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Going back to gladiators

Cassidy Pazyniak

With a quick wit, an abundant supply of jokes about Russell Crowe in Gladiator and tales of his numerous visits around Europe, it's hard to identify this guy with the adjective "ancient." But just because he isn't, doesn't mean that his passion and interests aren't ancient-literally.

Steven Tuck, an associate professor in Miami University's department of classics, has a self-proclaimed obsession with gladiators. When asked what appeals to him about them, he replies: "What doesn't?"

Tuck began to study gladiator artwork in the early 1990s on a Roman cemetery dig at a site of Paestum in southern Italy, where the earliest images of gladiators ever found were excavated, and he has been hooked ever since. Now he pursues his passion lecturing on behalf of the Archeological Institute of America (AIA) about gladiators and teaching Latin, classical mythology and a range of ancient history classes here at Miami.

Modern times

When Tuck visited Italy, the artwork in the amphitheaters depicting gladiatorial battles and life captured his interest and he questioned if we could use them to reconstruct what happened during the battles, considering that there are few literary resources with descriptions.

"If you look at modern novels you can't learn how to play football-it's not going to give you every detail," Tuck said.

Despite them being thousands of years old, Tuck feels that part of his interest in gladiators stems from their relevance in pop culture.

"The Romans watched (gladiators) die for entertainment ... we do all the time in movies; it's not real, but it's the closest we can get to it," Tuck said.

Tuck has narrowed down the reason gladiators exist to two purposes-to celebrate manliness and because they were sponsored by politicians as a way for the government to be involved in the action.

Tuck feels situations like this exist in our modern times.

"We celebrate our national past times: the Super Bowl, the World Series," Tuck said. "The government's interaction is pretty limited, but the president throws the first pitch-he doesn't require people to show up or make males attend ... he is still connected to athletes."

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Poetry about the famous gladiators describes them as making the girls swoon and that the ticket sellers loved them, not unlike our most popular athletes today, according to Tuck.

15 minutes of fame

People still have an obsession with gladiators: Fourteen-year-olds have Brad Pitt's Troy hanging above their bed; football coaches quote Marcus Aurelius, and Gladiator and 300 are both on the top 100 American box office films of all times list, according to www.filmsite.org.

With popular movies depicting gladiators in many different lights, Tuck felt that they were still beneficial in educating the average population-to an extent.

"They're not documentaries, those are on the History Channel, but lots of good things have come from the movies," Tuck said. "When 300 came out I was listening to the radio when a commercial for Barnes and Noble came on. They were advertising Herodotus 'The Histories,' the whole event that happens in 300. Herodotus is 2,500 years old. If (someone) wanted to have a copy, they could have it by now. People think they know the story (from the movie 300), not as many, but some think it's important (to read Herodotus)."

Tuck expressed that within the movies there are many things wrong with the stories and portrayals but that there are some accurate descriptions, such as the scene in Gladiator when the emperor enters the arena, or when the wounded are left-that all happened, according to Tuck.

Tim Williams, a sophomore and former quarterback of his high school football team admitted that the movie got his adrenaline going.

"Why (wouldn't I go see Gladiator)? It's a classic tale of someone who becomes an underdog and overcomes everything around him to achieve greatness," Williams said. "Russell Crowe is a badass."

The history of the history buff

Tuck has been interested in archeology since the third grade and he hasn't looked back since.

He received his undergraduate degree in history and classics from Indiana University, went to graduate school earning his Ph.D at University of Michigan in classical art and archeology and has been working for six years at Miami.

But Tuck has expanded his love for gladiators past his own enjoyment and the classroom. For the past four years he has been a lecturer for the Archaeology Institute of America.

"The AIA invites you to be a lecturer-it's like the Nobel Prize, only it doesn't pay as well," Tuck joked. "It's been a tremendously rewarding experience, I get a lot of great questions and the best part is the interaction."

Tuck has done four lectures in the past few weeks. One of his most memorable speeches was when he went to Huntsburg, Ala. and around 140 people were in attendance. Tuck mocked himself saying that apparently Huntsburg really loved gladiators and didn't have much else going on.

He said the audience sizes vary though, but that talking with the people afterward is his favorite part because they bring forth many ideas and help him to make his argument more persuasive.

Tuck gave a speech in Miami's Art Museum Nov. 7 on behalf of the AIA to the university, to a slightly smaller, yet just as enthusiastic crowd of about 30 people.

Spreading the word

Tuck opened the lecture joking with the crowd that this was his fourth time giving the speech so he felt it was "getting at its best," and knew that he had to be on his game since there were "padded chairs, low lights, it was warm and after dinner."

He started by describing the AIA and how anyone who is interested-student, graduate students or professors-can join. The group isn't just academics, as they travel and have tours.

Next Tuck gave a disclaimer for what his lecture would focus on-it wouldn't be an analysis of combat tactic in single combats or the origins of gladiatorial games. Tuck began his PowerPoint presentation with a picture of Russell Crowe saying that this wasn't what gladiators in ancient times looked like, but to increase money they hire good looking heroes.

As Tuck described the various paintings shown he joked with the audience.

"I was going to bring a (pictured gladiatorial sword) so I could pull it out and lunge at someone in the front row, but I lost my nerve," he said.

Tuck then talked how the front row seats at gladiatorial games would be saved for patricians to teach them manliness by example of the games.

After his speech was finished students and faculty asked questions concerning how he would classify gladiatorial games in modern times, if his interpretation of a poem was correct and what opposing arguments say about the paintings he talked about.

Tuck explained that gladiators are a mix of martial arts with a bit of WWE wrestling.

"They wear lavish colors, similar to professional wrestling outfits, the relief decorations are gaudy, there were referees making it more formal-there are elements of both," Tuck said.

Students that attended the lecture had mixed feelings about the hour-long speech.

Senior Zac Smith said he attended the speech because he was simply interested in art history.

Tuck often explains his interpretations of the paintings and comments, but not everyone agrees.

"I thought it was interesting, but I have to say, his case wasn't that strong, it was disappointing," Smith said.

Margaret Throckmorton, a senior as well, enjoyed the speech.

"I always love hearing Dr. Tuck speak," Throckmorton said.

Playing the part

Tuck may be one of the few gladiator buffs on campus, but that doesn't mean that students don't appreciate them as well.

When Lindsay Hamilton went to Florence, Italy this summer, she learned a lot about gladiators, but it was outside of the Coliseum in Rome when people dressed up as gladiators caught her eye.

This is where Hamilton and a friend decided to buy gladiator costumes to bring back to Oxford. The purchased outfit consisted of a sword, an armed shield, a chest shield and a helmet.

"The people walking around (in costumes) were more intense," Hamilton said, laughing. "Ours were actually little kid's outfits, they didn't make them for adults."

Their costumes cost about 18 Euro, which is around $24. Once back at Miami the two bought loincloths and lace-up shoes to make a complete outfit for Halloween on campus.

Out and about Oct. 31, Hamilton said the reactions were pretty positive.

"People at first would say 'Oh, there's a gladiator' and then I would say, 'They're authentic, I got them in Rome,'" Hamilton said. "It was a good reaction, it's a unique costume and they were really funny."

Beyond another "nerd" group

Aside from gladiators dressed up on Miami's campus, the AIA and his lectures, Tuck also promotes ancient history through the Virgilian Society. The group promotes the work of Virgil, a classical Roman poet, who is featured in Dante's Inferno.

This group of scholars study and keep Virgil's works alive, especially by visiting a villa in Italy close to where he had lived and died. Tuck has been a part of the society for eight years and recently became president.

The Virgilian Society and the AIA both exemplify to Tuck the process of scholarship by arguing amongst each other with ideas based on evidence and disagreeing with each other's opinions.

Tuck explained that he tries to transfer this way of thought to his lectures.

"In the lectures, we're not telling people what to think it means, it's not just cool old stuff, we are trying to actually figure out the ancient world," Tuck said.

Tuck hopes that the lectures should do more than just show students paintings, make them want to see Troy or scream a little louder for bloodshed at hockey games.

"The important things are not the objects, but the people," Tuck said. "We have to get behind the objects, critically think: What were (the gladiators) really doing?"

The true gladiator

Hollywood's depiction of gladiators is as fake as most of their tans, according to one of Tuck's lectures.

•Gladiators seldom fought, rather fought only three to four times a year-they actually had short careers.

•They were of low social status.

•They were very armed and protected.

•Once gladiatorial games began they caught on quickly and amphitheaters were made specifcally for fighting and practice.

•Originally gladiators were unable to plead for mercy, but as time passed "misio" came into affect. "Misio" is when a fighter pleaded for mercy and if the fighting turned bad, they could express that by putting a finger in the air.

•The fights seldom ended in death, since it would cost the "sponsors" of the gladiators an additional fee if killed in the arena.


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