The Roman Arena

293 snips

Feb 26, 2026

Guest

Matthew Nicholls

Matthew Nicholls, Oxford scholar of Roman architecture, explains amphitheatre building and imperial politics. John Pearce, archaeologist at King’s College, discusses beasts, logistics and material finds. Kathleen Coleman, Harvard classicist, explores gladiators’ social status and careers. They cover origins from funeral rites, arena logistics, Colosseum politics, spectacle organization, star performers and the decline of the games.

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INSIGHT

Christians Were Occasional Arena Victims

Christians were sometimes executed in arenas (e.g., Perpetua) but not the primary or frequent victims; evidence is limited and ancient.
Early accounts vary and include staged ordeals mixing animals and human executioners.

INSIGHT

Games Cost Money But Buy Status

Putting on games was costly and a form of social capital: sponsors lost money but gained status and public recognition.
North African companies profited by supplying beasts and diversifying into trade like olive oil.

INSIGHT

Patchy Sources Require Multi Evidence

Literary sources are patchy and moralising; historians must combine archaeology, inscriptions, and art to reconstruct games.
Many 'facts' (thumbs, salutations) rest on thin evidence and anecdotes rather than clear descriptions.

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Misha Glenny and guests discuss the countless venues across the Roman Empire which for over five hundred years drew the biggest crowds both in the Republic and under the Emperors. The shows there delighted the masses who knew, no matter how low their place in society, they were much better off than the gladiators about to fight or the beasts to be slaughtered. Some of the Roman elites were disgusted, seeing this popular entertainment as morally corrupting and un-Roman. Moral degradation was a less immediate concern though than the overspill of violence. There was a constant threat of gladiators being used as a private army and while those of the elite wealthy enough to stage the shows hoped to win great prestige, they risked disappointing a crowd which could quickly become a mob and turn on them.

With

Kathleen Coleman James Loeb Professor of the Classics at Harvard University

John Pearce Reader in Archaeology at King’s College London

And

Matthew Nicholls Fellow and Senior Tutor at St John’s College, Oxford

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Reading list:

C. A. Barton, The Sorrows of the Ancient Romans: The Gladiator and the Monster (Princeton University Press, 1993)

Roger Dunkle, Gladiators: Violence and Spectacle in Ancient Rome (Pearson, 2008)

Garrett G. Fagan, The Lure of the Arena: Social Psychology and the Crowd at the Roman Games (Cambridge University Press, 2011)

A. Futrell, Blood in the Arena: The Spectacle of Roman Power (University of Texas Press, 1997)

A. Futrell, The Roman Games: A Sourcebook (Blackwell Publishing, 2006)

Keith Hopkins and Mary Beard, The Colosseum (Profile, 2005)

Luciana Jacobelli, Gladiators at Pompeii (The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003)

Eckart Köhne and Cornelia Ewigleben (eds.), Gladiators and Caesars: The Power of Spectacle in Ancient Rome (University of California Press, 2000)

Donald Kyle, Spectacles of Death in Ancient Rome (Routledge, 1998)

F. Meijer, The Gladiators: History’s Most Deadly Sport (Souvenir, 2004)

Jerry Toner, The Day Commodus killed a Rhino: Understanding the Roman Games (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014)

K. Welch, The Roman Amphitheatre from its Origins to the Colosseum (Cambridge University Press, 2007)

T. Wiedemann, Emperors and Gladiators (Routledge, 1992)

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