.
• Taylor, R. Roman Builders: A Study in Architectural Process. Cambridge, 2003.
• Thompson, L.L. "The Martyrdom of Polycarp: Death in the Roman Games," Journal of Religion 82 (2002) 27-52.
• Toner, J.P. Leisure and Ancient Rome. Oxford, 1995.
• Vesley, M. "Gladiatorial Training for Girls in the Collegia Iuvenum of the Roman Empire," EMC 17 (1998) 85-93.
• Veyne, P. Bread and Circuses: Historical Sociology and Political Pluralism / . London, 1990.
• Ville, G. La Gladiature en Occident des origines a la mort de Domitien. Rome, 1981.
• Vogel, L. "Circus Race Scenes in the Early Roman Empire," Art Bulletin 51 (1969) 155-160.
• Weismann, W. "Gladiator," RLAC XI, Lief. 81 (1979) 23-45.
• Welch, K. "The Roman arena in late-Republican Italy: a new interpretation," JRA 7 (1994) 59-80.
• Wiedemann, T. Emperors and Gladiators. London, 1992.
• Wiedemann, T. "The Spartacus Myth," Omnibus 8 (1984) 6-9.
• Wilson, R.J.A. Sicily under the Roman Empire. The Archaeology of a Roman Province, 36 B.C.-A.D. 535. Warminster, 1990.
• Winkler, M.M., ed. Gladiator. Film and History. Malden [Mass.], 2004.
• Wistrand, M. "Violence and Entertainment in Seneca the Younger," Eranos 88 (1990) 31-46.
• Zoll, A. Gladiatrix: The True Story of History's Unknown Woman Warrior. Berkeley, 2002.

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