A new exhibition at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History offers a fascinating glimpse into the world of the ancient gladiators, who entertained as many as 70,000 bloodthirsty spectators by battling wild beasts and each other for sport. “Gladiators: Heroes of the Colosseum,” at Fernbank through Jan. 7, brings one of the most famous and violent traditions of ancient Rome to life with more than 100 artifacts, replicas and displays.
“One of the things I find striking is that despite the many centuries that separate us from Rome’s heyday, there are so many parallels,” said Bobbi Hohmann, Fernbank’s vice president of programming and collections. “I think many people will be surprised by the parallels between today’s athletes and sporting events and those from roughly 2,000 years ago — when gladiators took center stage at the Colosseum, the greatest entertainment venue of the ancient world.”
Many of the exhibition’s artifacts are being displayed for the first — and possibly only — time outside of Italy as part of the traveling show, which was at its only other stop, the Houston Museum of Natural Science, before arriving in Atlanta. “Gladiators” is the fifth historically themed exhibition that Fernbank has mounted in collaboration with Contemporanea Progetti of Florence, Italy; most recently the two institutions worked together on“Queen of Sheba” and “Marco Polo.” For “Gladiators,” Contemporanea Progetti also enlisted the help of the organization that oversees the Colosseum in Rome; the history, design, innovations and functioning of the monumental building, along with related artifacts from the Colosseum itself, are also a major part of the new exhibition.
Overall, the show gives a sense not just of the most famous public aspects of the gladiators’ role in staged combat, but also a sense of their lives behind the scenes: who were the gladiators, what did they eat, what were their contracts like, how did they receive their training.
Visitors will see the gladius of a Roman legionnaire, the style of sword used by the soldiers that eventually gave its name to the gladiators who fought for sport. There were parallels between the two groups of men, but the soldiers were usually respected citizens, and the gladiators were often prisoners, slaves, criminals, captured enemy combatants or other outsiders and outcasts.
An entire section on the Colosseum gives visitors the opportunity to see and even touch some of the materials and building blocks that went into creating the monument. We tend to think of the Colosseum as somewhat severe, even plain, but architectural plans and designs and pieces of ornamentation give some indication of just how elaborate it once was, with statuary and carved detail everywhere. Beneath the wooden floor of the arena was an extensive underground network of tunnels and passageways that were filled with animals and combatants that could be hoisted up theatrically into the arena at the appropriate moment. A piece of the hoisting system from the Colosseum gives visitors a sense of the many mechanisms used to create a gladiatorial spectacle.
Living in the strict, often imprisoning environment of a gladiator school probably wasn’t pleasant, but the well-being of the gladiators, who were thought of as an investment, was a primary concern for those who organized and financed the fights. Gladiators had masseuses and physicians at the ready to make sure they stayed in top shape; medical instruments found among the ashes of Pompeii and displayed in the show give some indication of the care and precision that went into looking after the gladiators’ health. A video nearby details some fascinating recent research that shows that the gladiators were likely vegetarians.
The show’s final room gets to the heart of the matter, focusing on artifacts and displays related to combat. Gladiators were subdivided into many categories according to their style of fighting: Modern re-creations of weaponry and clothing on a set of mannequins show the several different types of gladiators. For instance, the agile, ninjalike retarius, or net fighter, fought nearly naked, protected by a shoulder guard and armed with a trident, dagger and net, while the secutor, or pursuer, fought with more brute strength, wearing more armor, carrying a shield and wielding a sword. Prize artifacts of this room include two actual gladiator helmets, both with elaborate ornamental detail, including figures representing the muses Pan and Hercules.
Of surprising interest is a display case showing bits of refuse and other objects, likely discarded or forgotten as trash, found at the Colosseum, but which now give some indication of what a visit to a day of gladiatorial sport might have been like. Knucklebones and dice used for playing games and gambling, hairpins, bits of graffiti from the back of a seat, oyster shells and animal bones from eating evoke the stuff of everyday life in ancient Rome.
“This is a perfect fit for us,” Hohmann said of the new show. “As a natural history museum, we love exploring ancient and modern cultures. We’re exploring ancient Rome and the gladiator phenomenon that transcended Rome itself and expanded throughout the empire. … We’re really happy we can get these pieces. Once they leave here they’re going back to Italy because they have strict rules about objects and how long they can be out of the country. We’re fortunate.”
Gladiators: Heroes of the Colosseum
Through Jan. 7.
$16-18. Fernbank Museum of Natural History, 767 Clifton Road N.E., Atlanta. 404-929-6300.
http://www.fernbankmuseum.org
