A day at the amphitheatre at Pompeii
A day at the amphitheatre at Pompeii
I cant believe its nearly here, I mean I've been waiting for a long time to see my favourite gladiator, Marcimus Omnimous and the best games this planet has seen. Marcimus is a Thracian, which is my favourite gladiator, as they seem to win every match. Thracians wears armour on both legs and carries a small square shield and wears either a full visor helmet or an open faced helmet with a wide brim and carried a curved Thracian sword with a n angled bend in the blade. Marcimus was a prisoner captured in Spain and is one of the best gladiators in Pompeii at the moment. Hello my name is Alexander Museumus, I am 18 years old and I work with my father at the local grocery, which is famous throughout the whole of Pompeii. The business has been in my family for as long as I can remember and I take great pride in my work. The second most important thing in my life is the gladiator fights which will be around soon.
Two days and counting until the greatest fight Pompeii has ever witnessed against Nuceria. I have been a bloodthirsty fan of watching gladiators since the age of seven when I saw my first game with my father and older sister, Serena who is love with every muscular gladiator she can see with two eyes. That day changed my life and I can remember every second of the match from the words "Mitte" and "Lugula". When I was thirteen years old and starting to build muscle I wanted to be a gladiator, and trained extremely hard everyday to become an idolised hero. Even now I occasionally train at the Stabian Baths with some of my friends. For the past several months the walls of Pompeii have been flooded full of advertisements for the big day against our neighbouring city, Nuceria.
People have been going crazy over this event in two days time, some of which would come running into my families grocery screaming "its coming, its coming" and running out again. Small boys in wearing body armour made of scrap wood would fight in the streets with wooden sticks whilst girls watched them. These gladiatorial battles are what bonded the people of Pompeii and kept the community so strong and without it I think there would be mayhem. Woman in Pompeii would go crazy over gladiators and fantasise over these disfigured monsters and some would go to the extreme and leave their husband and family just for an affair with these men. My older sister, Serena is going to the gladiatorial barracks tomorrow to see them train with hundreds of other screaming girls. I think I will go as well to catch a glimpse of Marcimus and see how these animals train.
Most of the gladiators are prisoners, slaves and criminals who train long and hard in schools but there are a few such fighters are paid volunteers and despite the unpromising life expectancy of those who entered the arena, free born Romans sometimes became gladiators voluntarily, relinquishing their rights as citizens and giving over their bodies, in the words of the contract they signed, "to be burnt, to be chained up, to be beaten, and to be killed by an iron weapon." Gladiators who performed well were rewarded like my friend Sypras who had fallen into financial difficulties, and became a gladiator. He was always a big man but quite ugly. Now being a gladiator for one year and won two matches he is the richest man I know and is a sex symbol with the pick of the entire pretty woman.
It's time for another visit to the baths and I'm looking forward to the great delights that the baths have. I quickly trotted along to the entrance gates of the Stabian baths. I go to the doorkeeper to pay the administration fee. Every time I go, it seems to be going higher, but that's probably because of the refurbishments going on. I glanced across to the Palaestra (exercise area) I see Spyros, a good friend of mine turned gladiator. I started talking to him about the next Amphitheatre date while doing some weight lifting. I then proceeded onto ...
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It's time for another visit to the baths and I'm looking forward to the great delights that the baths have. I quickly trotted along to the entrance gates of the Stabian baths. I go to the doorkeeper to pay the administration fee. Every time I go, it seems to be going higher, but that's probably because of the refurbishments going on. I glanced across to the Palaestra (exercise area) I see Spyros, a good friend of mine turned gladiator. I started talking to him about the next Amphitheatre date while doing some weight lifting. I then proceeded onto some boxing, which I've been working on for a long time. After a good long workout I headed towards the Apodyterium (changing rooms). Here I undressed and handed my clothes to the slave attendants. I made sure I had some money with me knowing that it might come in handy.
I decided to head off to the toilets, noticing the refurbishments being made to the boiler rooms and the East wing. My next stop is the tepidarium (warm room) this is where I sit on a bench round the wall in a warm steamy atmosphere, perspiring gently and preparing for the higher temperatures in the next room. I was also being rubbed down with ointments and I put on special clogs for the caldarium (hot room). The hot room was my favourite I thought to myself as I soaked myself in the bath. I then summoned a slave to rub me down with olive oil. He started to work the olive oil into my skin and grunted as he removed it with a strigil. Next I summoned a masseur who by luck happened to be female, she started to massage my back and all my muscles. Wow, I felt great, I decided to take a plunge in a large tub at the end of the caldarium to cool myself down. I decided the swimming pool was next, I walked towards the shallow baths and to my amazement I spotted two well-known gladiators in the opposite end of the bath. I bought some sausages from the seller, which was shouting out prices circling the baths. I took a plunge in the deep circular pool of unheated water, followed by a brisk rub down with a towel and a brisk chat with the gladiators. I told them that I was thinking of going in for next month's tryouts for gladiators. They laughed, but gave me some advice telling me that they were happy in their homeland but were captured and by luck alone they have survived, living life's of Kings but they never know when there last day on Earth is and fear the long walk onto the amphitheatre.
After meeting the gladiators and having a relaxing time at the Stabian Baths I decided to go home as it was going to be a busy day tomorrow. When I arrived home my mother had dinner served on the table and the whole family was talking about the big day. After several of hours arguing who is the best gladiator I went to bed and dreamt of becoming a gladiator.
I woke up early but my sister was already up and out the door with two of her friends running to the gladiator barracks. I also quickly left soon after and arrived at the gladiator barracks sweaty and out of breath. Gladiators were trained at special schools originally owned by private citizens, but later taken over by the imperial state to prevent the build up of a private army and revolutions. Gladiators trained like true athletes and received medical attention and three meals a day. Their training included learning how to use various weapons, including the war chain, net, trident, dagger, and lasso. Each gladiator was allowed to fight in the armour and with the weapons that best suited him. They wore armour, though not Roman military armour, as this would send the wrong political signal to the populous. Instead gladiators wore the armour and used the weaponry of non-Roman people, playing the role of Rome's enemies. There were crowds of screaming fans all watching the gladiators train.
The gladiators training was extremely hard and brutal, fighting each other with hard wooden swords hitting their toned bodies with extreme force with their lanista shouting at them sometimes hitting them with a long stick if they seemed tired our not trying. Training involved the learning of a series of figures, which were broken down into various phases. The lanista made a profit by renting or selling the troupe. This was a very lucrative business, but on the other hand, he was viewed as among the lowest of the low on the social scale. The objection was that these men derived their whole income from treating human beings like animals. There were numerous assault courses were a big wheel would rotate a mechanical device, which would spin, and two gladiators had to jump and duck the spinning weapons. The scary thing is, if they were hit they could actually be knocked out or even die from the blow of the weapon. Many were practising forms of fighting like boxing or kickboxing. These men looked exhausted and I don't know how they are going to have enough strength to do this tomorrow but this time risk their life. I left the barracks amazed and thrilled but disappointed, as I didn't see Marcimus. I went back to work with my father and left my sister drooling over the ferocious gladiators. Tomorrow is the big day and I couldn't wait, shivers would crawl down my spine just hearing people talk about it.
The big day is here and the whole family got ready for the big match. We even closed the shop to witness this day. We all walked together, well my sister ran but crowds of people cheering and saying "hello" made this day feel special. We arrived at the amphitheatre, hearing food-sellers calling out their low prices and we bought a basket of figs and various other fruit. Admission was free, but the ticket-men were in place, ready to hand out the tokens, which assigned places in the various tiers and wedges of seats. Citizens of Pompeii were pouring in, some dressed in white, the formal Roman manner (as we were), others robed in brilliant colours. Woman in their best finery, bejewelled and saucily veiled, with children scampering freely, and men wandered about making contacts, possibly business acquaintances. We bustled our way through the crowds to find good seats. The rows of seats were filling fast. A fine haze of perfumes, fried squid and garlic gently assaulted our nostrils. We came especially early to witness all of today's events and the morning ceremonial procession was followed by hunts and animal combats, often involving ferocious and exotic beasts. Today's exciting warm up for the crowd was to tie a bull and a panther together, and that the maddened creatures would tear one another to pieces. This excited the crowd a lot as the two beasts were hissing and foaming at the mouth and eventually they both tore each other to shreds.The corpses were dragged off of the arena floor by hooks. Another few more wild beasts were bought in and blood was everywhere but the best was soon to come.
After this, unusually two woman stepped out in gold armour gleaming in the sun looked so beautiful and thought know wonder why woman go crazy over the gladiators. The men are stopped with their tongues hanging out whilst these two fit amazing woman were fighting for their lives.
It was around midday now and it was time for the criminals to be executed in brutal, grotesque displays. The criminal was caught red handed stealing and cursing Emperor Nero. Naturally golden veils were wrapped around the statues of the gods so they would not have to witness the killing. The whole amphitheatre booed the criminal when the Roman guard dragged him in. his crimes were posted up and he was shaven headed and filthy. I got the feeling he was beaten up the night before. The criminal was weak and floppy and was stripped naked and tied to a stake, which was on a wheeled platform. The platform was wheeled to the middle and literally from nowhere two very hungry lions had been released. The two lions ran towards the convict and he slowly lifted his head and he tried to scream but he was so weak he just opened his mouth wide open and started to weep. The dominant lion leapt on him and the crowd rose, shouting, "Kill him". Moments later the lions tore the man to pieces.
The time had come. Marcimus against the highest ranked gladiator in Nuceria. The huge doors opened and the two gladiators entered the centre. Marcimus looked stronger than ever and he was applauded with the roar of trumpets and horns with screaming fans. I was one of them. Both were oiled and showing off their muscles, they strutted forth in order of the programme. Their names were hailed. They were both attended by their lanistae, all in crisp white tunics. Only minutes to go. They both warmed up which consisted of muscle exercises with plenty of grunts and knee bends. All the weapons were checked and approved and a final march around the whole arena. Then the Emperor recited the phrase, "Morituri te salutamus!" ("We who are about to die salute you!") After that, the first pairing began.
Marcimus was equipped with his curved sword and body army whilst his enemy was a murmillo in a fish crested helmet circled each other. They both circled several times stirring intensely and the murmillo called Scenerio threw his first blow at Marcimus, but missed and the force of his throw made him stumble which gave Marcimus the chance to hit him. Marcimus charge at Scenerio holding his curved blade high and striked him on the shoulder, which made him fall. Marcimus turned round and boasted his strength, but whilst doing this, his enemy got up, blood dripping from his up and limped towards Marcimus. Marcimus quickly turned around shocked of his recovery and blocked his sword. Marcimus angry and adrenaline pumping through his veins charged at his victim like the lion and pointed his sword at his stomach. Scenerio was steadily moving backwards and the crowd tense as ever fell over. Marcimus kicked his sword and shield away and put his foot on his stomach raising his sword in the air screaming. We were all awaiting the verdict of the Emperor and the audience were shouting "Verbera", and "Lugula".
The Emperor slowly but his fist side ways waiting, for the audience to quiet down. Everyone was off there seats waiting the verdict. The Emperor finally put his thumb downwards symbolising that Marcimus should cut his throat. The audience roared with excitement and Marcimus finished him off. The crowd was very excited and small fights started in the audience. I didn't think nothing of it as I was to excited but a man flew across my family and hit his head on the solid floor. My family and I now feared for our live as it seemed everyone was fighting. All the people from Nuceria seemed to be jealous of our cities wealth and victory and decided to start are huge riot. It was an extremely hot and overcrowded day but they had no excuse. Floods of people swamped the arena stealing wooden javelins and throwing at each other. I was so scared as we could be next to die. We tried to get through the exits but fights were tacking place everywhere. We saw a small gap and squeezed through the door to the outside of the amphitheatre where I witnessed men being thrown over the side. We both ran down an empty staircase to the outside of the amphitheatre and I stopped and froze at thousands of people killing each other nothing. My father grapped my arm and we ran to a safe distance. I turned around to see the whole are demolished. Trees fallen, stalls broken and people dead.
We all began to cry as we were so close of death and how many of our friends couldn't of died in that riot. It was a horrific site and my bodily functions seemed to stop as I couldn't walk or talk, I just fell to my knees and cried. Emotions high we walked home slowly. When we got home we sat in silence with the image of our fellow Pompeiians dieing before us.
The next day and the riots were over, my family and the remainder of Pomeii went to the forum to hear what happened and who died. Unusually the Emperor was there and he had an announcement to make. He said slowly and disappointed that he will ban and close the arena for ten years. I couldn't believe my ears, as this was my life being taking away from me. I walked off thinking why and how this happened; the most important thing to this town and me has been taking away from us. I was deeply sad and thought about the thousands dead in the amphitheatre.
