The Roman games and the value of life.

The Roman games, or ludi, were held for the entertainment of the Roman people and played a significant role in ancient Roman culture. In the amphitheater, gladiators battled against wild beasts or engaged in combat with other gladiators. Such events were used to “elevate status” and to create “interaction between the ruler and the ruled”, highlighting the importance the Romans placed on rank and hierarchy. The ludi represented Rome’s dominance over its enemies but at what cost? It celebrated the fearlessness and power of the warriors and the state but also revealed their viciousness and disregard for the living. The act of killing, the crowd’s behavior, and even the arena itself all demonstrate how the Roman games devalue life, which is what this essay will explore.

Human beings have an unusual fascination with violence but the idea of watching people die for sport is still shocking. The practice of watching deaths actually originates from the Christian ‘good death’, wherein friends and family gather to witness a loved one’s departure to a better place. “Death by public execution was an echo, even a mirror, of the Christian ‘good death’” in that it was a public event and was presided over by clergymen. However, the religious and solemn atmosphere cannot be found in a Roman arena. Le Bon suggests that in a crowd “a man descends several rungs in the ladder of civilization. Isolated, he may be a cultivated individual; in a crowd, he is a barbarian – that is, a creature acting by instinct”. Essentially, crowd mentality transforms the sacred ceremony into a boorish and vulgar event because in a crowd, people lose their individual identities and sense of personal responsibility, allowing them to act in an uncivilized manner. Even during public executions, “people danced around the scaffold and fully functional miniature