10.27.04

Dr. Garrett Fagan

Stukes lecturer studies ancient Roman spectators

In the annual Stukes Lecture at Erskine College Tuesday, entitled "Roman Arenas and Crowd Dynamics," Dr. Garrett Fagan of Penn State University described the socially segregated seating of spectators at the Roman games and the attraction of people to these performances, which included hunts, executions, and fighting bouts.

Using photos of Roman art and architecture to illustrate his subject, Fagan also distributed a plan and cross section of the Colosseum in Rome showing seating details, and provided quotations from ancient authors offering opinions and descriptions of the games.

Fagan explained the origin of the seating arrangements for the games, referring to Suetonius, who recounts that the emperor Augustus became upset upon learning that no one had given a seat to a senator at a crowded performance of the games. Once the emperor instituted seating rules, Fagan said, "These seating divisions were empire-wide."

The strictly enforced seating regulations separated men from women and divided the spectators by social class, mirroring the Roman social hierarchy. The regulations also dictated precise measurements of seating space allowed for certain classes and groups.

In "De Gubernatore Dei," Salvian, a Christian born about 400 A.D., remarked on the cruelty of the games: "Here the highest grade of pleasure is that people be killed or, what is worse and more brutal than death, to have them torn to shreds and the bellies of wild animals filled with human flesh, to have people eaten to the joy and delight of the onlookers standing about; that is, to have men devoured hardly any less by the eyes of people as by the teeth of beasts."

Salvian's allusion to the role of spectators, "to have men devoured hardly any less by the eyes of people as by the teeth of beasts," points to the emotional intensity of the crowds viewing the violence of the games. Driving rhythms characterized the music at the games, Fagan said, and spectators traditionally shouted set phrases.

Footing the bill for the games were sponsors, and the killing that took place in the games was attributed to these "game-givers," Fagan said. Credit for the bloodshed was considered part of the honor due the sponsor for having provided the entertainment.

In Augustine's "Confessions," the story of Alypius, a young Christian and law student who is dragged along protesting the games by fellow students, shows the lure of the games. Alypius determines to keep his eyes closed, but opens them when he hears the roar of the crowd and thus succumbs to the savagery of the event.

"He was no longer the man who had arrived … and was a true partner of those who had brought him along," Augustine says in Confessiones 6.13. "He looked on, he yelled, he was fired up and carried away with him the madness which would goad him to return, not only with his original companions, but even as their leader, dragging others along."

Citing the popularity in many cultural and historical contexts of public floggings and executions, bearbaiting, bull baiting, cockfighting, and bullfighting, Fagan said the ancient Romans "are not alone" in finding violent spectacles intriguing and appealing. "When there is a violent spectacle, people show up to watch," he said.

Fagan, now associate professor of classics and ancient Mediterranean studies at Penn State University, was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and McMaster University, Canada. His main research interests lie in the field of Roman history, on which he published a book in 1999, "Bathing in Public in the Roman World." The author of numerous scholarly articles, Fagan's current work in progress is a monograph on spectation at the Roman arena. He has appeared on the PBS series "Nova" and has produced two courses with The Teaching Company, one on the teaching of ancient Rome and another on great battles of the ancient world.

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