Both the estimation in which gladiatorial games were held by Roman moralists, and the influence that they exercised upon the morals and genius of the nation, deserve notice. The Roman was essentially cruel, not so much from spite or vindictiveness as from callousness and defective sympathies. This element of inhumanity and brutality must have been deeply ingrained in the national character to have allowed the games to become popular, but there can be no doubt that it was fed and fostered by the savage form which their amusements took. That the sight of bloodshed provokes a love of bloodshed and cruelty is a commonplace of morals. To the horrors of the arena we may attribute in part, not only the brutal treatment of their slaves and prisoners, but the frequency of suicide among the Romans. On the other hand, we should be careful not to exaggerate the effects or draw too sweeping inferences from the prevalence of this degrading amusement. Human nature is happily illogical; and we know that many of the Roman statesmen who gave these games, and themselves enjoyed these sights of blood, were in every other department of life irreproachable—indulgent fathers, humane generals and mild rulers of provinces. In the present state of society it is difficult to conceive how a man of taste can have endured to gaze upon a scene of human butchery. Yet we should remember that it is not so long since bear-baiting was prohibited in England, and we are only now attaining that stage of morality in respect of cruelty to animals that was reached in the 5th century, by the help of Christianity, in respect of cruelty to men. We shall not then be greatly surprised if hardly one of the Roman moralists is found to raise his voice against this amusement, except on the score of extravagance. Cicero in a well-known passage commends the gladiatorial games as the best discipline against the fear of death and suffering that can be presented to the eye. The younger Pliny, who perhaps of all Romans approaches nearest to our ideal of a cultured gentleman, speaks approvingly of them. Marcus Aurelius, though he did much to mitigate their horrors, yet in his writings condemns the monotony rather than the cruelty. Seneca is indeed a splendid exception, and his letter to Lentulus is an eloquent protest against this inhuman sport. But it is without a parallel till we come to the writings of the Christian fathers, Tertullian, Lactantius, Cyprian and Augustine. In the Confessions of the last there occurs a narrative which is worth quoting as a proof of the strange fascination which the games exercised even on a religious man and a Christian. He tells us how his friend Alipius was dragged against his will to the amphitheatre, how he strove to quiet his conscience by closing his eyes, how at some exciting crisis the shouts of the whole assembly aroused his curiosity, how he looked and was lost, grew drunk with the sight of blood, and returned again and again, knowing his guilt yet unable to abstain. The first Christian emperor was persuaded to issue an edict abolishing gladiatorial games (325), yet in 404 we read of an exhibition of gladiators to celebrate the triumph of Honorius over the Goths, and it is said that they were not totally extinct in the West till the time of Theodoric.
Gladiators formed admirable models for the sculptor. One of the finest pieces of ancient sculpture that has come down to us is the “Wounded Gladiator” of the National Museum at Naples. The so-called “Fighting Gladiator” of the Borghese collection, now in the Museum of the Louvre, and the “Dying Gladiator” of the Capitoline Museum, which inspired the famous stanza of Childe Harold, have been pronounced by modern antiquaries to represent, not gladiators, but warriors. In this connexion we may mention the admirable picture of Gérome which bears the title, “Ave, Caesar, morituri te salutant.”
The attention of archaeologists has been recently directed to the tesserae of gladiators. These tesserae, of which about sixty exist in various museums, are small oblong tablets of ivory or bone, with an inscription on each of the four sides. The first line contains a name in the nominative case, presumably that of the gladiator; the second line a name in the genitive, that of the patronus or dominus; the third line begins with the letters SP (for spectatus = approved), which shows that the gladiator had passed his preliminary trials; this is followed by a day of a Roman month; and in the fourth line are the names of the consuls of a particular year.
Authorities.—All needful information on the subject will be found in L. Friedländer’s Darstellungen aus der Sittengeschichte Roms, (part ii, 6th ed., 1889), and in the section by him on “The Games” in Marquardt’s Römische Staatsverwaltung, iii. (1885) p. 554; see also article by G. Lafaye in Daremberg and Saglio, Dictionnaire des antiquités. See also F. W. Ritschl, Tesserae gladiatoriae (1864) and P. J. Meier, De gladiatura Romana quaestiones selectae (1881). The articles by Lipsius on the Saturnalia and amphitheatrum in Graevius, Thesaurus antiquitatum Romanarum, ix., may still be consulted with advantage.
GLADIOLUS, a genus of monocotyledonous plants, belonging
to the natural order Iridaceae. They are herbaceous plants
growing from a solid fibrous-coated bulb (or corm), with long
narrow plaited leaves and a terminal one-sided spike of generally
bright-coloured irregular flowers. The segments of the limb of
the perianth are very unequal, the perianth tube is curved, funnel-shaped
and widening upwards, the segments equalling or
exceeding the tube in length. There are about 150 known
species, a large number of which are South African, but the
genus extends into tropical Africa, forming a characteristic
feature of the mountain vegetation, and as far north as central
Europe and western Asia. One species G. illyricus (sometimes
regarded as a variety of G. communis) is found wild in England,
in the New Forest and the Isle of Wight. Some of the species
have been cultivated for a long period in English flower-gardens,
where both the introduced species and the modern varieties
bred from them are very ornamental and popular. G. segetum
has been cultivated since 1596, and G. byzantinus since 1629,
while many additional species were introduced during the latter
half of the 18th century. One of the earlier of the hybrids
originated in gardens was the beautiful G. Colvillei, raised in the
nursery of Mr Colville of Chelsea in 1823 from G. tristis fertilized
by G. cardinalis. In the first decade of the 19th century, however,
the Hon. and Rev. W. Herbert had successfully crossed the
showy G. cardinalis with the smaller but more free-flowering
G. blandus, and the result was the production of a race of great
beauty and fertility. Other crosses were made with G. tristis,
G. oppositiflorus, G. hirsutus, G. alatus and G. psittacinus; but
it was not till after the production of G. gandavensis that the
gladiolus really became a general favourite in gardens. This
fine hybrid was raised in 1837 by M. Bedinghaus, gardener to
the duc d’Aremberg, at Enghien, crossing G. psittacinus and
G. cardinalis. There can, however, be little doubt that before
the gandavensis type had become fairly fixed the services of
other species were brought into force, and the most likely of
these were G. oppositiflorus (which shows in the white forms),
G. blandus and G. ramosus. Other species may also have been
used, but in any case the gandavensis gladiolus, as we now know
it, is the result of much crossing and inter-crossing between
the best forms as they developed (J. Weathers, Practical Guide
to Garden Plants). Since that time innumerable varieties have
appeared only to sink into oblivion upon being replaced by
still finer productions.
The modern varieties of gladioli have almost completely driven the natural species out of gardens, except in botanical collections. The most gorgeous groups—in addition to the gandavensis type—are those known under the names of Lemoinei, Childsi, nanceianus and brenchleyensis. The last-named was raised by a Mr Hooker at Brenchley in 1848, and although quite distinct in appearance from gandavensis, it undoubtedly had that variety as one of its parents. Owing to the brilliant scarlet colour of the flowers, this is always a great favourite for planting in beds. The Lemoinei forms originated at Nancy, in France, by fertilizing G. purpureo-auratus with pollen from G. gandavensis, the first flower appearing in 1877, and the plants being put into commerce in 1880. The Childsi gladioli first appeared in 1882, having been raised at Baden-Baden by Herr Max Leichtlin from the best forms of G. gandavensis and G. Saundersi. The flowers of the best varieties are of great size and substance, often measuring 7 to 9 in. across, while the range of colour is marvellous, with shades of grey, purple, scarlet, salmon, crimson, rose, white, pink, yellow, &c., often beautifully mottled and blotched in the throat. The plants are vigorous in growth, often reaching a height of 4 to 5 ft. G. nanceianus was raised at Nancy by MM. Lemoine and were first put into commerce in 1889. Next to the Childsi group they are the most beautiful, and have the blood of the best forms of G. Saundersi and G. Lemoinei in their veins. The plants are quite as hardy as the gandavensis hybrids, and the colours of the flowers are almost as brilliant and varied in hue as those of the Childsi section.
A deep and rather stiff sandy loam is the best soil for the gladiolus, and this should be trenched up in October and enriched with well-decomposed manure, consisting partly of cow dung, the manure being disposed altogether below the corms, a layer at the bottom of the upper trench, say 9 in. from the surface, and another layer at double that depth. The corms should be planted in succession at intervals of two or three weeks through the months of March, April and May; about 3 to 5 in. deep and at least 1 ft. apart, a little pure soil or sand being laid over each before the earth is closed in about them, an
