gladiatorsdie

Discovering Cartagena

More Articles By Phillip Bruce www.raxomnium.com

Where The Gladiators Died

One of the most interesting sights in Cartagena doesn’t really feature much in tourist publicity. This is the old bull ring which was closed many years ago. But the 19^th century structure stands upon the foundations of the city’s arena where in Roman times the gladiators fought.

In fact the word, arena, means sand in Spanish and this was spread liberally around to soak up the blood from the deadly contests. In English the word now means a place where performances and spectacles take place.

The system of gladiatorial combat was very well developed in Roman times, with provincial centres holding their own games and the top men passing on to the Imperial capital to fight for the amusement of emperors and the mob.

Many gladiators came from North Africa, as anyone who has seen the enjoyable romp Gladiator, will know. Experts deride this film as featuring a complete mix up of weapons and styles but it is great fun nonetheless. Oliver Reed ran a gladiator training camp in North Africa and shipped his promising men over when they were ready for combat. Presumably, as Cartagena was a main Roman port only 120 miles away from the coast of Africa it acted as a point of entry for gladiators.

Also, the Iberian tribes that the Romans fought as they established and maintained their rule were noted for their ferocity and warriors from these tribes must also have ended up as gladiators.

Stones from the arena were, no doubt, cannibalized for other buildings once the Roman administration collapsed but the foundations remained and it was on these that the bull ring was built in a style that features many Arabic architectural elements such as the windows.

Now the story gets a little murky. According to one source there is a league system in bull fighting. Some cities are premier league while others rank lower. In the past, it is claimed, Cartagena was very definitely a premier league location. This caused great jealousy in the regional capital, Murcia, which also has a bull ring. Shenanigans ensued, according to the source, and the Cartagena bull ring was suddenly condemned by the regional chiefs as being structurally unsafe. This was nonsense and was part of a plot to get the premier classification shifted to Murcia City. Thankfully, it appears that the ruse hasn’t worked and whoever is responsible for these rankings won’t play ball with the plotters in the regional capital.

Today, the bull ring remains locked and off-limits but visitors can still peer into the basement entrance, on the seaward side, where once the gladiators, and presumably plenty of lions and other wild animals, marched to their death on the blood-soaked sand.

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