A bustuarius (plural: bustuarii) was a kind of gladiator in Ancient Rome, who fought about the funeral pyre (Latin: bustum) of the deceased at a Roman funeral.[1][2][3]

Bustuarii were considered of even lower status than other gladiators whose fights were exhibited in public gladiatorial games.[4] Bustuarii are mentioned by Cicero in his Against Piso speech, criticizing Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus before the Senate and comparing Publius Clodius Pulcher to a bustuarius gladiator.[5][6][7] Tertullian, alleges in his treatise attacking ancient Roman religion in favour of Christianity – On Spectacles – that the origin of gladiatorial games was these funerary rituals.[8][9] The word could also refer to a gravedigger or cremation attendant.[1][2][3]

At first, the practice was to sacrifice captives on the tomb, or at the bustum of warriors: instances of which are in Homer – at the funeral of Patroclus – and in Greek tragedy. Their blood was supposed to appease the di inferi or the manes, gods and spirits of the underworld, and render them propitious to the remains of the deceased. In later ages, this custom appeared too barbarous; and in lieu of these victims, they appointed gladiators to fight, whose blood, it was supposed, might have the same effect.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "bustuarius". Logeion. University of Chicago. Retrieved 2020-07-10.
  2. 1 2 Lewis, Charlton T. (1890). "An Elementary Latin Dictionary, būstuārius". www.perseus.tufts.edu. New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago: American Book Company. Retrieved 2020-07-10.
  3. 1 2 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879). "A Latin Dictionary, bustŭārĭus". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Retrieved 2020-07-10.
  4. ↑ Bagnani, Gilbert (1956-01-01). "Encolpius Gladiator Obscenus". Classical Philology. 51 (1): 24–27. doi:10.1086/363980. ISSN 0009-837X. S2CID 162196829. Cicero clearly implies that a gladiator bustuarius, that is to say one employed in munera funeraticia, was in a definitely lower class than those employed in the munera Publica.
  5. ↑ Cicero, In Pisonem, IX.19
  6. ↑ Clark, Albert (1909). M. Tulli Ciceronis Orationes: Recognovit brevique adnotatione critica instruxit Albertus Curtis Clark. Oxford Classical Texts. Clarendon Press.
  7. ↑ Yonge, C. D. (1891). M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated. London: George Bell & Sons.
  8. ↑ Tertullian, De spectaculis, XI.
  9. ↑ Tertullian (1931). Tertullian: Apology. De Spectaculis. Minucius Felix: Octavius. Loeb Classical Library 250. Translated by Glover, T. R.; Rendall, Gerald H. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. doi:10.4159/DLCL.tertullian-de_spectaculis.1931.

Public Domain This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chambers, Ephraim, ed. (1728). Cyclopædia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (1st ed.). James and John Knapton, et al. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

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