Did gladiators fight rhinos?

[guy]

 

The trailer for "Gladiator II" featured a fantasy gladiator fight between a fighter and a gladiator riding a rhinoceros. Although rhinos were unlikely to be involved in gladiator fights, they may have been engaged in fighting another beast or used in the popular beast hunt (venatio).  Here are a few articles, two of which are academic, discussing this subject.

 

https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/romans/did-romans-battle-rhinos-in-the-colosseum-a-historian-explains-the-truth-behind-the-fight-scenes-in-ridley-scott-s-gladiator-ii

 

https://traj.openlibhums.org/article/id/10158/

 

(PDF) The animals of the arena: How and why could their destruction and death be endured and enjoyed? (researchgate.net)

 

Venatio - Wikipedia

Edited September 30 by guy

[guidoLaMoto]

Interesting supplemental references. Thanks.....I only read the abstract of the pdf on psych factors involved in spectator sports. I had to laugh. It seems the author is over thinking a simple situation in order to show off his command of four cylinder words. "It's fun and they like the vicarious experience," would have sufficed.

Augustus is known to have provided for the large naumachia mentioned on an artificial lake located across the river from the Campus Martius. IIRC, in Res Gestae he states that biremmes & triremmes were used. Given that the arena of the Colosseo is only about 80m x 50m (smaller than a football field) any naval battle staged there must have been with canoes.

As far as the pollice verso thing goes, one can easily imagine it to mean "slice the throat," as the gesture still signifies today.