guy Posted September 30 Report Share Posted September 30 (edited) 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guidoLaMoto Posted October 3 Report Share Posted October 3 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caldrail Posted November 3 Report Share Posted November 3 I'm not aware of any specific instance of rhinos being used but Rome loved novelty. Augustus had crocodiles brought into the arena but they were something of a disappointment. Ostriches were popular, the crowd found them hilarious. Elephants made an impression. In one event a number were being hunted - if that's the correct term - and bellowed to the crowd for help, or so it seemed to the audience who felt sorry for the beasts. Yet there's also an account of elephants flinging horses and riders around like rag dolls. One idea was to see if elephants could walk a tightrope. But it didn't always go as planned, one raging bull managed to get into the crowd at one event and you can imagine the panic ensuing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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