Gladiators in the Greek East: A Case Study in Romanization

Abstract

This study aims to analyse the spread of gladiatorial games – one of relatively few Roman imports into the popular culture of the Greek east – with regard to the debate about Romanization. Concerning the driving forces of the process, the theory of Romans pushing forward the spread of gladiatorial games is not convincing; the Greeks themselves seem to have adopted the gladiatorial games eagerly. The organization of gladiatorial schools, the social origins of gladiators and the life expectancy might have been the same in east and west, but in other respects the gladiatorial games were transformed by the contact with Greek traditions. An analysis of gravestones reveals that Greek gladiators presented themselves as being very similar to athletes – the gravestones praised their beauty and their propinquity to heroes. The spread of gladiatorial games in the Greek world, therefore, represents not only a process of acceptance and appropriation, but also of reinterpretation.