Abstract
Entertainment plays a central role in the series as a plot-driving element, which is not surprising at first. For a gladiator and the corresponding fights are also about a functionalization or utilization for a public entertainment of Roman citizens in a designated place.
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Notes
- 1.
For this hint I thank Reinhold Viehoff.
- 2.
In the literal translation, munera essentially denotes a task, but also an office, a gift or an obligation. The field was relatively broad. These could be civil offices, contributions to the army, military service, or the financing of festivities and public games. Cf. Botermann Helga (2005): How Gauls become Romans. Life in the Roman Empire. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart.
- 3.
Mann (2016, 19 ff.) describes in detail the course of a munus, in its historical context, its temporal course and its variance.
- 4.
The nobility included the ruling class of the middle and late Roman Republic, which had achieved prominence by holding public office. Cf. Ronald Syme (2003, 1939): The Roman Revolution. Power Struggles in Ancient Rome. Fundamentally revised and for the first time complete new edition. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart.
- 5.
Mann (2016: 9 f.) sees here a “core theme of Roman history: Anyone who wants to understand the mental dispositions of the Romans, their social ideas of order, their self-perception and images of others, cannot avoid the gladiatorial fights”.
- 6.
For example, in the series Strike Back: Project Dawn. (D. Percival, B. Eagles et al. 2011), in which two British secret agents chase an Arab terrorist around the world. The series Over There. Command Iraq (dir.: Chr. Gerolmo 2005) focuses on the third Gulf War from the point of view of soldiers in a US infantry division and Die Zeit commented: “The fiction is closer to the truth than the embellished US news.”
- 7.
Cf. the architectural and political history of the development of Roman amphitheatres from the third century BC to the construction of the Colosseum in Mann (2016: 67 ff.) and Welch, K. 2007: The Roman Amphitheatre: From Its Origins to the Colosseum. Cambridge.
- 8.
This should not lead us to regard the ancient amphitheatres as places of contemplative enjoyment. In the Art of Love (verses 89–100), Ovid describes the “round theatres” as “rich hunting grounds”: “There you will find something to love and something to play with, something to touch fleetingly and something to hold. […] Thus, in their best finery, women rush to the games [… T]his place detracts from moral decorum.”
- 9.
In an analogous perspective, the Tribute to Panem (book 2008, film 2012–2015, director: G. Ross) can currently be cited as an example here, staging life-and-death games in a fantasy world of center and periphery for the purpose of distraction and demonstration of power, which at the same time illustrate the immersive potential of entertainment and the power to entertain.
- 10.
In the original English, the question is “Are you not entertained?” which Maximus repeats twice before following up with, “Is this, why you are not here?”
- 11.
Fromm, E. et al. (1936): Studies on authority and the family. Research reports from the Institute for Social Research. Alcan, Paris. Adorno, T.W. et al. (1950): The Authoritarian Personality. Harper and Brothers, New York. Current and related to the political shifts in Germany and Europe: Heitmeyer, W. (2017): Authoritarian Temptations. Edition Suhrkamp, Berlin.
- 12.
Cf. Arvanitis, Jim (2003): Pankration. The Traditional Greek Combat Sport & Modern Martial Art. Paladin Press.
- 13.
The film now joins a host of similar documentaries and docu-dramas, such as Takedown. The DNA of GSP (USA 2014, director: K. Manchester) or Conor McGregor: Notorious (USA 2017, director: G. Fitzgerald). The discussion about public arena fights ignited in Germany in 2009, when the first major Ultimate Fighting event was held in Cologne and, for youth protection reasons, entry was only granted to those aged 18 and over. The then chairman of the sports committee of the Bundestag, Peter Danckert, vehemently condemned this and did not shy away from direct comparisons with gladiator fights in ancient Rome. Cf. http://www.spiegel.de/video/ultimate-fighting-streit-um-brutalo-event-in-koeln-video-1004990.html [Last accessed 27 February 2019].
- 14.
For example, there is a format called Rap am Mittwoch in Germany, King of the Dot in Canada, Don’t Flop in the UK, FlipTop in the Philippines, the Ultimate Rap League or Grind Time in the USA, or Rap Contenders in France. But there is also a lively battle rap scene in Russia, which organizes itself in the YouTube-ready format Versus X, among others. The 2017 duel between favourite Oxxxymiron and challenger Slava KPSS went on for an hour and achieved over 39 million clicks by January 2019. Cf. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4rvTMBCJD0&t=965s
References
Botermann Helga (2005): How Gauls become Romans. Life in the Roman Empire. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart.
Han, Byung-Chul (2012): Topologie der Gewalt. Berlin: Matthes & Seitz.
Hügel, Hans-Otto (1993): Ästhetische Zweideutigkeit der Unterhaltung. Eine Skizze ihrer Theorie. In: montage/av 2/1993, S. 119–141. Online unter: https://www.montage-av.de/a_1993_1_2.html
Mann, Christian (2016): Die Gladiatoren. München: C.H. Beck
Müller, Stefan (2006): „Ein Schlachtfest in der Mitte, damit das ganze Amphitheater es sieht.“Überlegungen zu den Motiven der Zuschauer bei den römischenmunera. In: Günther, Linda-Marie, Michael Oberweis (Hrsg.) (2006): Inszenierungen des Todes. Hinrichtung – Martyrium – Schändung. Bochum: Europ. Univ.-Verlag, S. 37–52.
Syme, Ronald (2003): Die Römische Revolution. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta.
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Wilke, T. (2023). Entertainment in the Roman Republic and in the Series. In: Living and Dying in the Roman Republic . Palgrave Macmillan, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-38870-6_4
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