Professor David Peimer
The Colosseum of Ancient Rome: Much More than Bread and Circuses?
Summary
An architectural marvel, seating for over 50,000 Romans, one of the great icons of the Empire - what ideas did the Colosseum forge in Ancient Rome’s identity? The Empire’s Colosseum was about offering much more than rule by ‘bread and circuses’; it created a fascinating, violent, self confident, conquering and ‘superior’ identity. For Imperial Rome, it was also the place to be seen in, to watch others - for both the powerful elite and the ordinary citizen. As the great spectacle of ancient times, is it so different to similar icons of national identity today?
Professor David Peimer
David Peimer is a professor of theatre and performance studies in the UK. He has taught at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and New York University (Global Division), and was a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University. Born in South Africa, David has won numerous awards for playwriting and directing. He has written eleven plays and directed forty in places like South Africa, New York, Brussels, London, Berlin, Zulu Kingdom, Athens, and more. His writing has been published widely and he is the editor of Armed Response: Plays from South Africa (2009) and the interactive digital book Theatre in the Camps (2012). He is on the board of the Pinter Centre in London.
Oh, I’m sure, gambling absolutely on the outcome of different battles, different conflicts of gladiators, all sorts of things. Chariot races, massive gambling. Plays to be seen, plays to go to and you could put one penny, you could put 1,000 pennies or as I said, ordinary citizens all the way up to the Roman elite, the senators, the aristocracy, and of course the emperor at the top, a place for all of them to get together. Very clever if you think about how you bring everyone together, but it’s absolutely under the hierarchy of emperor, you know, going all the way down the social cultural ladder.
Yeah, that’s a great question. Which a lot of people have argued over, you know, the difference between a Roman soldier and a gladiator. Who would’ve been the better fighter? The difference, I think, is that the soldiers trained under the code of military discipline to be part of a platoon or brigade. So, it’s got at least 30, 40 buddies in a platoon and then larger in a brigade, in a legion. You know, he’s got hundreds and hundreds or thousands with him together and they train to fight together as a unit. And absolutely that togetherness, which we call the Roman discipline or discipline of military, it was so crucial. The gladiator has to be self-disciplined and learn to be a really good fighter. But in the end, he’s an individual, fighting for his own life basically. So, there’s a different intention behind the two. The soldiers got to fit in with the legion, with the platoon, the brigade and centurions who are the leaders of these what we call platoons, brigades today. They would be being the leaders and they’ve got to follow the captains or the sergeants or the majors, et cetera, the colonels in today’s language. So it’s a very different sense of the group versus the individual and a different set of disciplinary skills. But martially, I’m sure they would’ve had fairly similar, you know, the use of the sword. But there are differences when you’re working with 10, how you use your sword or the shield.
Well, that’s a great question, then the emperor would’ve had to make the decision, you know, and could have said, “Okay, you fought bravely.” I mean that’s one example that I showed here with Titus. “You fought bravely, you fought well, we’ll let you both go off.” Or it was linked up with this idea of what it is to be an honorable, brave fighter as opposed to just giving in in the first, you know, couple of minutes I guess.
Not always, great question. Often they had to, because of course it’s an investment in the end, but it varies all the time, more or less. Or remember it would go on at least a whole day if not a couple of days. So, if you attend a bit or you attend a lot or all of that would’ve been varied and lots of gambling and I’m sure the black market and tickets and touting and all sorts of things. Definitely, thank you.