La gladiature et la venatio en Mésie Inférieure et en Dacie à partir du règne de Trajan

The testimonies relating to the 'arena'-fights have an unequal weight in Dacia and in Moesia inferior. They are relatively dispersed and scarce in Dacia : most of them are issued from romanized peoples, from soldiers settled in the camps and the garrison-towns during the conquest, from veterans and Italians, peoples issued from oriental provinces, attracted by new 'coloniae' and 'municipia'. Nevertheless the Dacian people has contributed to the 'arena'-fights involuntarily as war-prisoners, when Trajan organised in 107 his triumphal games. And for this occasion, he achieved the construction of the 'ludus dacicus', the training- building for the Dacian gladiators. And the Dacian people itself has contributed too willingly ; for instance, some of them have enlisted themselves in the gladiatorial career : we find Dacian gladiators in the Mesian Tomis and in the Dalmatian Salona. In return the testimonies proceeding from Moesia are more abundant, various, richer in informations about this kind of games : they are invitations for spectacles and honorific inscriptions that indicate the editor's statute, their loyalty facing the imperial power, the close connections between the imperial cult and the editions of gladiatorial fights ; there are also funeral epigrams and stela of gladiators and 'venatores' that give informations about the 'armatu rae', the statute, the age, the career, the relatives of the fighters ; the circumstances and the end of the arena fights are sometimes specified. These documents show that Trajan and his successors have supported these games, which were popular, first of all in their 'coloniae' and 'municipia', but also in the ancient greek colonies because they were a way of integration and cohesion of peoples.Bouley Elisabeth. La gladiature et la venatio en Mésie Inférieure et en Dacie à partir du règne de Trajan. In: Dialogues d'histoire ancienne, vol. 20, n°1, 1994. pp. 29-53