Conferința: Entertaining the masses. Gladiators in the Pontic region, Marius Cristian Streinu

 

 

Entertaining the masses. Gladiators in the Pontic region
Marius Cristian Streinu
National Institute of Heritage, Romania

Gladiator fights were more than violent spectacles for the public. The first events of this kind were organized in a funerary context, but later they acquired a new significance linked, this time, to the imperial cult. The organization and promotion of the fights begin to symbolize the new reality of the Roman world and the symbiosis with the Greek world. Mentioned for the first time in Rome in the first half of the 3rd century BC, they end up being clearly attested in the Greek eastern space only in the first half of the 1st century BC. With an already secular tradition, in the Pontic area they appeared even later later, sometine during the 2nd-3rd centuries AD, the period of maximum ascent and popularity. The sources tell us of complex philotimia, but also the stories of the arena fighters, a sign that although they penetrate the Pontic space late, the gladiator fights were very successful spreading at a galloping pace. However, the places where the events took place remain an open topic of inquiry. If for the West Pontic provinces matters are clearer, for the South Pontic ones the situation remains debatable.

 

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