The key figure in the gladiator industry was the lanista.

The key figure in the gladiator industry was the lanista.

The man known as the lanista was the owner and business manager of a troupe of gladiators, or familia gladiatoria. The gladiators were housed and trained at the school, the ludi gladiatori. The trade of a gladiator, and by extension that of the lanista, was considered rather disreputable in Roman society. A decent Roman citizen looked to earn a living with his brain or his skill, perhaps as a lawyer or a jeweller. Those who hired out their entire bodies for money were looked on as having sold themselves unworthily. Slaves fell into this category, as did prostitutes, actors and gladiators. It is not surprising, therefore, that most people who followed these despised trades actually were slaves. Even the lanista was as often as not a former slave desperate enough not to have the fine scruples of a citizen about what he did.

The lanista made his money by hiring out his troupe of gladiators to those who wished to stage a gladiatorial display, usually as part of a munus for a deceased relative. The scale of charges would be carefully worked out in advance and were subject to extensive negotiations between the lanista and his customer, known as the editor of the games. Not only were charges made for the number of gladiators appearing, but highly skilled fighters would cost a lot more than raw recruits. The types of gladiator used would also affect the price.

Most expensive of all would be the death of a gladiator. If a gladiator was killed during a munus, the lanista lost a valuable commodity which he would no longer be able to rent out. The lanista may have invested months or years of training, food and keep in the gladiator, all of which he would expect to be reimbursed for as well as the lost revenue of future rentals. For an editor to have gladiators fight to the death was an expensive business.

Gladiators who were killed in combat or died later of wounds were often charged to the lanista, but those gladiators who surrendered and asked for mercy were the responsibility of the editor. It was his decision whether a defeated man was granted the missus and allowed to live or was put to death in the arena. When a man appealed for mercy the watching crowd would make their feelings clearly known to the editor. They might have suggested mercy by holding up a clenched fist or they might have suggested death by shouting “hoc habet”, ‘let him have it’, or by making stabbing motions with their thumbs. An editor wishing to gain favour with crowd would have been inclined to grant their wishes, but killing too many gladiators might have cost a fortune. Mercy was often tempered with cold financial calculation.

It is worth mentioning the dispute over the signal used by Romans keen to decide the fate of a defeated gladiator. For many years it was thought that the thumbs up sign indicated the man was to live and the thumbs down sign that he was to die. It now seems more likely that hiding the thumb within the fist meant the sword should be sheathed, thus granting life, while a vigorous stabbing motion with the thumb indicated that the sword should be used. Whether that involved jabbing the thumb up or down appears to have been irrelevant.

In any case the final decision lay with the editor. There was little room for confusion in his signals. If he waved a handkerchief it meant the missus was granted. A derisory sweep of the bare hand, however, meant death.

As well as the cost of the gladiators, the lanista could charge for any extras, such as a suitably impressive parade chariot on which the editor could arrive to impress the crowd. The lanista usually had a whole host of other props available, including richly embroidered cloaks for the editor’s family, special parade armour for the gladiators to use before entering combat, flags, banners and cushions to aid audience comfort.