Ave Caesar morituri te salutant
Encyclopedia
"Ave, Imperator, morituri te salutant" or "Ave, Caesar, morituri te salutant" ("Hail, Emperor (Caesar)
, those who are about to die salute
you") is a well-known Latin phrase quoted in Suetonius
, De Vita Caesarum ("The Life of the Caesars", or "The Twelve Caesars"). It was used during an event in AD 52 on Lake Fucinus by naumachia
rii—captives and criminals fated to die fighting during mock naval encounters
—in the presence of the emperor Claudius
. Suetonius reports that Claudius replied "Aut non" ("or not").
Variant wordings include "Ave Caesar" and "salutamus" —the latter in the 1st person
("We who are about to die")—and a response in 15th century texts of "Avete vos" ("Fare you well").
Despite its popularization in later times, the phrase is not recorded elsewhere in Roman history, and it is questionable whether it was ever a customary salute. It was more likely an isolated appeal by desperate captives and criminals condemned to die, and noted by Roman historians in part for the unusual mass reprieve granted to the survivors.
(c. 56–117, writing from around 98 to 117) mentions the event but does not quote the phrase.
The first known record of the phrase is in the writings of Suetonius:
The same incident is also described in the writings of Cassius Dio, a Roman consul
and historian who wrote in Greek. In Book 60 of his Roman History he states:
of the main verb differs in the two sources. Suetonius quotes it with a third-person plural verb (salutant, meaning "they/those salute/greet"), and Cassius quotes it with a first-person plural verb . Apart from this, the Latin and Greek expressions have the same meaning.
Claudius' response is stated in several sources as "Avete vos!" ("Fare you well!"), suggesting an act of favor. The earliest editions of De Vita Caeserum published in Rome in 1470 and Venice in 1471 used "Avete vos", but this version was still accepted in the nineteenth century, as can be seen in the Baumgarten-Crusius edition of 1816. Karl Ludwig Roth returned to the better quality manuscripts for his 1857 edition—chiefly the ninth-century Codex Memmianus, the oldest known extant version of Suetonius' work—and corrected Claudius' reported response to "Aut non". John C. Rolfe notes both responses, describing them as "one of Claudius' feeble jokes, which the combatants pretended to understand as meaning that they need not risk their lives in battle". Donald Kyle describes it as a possible attempt at a witticism. Joseph Pike states in his notes on Roth's text:
Basil Kennett, writing in 1820, describes the "Avete vos" response as a cruel jest: "[W]hen they would gladly have interpreted it as an act of favour, and a grant of their lives, he soon gave them to understand that it proceeded from the contrary principle of barbarous cruelty, and insensibility."
of the Julio-Claudian dynasty
, ruled the Roman Empire
following Caligula
's death in AD 41 until his death in AD 54. According to Suetonius, Claudius was extraordinarily fond of the games. He is said to have risen with the crowd after gladiatorial matches and given unrestrained praise to the fighters, and he was criticized for not leaving the arena during the executions as was the custom among the noble classes.
Claudius also presided over many new and original events. Soon after coming into power, Claudius instituted games to be held in honor of his father, Nero Claudius Drusus
, on the latter's birthday. Annual games were also held in honor of his accession, and took place at the Praetor
ian camp where Claudius had first been proclaimed emperor.
Claudius celebrated the Secular games
—a religious festival that had been revived by Augustus
—to mark the 800th anniversary of the founding of Rome
. He also on at least one occasion participated in a wild animal hunt
himself according to Pliny the Elder
, setting out with the Praetorian cohorts to fight a killer whale which was trapped in the harbor of Ostia
.
Public entertainments varied from combat between just two gladiator
s, to large-scale events with potentially thousands of deaths. The naumachia
(also called navalia proelia by the Romans) was one of the latter, a large-scale and bloody spectacular combative event taking place on many ships and held in large lakes or flooded arenas. Prisoners of war and criminals condemned to die were tasked with enacting naval battles to the death
for public entertainment. Those selected were known as naumachiarii.
Unlike gladiatorial combats, naumachiae were infrequently held—they were usually only called to celebrate notable events. Julius Caesar
held an event with 6,000 naumachiarii in the lesser Codeta, a marshy area by the Tiber
, to celebrate his fourth victory to be honored by triumph
. Cassius Dio writes of two naumachiae that Titus held during the inaugural games
of the Flavian Amphitheater
, including an event of 3,000 men enacting a battle between the Athenians and the Syracusans; and Domitian
held a naumachia in which Dio reports "practically all the combatants and many of the spectators as well perished".
The naumachia called by Claudius celebrated the completion of a drainage work and agricultural land reclamation
project at Italy's largest inland lake, Lake Fucino, an 11 mile (19 km) long crater lake
in the Central Apennine mountain range located around 50 miles (80 km) from Rome
. The project, which took eleven years to complete and employed 30,000 men, included the leveling of a hill top and the construction of a 3 miles (4.8 km) tunnel between the lake and the river Liri
(Lat. Liris). The tunnel has been described as "the greatest Roman tunnel
" (Encyclopedia Americana
) despite initially only achieving partial success, and was the longest such tunnel until the construction of that of Mont Cenis
in 1876. According to the Annals
of Tacitus:
In a footnote to a 2008 publication of Tacitus' Annals, it is noted that "such an amount of criminals [19,000 according to Tacitus and other sources] may probably represent the sweepings of the provinces as well as of Rome and Italy; but even on this supposition the number, as Friedländer remarks (ii, 324), is suggestive of iniquitous condemnations".
s to the emperor. And yet "there is no other ancient reference to a salute of the gladiators, and in this case it was uttered not by gladiators at all, but by naumachiarii." A striking example of this pervasive belief even in academia can be found in historian
Jérôme Carcopino
's 1940 book La vie Quotidienne à Rome à l’Apogée de l’Empire (Daily Life in Ancient Rome: The People and the City at the Height of the Empire). In this book the author, a member of the Académie française
, professor at Le Havre
and the Sorbonne
, and Director of the French Academy in Rome
, cites the phrase and writes in vivid and poetic detail of the gladiators' "melancholy salutation" as they parade past the emperor prior to entering the Colosseum
.
Following a review of the source material related to the AD 52 naumachia, Leon observes that the fighters were not gladiators but were convicted criminals sentenced to death. Their intended fate was occidioni (massacre, or slaughter). The lake had been surrounded with "rafts" to prevent a mass breakout
and was surrounded by "the crack soldiers of the praetorian guard, both infantry and cavalry, who were protected by ramparts and equipped with catapults and ballistae, and further reinforced by ships bearing marines ready for action". He concludes that this was not a formal salute, but in all likelihood an isolated incident of a mass plea for sympathy or mercy by desperate convicted men sentenced to death on a specific occasion, and that
Alan Baker broadly agrees, stating, "There is no evidence that this was common practice among gladiators. As far as we know, the only time this phrase was used was at an event staged by Claudius." Plass notes that "it is hard to see why or how the phrase came to be used on this occasion if it was not a regular formula. On the other hand, if it was something that Claudius might expect to hear it would more naturally serve in its role as a feed line for his repartee portraying his invincible gaucherie." He comments on the distancing effect of the Latin source and the first person of the Greek source and notes that the interpretation and response by the fighters "seems to be a maneuver within rules governing clemency in the arena".
Kyle concurs that no other sources record the "supposed gladiator salute" in any other context "and it did not come here from true gladiators". Treated as a commodity, they were not elite gladiators but captives and criminals doomed to die, who usually fought until all were killed. When the salute or appeal failed, and they were forced to kill one another in earnest,
He concludes that "[t]he sources remark on the incident, in part, because it was an anomaly in arena practice—a mass Androclean reprieve."
pilots such as John Lerew
(his biography is titled "We Who Are About to Die"). a World War II
film
entitled Morituri, a Marvel
comic of the 1980s called Strikeforce: Morituri
that focused on superhero
es who were inevitably going to die, a set of one-act plays
of the 1890s by Hermann Sudermann
, Joseph Conrad
's canonical 1902 novel
Heart of Darkness
, in popular music of the 1980s, in the paper title of peer-reviewed medical research, in a political maiden speech
, and in modern art, fiction, non-fiction and poetry related to the Roman period.
s: .
Classical Latin pronunciation: ˈaweː ɪmpɛˈraːtɔr (ˈkajsar) mɔrɪˈtuːrɪ teː saˈluːtãːt
Caesar (title)
Caesar is a title of imperial character. It derives from the cognomen of Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator...
, those who are about to die salute
Salute
A salute is a gesture or other action used to display respect. Salutes are primarily associated with armed forces, but other organizations and civil people also use salutes.-Military salutes:...
you") is a well-known Latin phrase quoted in Suetonius
Suetonius
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, commonly known as Suetonius , was a Roman historian belonging to the equestrian order in the early Imperial era....
, De Vita Caesarum ("The Life of the Caesars", or "The Twelve Caesars"). It was used during an event in AD 52 on Lake Fucinus by naumachia
Naumachia
The naumachia in the Ancient Roman world referred to both the re-enactment of naval battles and the basin in which this took place....
rii—captives and criminals fated to die fighting during mock naval encounters
Naval warfare
Naval warfare is combat in and on seas, oceans, or any other major bodies of water such as large lakes and wide rivers.-History:Mankind has fought battles on the sea for more than 3,000 years. Land warfare would seem, initially, to be irrelevant and entirely removed from warfare on the open ocean,...
—in the presence of the emperor Claudius
Claudius
Claudius , was Roman Emperor from 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, he was the son of Drusus and Antonia Minor. He was born at Lugdunum in Gaul and was the first Roman Emperor to be born outside Italy...
. Suetonius reports that Claudius replied "Aut non" ("or not").
Variant wordings include "Ave Caesar" and "salutamus" —the latter in the 1st person
Grammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
("We who are about to die")—and a response in 15th century texts of "Avete vos" ("Fare you well").
Despite its popularization in later times, the phrase is not recorded elsewhere in Roman history, and it is questionable whether it was ever a customary salute. It was more likely an isolated appeal by desperate captives and criminals condemned to die, and noted by Roman historians in part for the unusual mass reprieve granted to the survivors.
Historical source material
The source material comes from the works of three Roman historians, who were all born after the events of 52 AD. Suetonius (c. 69–75 to after 130, probably writing around AD 121), and Cassius Dio (around 155–164 to after 229, probably writing 200–22) both wrote about the event and quoted the phrase. TacitusTacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...
(c. 56–117, writing from around 98 to 117) mentions the event but does not quote the phrase.
The first known record of the phrase is in the writings of Suetonius:
- Even when he was on the point of letting out the water from Lake Fucinus he gave a sham [i.e., mock] sea-fight first. But when the combatants cried out: "Hail, emperor, they who are about to die salute thee," he replied, "Or not" [Sed cum proclamantibus naumachiariis: "Ave Imperator, Morituri te salutant!" respondisset: "Aut non" ], and after that all of them refused to fight, maintaining that they had been pardoned. Upon this he hesitated for some time about destroying them all with fire and sword, but at last leaping from his throne and running along the edge of the lake with his ridiculous tottering gait, he induced them to fight, partly by threats and partly by promises. At this performance a Sicilian and a Rhodian fleet engaged, each numbering twelve triremeTriremeA trireme was a type of galley, a Hellenistic-era warship that was used by the ancient maritime civilizations of the Mediterranean, especially the Phoenicians, ancient Greeks and Romans.The trireme derives its name from its three rows of oars on each side, manned with one man per oar...
s...
The same incident is also described in the writings of Cassius Dio, a Roman consul
Consul
Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...
and historian who wrote in Greek. In Book 60 of his Roman History he states:
- Claudius conceived the desire to exhibit a naval battle on a certain lake; so, after building a wooden wall around it and erecting stands, he assembled an enormous multitude. Claudius and Nero were arrayed in military garb, while Agrippina wore a beautiful chlamysChlamysThe chlamys was an ancient Greek piece of clothing, a type of cloak....
woven with threads of gold, and the rest of the spectators whatever pleased their fancy. Those who were to take part in the sea-fight were condemned criminals, and each side had fifty ships, one part being styled "Rhodians" and the other "Sicilians." First they assembled in a single body and all together addressed Claudius in this fashion: "Hail, Emperor! We who are about to die salute thee []." And when this in no wise availed to save them and they were ordered to fight just the same, they simply sailed through their opponents' lines, injuring each other as little as possible. This continued until they were forced to destroy one another.
Source variations and interpretation
The personGrammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
of the main verb differs in the two sources. Suetonius quotes it with a third-person plural verb (salutant, meaning "they/those salute/greet"), and Cassius quotes it with a first-person plural verb . Apart from this, the Latin and Greek expressions have the same meaning.
Claudius' response is stated in several sources as "Avete vos!" ("Fare you well!"), suggesting an act of favor. The earliest editions of De Vita Caeserum published in Rome in 1470 and Venice in 1471 used "Avete vos", but this version was still accepted in the nineteenth century, as can be seen in the Baumgarten-Crusius edition of 1816. Karl Ludwig Roth returned to the better quality manuscripts for his 1857 edition—chiefly the ninth-century Codex Memmianus, the oldest known extant version of Suetonius' work—and corrected Claudius' reported response to "Aut non". John C. Rolfe notes both responses, describing them as "one of Claudius' feeble jokes, which the combatants pretended to understand as meaning that they need not risk their lives in battle". Donald Kyle describes it as a possible attempt at a witticism. Joseph Pike states in his notes on Roth's text:
The reading 'Avete vos' is from the fifteenth century manuscripts and editions. In this case the emperor is simply returning the salutation. The literal meaning is, however, 'be well', 'be safe', or 'be sound', and the gladiators understood it as dismissing them.
Basil Kennett, writing in 1820, describes the "Avete vos" response as a cruel jest: "[W]hen they would gladly have interpreted it as an act of favour, and a grant of their lives, he soon gave them to understand that it proceeded from the contrary principle of barbarous cruelty, and insensibility."
Cultural background
Claudius, the fourth Roman EmperorRoman Emperor
The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...
of the Julio-Claudian dynasty
Julio-Claudian Dynasty
The Julio-Claudian dynasty normally refers to the first five Roman Emperors: Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula , Claudius, and Nero, or the family to which they belonged; they ruled the Roman Empire from its formation, in the second half of the 1st century BC, until AD 68, when the last of the line,...
, ruled the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
following Caligula
Caligula
Caligula , also known as Gaius, was Roman Emperor from 37 AD to 41 AD. Caligula was a member of the house of rulers conventionally known as the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Caligula's father Germanicus, the nephew and adopted son of Emperor Tiberius, was a very successful general and one of Rome's most...
's death in AD 41 until his death in AD 54. According to Suetonius, Claudius was extraordinarily fond of the games. He is said to have risen with the crowd after gladiatorial matches and given unrestrained praise to the fighters, and he was criticized for not leaving the arena during the executions as was the custom among the noble classes.
Claudius also presided over many new and original events. Soon after coming into power, Claudius instituted games to be held in honor of his father, Nero Claudius Drusus
Nero Claudius Drusus
Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus , born Decimus Claudius Drusus also called Drusus, Drusus I, Nero Drusus, or Drusus the Elder was a Roman politician and military commander. He was a fully patrician Claudian on his father's side but his maternal grandmother was from a plebeian family...
, on the latter's birthday. Annual games were also held in honor of his accession, and took place at the Praetor
Praetor
Praetor was a title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: the commander of an army, usually in the field, or the named commander before mustering the army; and an elected magistratus assigned varied duties...
ian camp where Claudius had first been proclaimed emperor.
Claudius celebrated the Secular games
Secular games
The Secular Games were a religious celebration, involving sacrifices and theatrical performances, held in ancient Rome for three days and nights to mark the end of a saeculum and the beginning of the next...
—a religious festival that had been revived by Augustus
Augustus
Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...
—to mark the 800th anniversary of the founding of Rome
Founding of Rome
The founding of Rome is reported by many legends, which in recent times are beginning to be supplemented by scientific reconstructions.- Development of the city :...
. He also on at least one occasion participated in a wild animal hunt
Venatio
Venatio was a form of entertainment in Roman amphitheaters involving the hunting and slaying of wild animals. Exotic wild beasts from the far reaches of the Roman Empire were brought to Rome and hunts were held in the morning prior to the afternoon main event of gladiatorial duels...
himself according to Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
, setting out with the Praetorian cohorts to fight a killer whale which was trapped in the harbor of Ostia
Ostia
Ostia may refer to:*Ostia , a municipio of Rome on the Tyrrhenian Sea coast*Ostia Antica, a township and port of ancient Rome*Ostia Antica , a district of the commune of Rome...
.
Public entertainments varied from combat between just two gladiator
Gladiator
A gladiator was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their legal and social standing and their lives by appearing in the...
s, to large-scale events with potentially thousands of deaths. The naumachia
Naumachia
The naumachia in the Ancient Roman world referred to both the re-enactment of naval battles and the basin in which this took place....
(also called navalia proelia by the Romans) was one of the latter, a large-scale and bloody spectacular combative event taking place on many ships and held in large lakes or flooded arenas. Prisoners of war and criminals condemned to die were tasked with enacting naval battles to the death
Public Execution
Public Execution is a Mouse and the Traps retrospective album that has been released in both LP and CD formats. The LP has an unusually large number of tracks , while the CD includes 4 bonus tracks and catalogues almost all of the released music by Mouse and the Traps and their associated bands: ...
for public entertainment. Those selected were known as naumachiarii.
Unlike gladiatorial combats, naumachiae were infrequently held—they were usually only called to celebrate notable events. Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
held an event with 6,000 naumachiarii in the lesser Codeta, a marshy area by the Tiber
Tiber
The Tiber is the third-longest river in Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Umbria and Lazio to the Tyrrhenian Sea. It drains a basin estimated at...
, to celebrate his fourth victory to be honored by triumph
Roman triumph
The Roman triumph was a civil ceremony and religious rite of ancient Rome, held to publicly celebrate and sanctify the military achievement of an army commander who had won great military successes, or originally and traditionally, one who had successfully completed a foreign war. In Republican...
. Cassius Dio writes of two naumachiae that Titus held during the inaugural games
Inaugural games of the Flavian Amphitheatre
The inaugural games of the Flavian Amphitheatre were held in AD 80, on the orders of the Roman Emperor Titus, to celebrate the completion of the Colosseum, then known as the Flavian Amphitheatre . Vespasian began construction of the amphitheatre around AD 70, and it was completed by Titus...
of the Flavian Amphitheater
Colosseum
The Colosseum, or the Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre , is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire...
, including an event of 3,000 men enacting a battle between the Athenians and the Syracusans; and Domitian
Domitian
Domitian was Roman Emperor from 81 to 96. Domitian was the third and last emperor of the Flavian dynasty.Domitian's youth and early career were largely spent in the shadow of his brother Titus, who gained military renown during the First Jewish-Roman War...
held a naumachia in which Dio reports "practically all the combatants and many of the spectators as well perished".
The naumachia called by Claudius celebrated the completion of a drainage work and agricultural land reclamation
Land reclamation
Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, is the process to create new land from sea or riverbeds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamation ground or landfill.- Habitation :...
project at Italy's largest inland lake, Lake Fucino, an 11 mile (19 km) long crater lake
Crater lake
A crater lake is a lake that forms in a volcanic crater or caldera, such as a maar; less commonly and with lower association to the term a lake may form in an impact crater caused by a meteorite. Sometimes lakes which form inside calderas are called caldera lakes, but often this distinction is not...
in the Central Apennine mountain range located around 50 miles (80 km) from Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. The project, which took eleven years to complete and employed 30,000 men, included the leveling of a hill top and the construction of a 3 miles (4.8 km) tunnel between the lake and the river Liri
Liri
The Liri is one of the principal rivers of central Italy, flowing into the Tyrrhenian Sea a little below Minturno under the name Garigliano....
(Lat. Liris). The tunnel has been described as "the greatest Roman tunnel
Roman engineering
Romans are famous for their advanced engineering accomplishments, although some of their own inventions were improvements on older ideas, concepts and inventions. Technology for bringing running water into cities was developed in the east, but transformed by the Romans into a technology...
" (Encyclopedia Americana
Encyclopedia Americana
Encyclopedia Americana is one of the largest general encyclopedias in the English language. Following the acquisition of Grolier in 2000, the encyclopedia has been produced by Scholastic....
) despite initially only achieving partial success, and was the longest such tunnel until the construction of that of Mont Cenis
Fréjus Rail Tunnel
The Fréjus Rail Tunnel is a rail tunnel of length in the European Alps, carrying the Turin–Modane railway through Mount Cenis to an end on connection with the Culoz–Modane railway and linking Modane, France and Bardonecchia, Italy...
in 1876. According to the Annals
Annals (Tacitus)
The Annals by Tacitus is a history of the reigns of the four Roman Emperors succeeding Caesar Augustus. The surviving parts of the Annals extensively cover most of the reigns of Tiberius and Nero. The title Annals was probably not given by Tacitus, but derives from the fact that he treated this...
of Tacitus:
in order that the impressive character of the work might be viewed by a larger number of visitants, a naval battle was arranged upon the lake itself, on the model of an earlier spectacle given by Augustus – though with light vessels and a smaller force [...]"
In a footnote to a 2008 publication of Tacitus' Annals, it is noted that "such an amount of criminals [19,000 according to Tacitus and other sources] may probably represent the sweepings of the provinces as well as of Rome and Italy; but even on this supposition the number, as Friedländer remarks (ii, 324), is suggestive of iniquitous condemnations".
Description of the event by Tacitus
According to Tacitus (writing around 50 years after the event):
Claudius equipped triremeTriremeA trireme was a type of galley, a Hellenistic-era warship that was used by the ancient maritime civilizations of the Mediterranean, especially the Phoenicians, ancient Greeks and Romans.The trireme derives its name from its three rows of oars on each side, manned with one man per oar...
s, quadriremes, and nineteen thousand combatants: the lists he surrounded with rafts, so as to leave no unauthorized points of escape, but reserved space enough in the centre to display the vigour of the rowing, the arts of the helmsmenHelmsmanA helmsman is a person who steers a ship, sailboat, submarine, or other type of maritime vessel. On small vessels, particularly privately-owned noncommercial vessels, the functions of skipper and helmsman may be combined in one person. On larger vessels, there is a separate officer of the watch,...
, the impetus of the galleys, and the usual incidents of an engagement. On the rafts were stationed companies and squadrons of the praetorian cohorts, covered by a breastwork from which to operate their catapultCatapultA catapult is a device used to throw or hurl a projectile a great distance without the aid of explosive devices—particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines. Although the catapult has been used since ancient times, it has proven to be one of the most effective mechanisms during...
s and ballistaBallistaThe ballista , plural ballistae, was an ancient missile weapon which launched a large projectile at a distant target....
e: the rest of the lake was occupied by marines with decked vessels. The shores, the hills, the mountain-crests, formed a kind of theatre, soon filled by an untold multitude, attracted from the neighbouring towns, and in part from the capital itself, by curiosity or by respect for the sovereign. He and AgrippinaAgrippina the YoungerJulia Agrippina, most commonly referred to as Agrippina Minor or Agrippina the Younger, and after 50 known as Julia Augusta Agrippina was a Roman Empress and one of the more prominent women in the Julio-Claudian dynasty...
presided, the one in a gorgeous military cloak, the other – not far distant – in a Greek mantle of cloth of gold. The battle, though one of criminals [sontes], was contested with the spirit and courage of freemen; and, after much blood had flowed, the combatants were exempted from destruction [occidioni].
Usage in Roman times
H. J. Leon of the University of Texas considered this salutation in the Transactions of the American Philological Association in 1939. He observed that the salute had become widely represented and embellished in "numerous works dealing with Roman antiquities, so that it has become one of the best known and most often cited of Roman customs". It was recognized in lay and academic writings as a customary salute of gladiatorGladiator
A gladiator was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their legal and social standing and their lives by appearing in the...
s to the emperor. And yet "there is no other ancient reference to a salute of the gladiators, and in this case it was uttered not by gladiators at all, but by naumachiarii." A striking example of this pervasive belief even in academia can be found in historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
Jérôme Carcopino
Jérôme Carcopino
Jérôme Carcopino was a French historian and author. He was the fifteen member elected to occupy seat 3 of the Académie française in 1955.-Biography:...
's 1940 book La vie Quotidienne à Rome à l’Apogée de l’Empire (Daily Life in Ancient Rome: The People and the City at the Height of the Empire). In this book the author, a member of the Académie française
Académie française
L'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...
, professor at Le Havre
Le Havre
Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total...
and the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
, and Director of the French Academy in Rome
French Academy in Rome
The French Academy in Rome is an Academy located in the Villa Medici, within the Villa Borghese, on the Pincio in Rome, Italy.-History:...
, cites the phrase and writes in vivid and poetic detail of the gladiators' "melancholy salutation" as they parade past the emperor prior to entering the Colosseum
Colosseum
The Colosseum, or the Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre , is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire...
.
Following a review of the source material related to the AD 52 naumachia, Leon observes that the fighters were not gladiators but were convicted criminals sentenced to death. Their intended fate was occidioni (massacre, or slaughter). The lake had been surrounded with "rafts" to prevent a mass breakout
Prison escape
A prison escape or prison break is the act of an inmate leaving prison through unofficial or illegal ways. Normally, when this occurs, an effort is made on the part of authorities to recapture them and return them to their original detainers...
and was surrounded by "the crack soldiers of the praetorian guard, both infantry and cavalry, who were protected by ramparts and equipped with catapults and ballistae, and further reinforced by ships bearing marines ready for action". He concludes that this was not a formal salute, but in all likelihood an isolated incident of a mass plea for sympathy or mercy by desperate convicted men sentenced to death on a specific occasion, and that
[c]ombining the three accounts, we can reasonably assume that, condemned as they were to die, these convicts invoked Claudius with their "Morituri te salutant", which was not a regular and formal salute, but an appeal used only on that occasion in the hope of winning the Emperor's sympathy. When he replied "Aut non", they took his words as meaning "aut non morituri" [or not die] and indicating pardon – Suetonius says "quasi venia data" – and refused to fight, but finally yielded either to the entreaties of the Emperor or to force, and fought bravely until the survivors were excused from further slaughter.
My conclusion is, accordingly, that there is no evidence whatever for the much-quoted salute of the gladiators. The only two ancient references, those in Suetonius and in Dio, refer not to gladiators but to naumachiarii, men condemned to die, and even these references are to one specific episode, the circumstances of which indicate that the supposed salute was not even a regular salute of the naumachiarii.
Alan Baker broadly agrees, stating, "There is no evidence that this was common practice among gladiators. As far as we know, the only time this phrase was used was at an event staged by Claudius." Plass notes that "it is hard to see why or how the phrase came to be used on this occasion if it was not a regular formula. On the other hand, if it was something that Claudius might expect to hear it would more naturally serve in its role as a feed line for his repartee portraying his invincible gaucherie." He comments on the distancing effect of the Latin source and the first person of the Greek source and notes that the interpretation and response by the fighters "seems to be a maneuver within rules governing clemency in the arena".
Kyle concurs that no other sources record the "supposed gladiator salute" in any other context "and it did not come here from true gladiators". Treated as a commodity, they were not elite gladiators but captives and criminals doomed to die, who usually fought until all were killed. When the salute or appeal failed, and they were forced to kill one another in earnest,
[a]cting with some initiative and inventing a pseudo-gladiatorial salute, and then fighting well, these men, despite their criminal and non-professional status and their intended extermination, atypically turned themselves into proper gladiators for a day. Hence some survived.
He concludes that "[t]he sources remark on the incident, in part, because it was an anomaly in arena practice—a mass Androclean reprieve."
Usage in modern times
As well as taking root in modern conceptions of Roman customs, the phrase has passed into contemporary culture, including use by air forceAir force
An air force, also known in some countries as an air army, is in the broadest sense, the national military organization that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army, navy or...
pilots such as John Lerew
John Lerew
John Margrave Lerew, DFC was a high-ranking officer and pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force during World War II, and afterwards a senior manager in the International Civil Aviation Organization...
(his biography is titled "We Who Are About to Die"). a World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
film
War film
War films are a film genre concerned with warfare, usually about naval, air or land battles, sometimes focusing instead on prisoners of war, covert operations, military training or other related subjects. At times war films focus on daily military or civilian life in wartime without depicting battles...
entitled Morituri, a Marvel
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
comic of the 1980s called Strikeforce: Morituri
Strikeforce: Morituri
Strikeforce: Morituri is a comic book series published by Marvel Comics from 1986 to 1989. The series was created by writer Peter B. Gillis and artist Brent Anderson....
that focused on superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
es who were inevitably going to die, a set of one-act plays
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
of the 1890s by Hermann Sudermann
Hermann Sudermann
Hermann Sudermann was a German dramatist and novelist.- Early career :He was born at Matzicken, a village just to the east of Heydekrug in the Province of Prussia , close to the Russian frontier...
, Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad was a Polish-born English novelist.Conrad is regarded as one of the great novelists in English, although he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties...
's canonical 1902 novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness is a novella written by Joseph Conrad. Before its 1903 publication, it appeared as a three-part series in Blackwood's Magazine. It was classified by the Modern Library website editors as one of the "100 best novels" and part of the Western canon.The story centres on Charles...
, in popular music of the 1980s, in the paper title of peer-reviewed medical research, in a political maiden speech
Maiden speech
A maiden speech is the first speech given by a newly elected or appointed member of a legislature or parliament.Traditions surrounding maiden speeches vary from country to country...
, and in modern art, fiction, non-fiction and poetry related to the Roman period.
Writing and pronunciation
Written with optional macronMacron
A macron, from the Greek , meaning "long", is a diacritic placed above a vowel . It was originally used to mark a long or heavy syllable in Greco-Roman metrics, but now marks a long vowel...
s: .
Classical Latin pronunciation: ˈaweː ɪmpɛˈraːtɔr (ˈkajsar) mɔrɪˈtuːrɪ teː saˈluːtãːt
External links
- Suetonius: De Vita Caesarum ("The Life of the Caesars", also known as "The Twelve Caesars") - Latin text. English, French, Italian and other translations provided from the navigation bar.