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Welcome to my new series focusing on disability as entertainment. Throughout history, people with disabilities, especially physical deformities, have been put on display to be gawked, mocked, and laughed at. Interestingly, this seems to be a constant theme, where history repeats itself over and over again. I will attempt to work in chronological order, starting in Ancient Rome and working up to present day. However, I may discover something along the way which will force me to travel back in time.
The most obvious place to start is the Colosseum, where the Roman public went to be entertained. I will be discussing the role of dwarfs in the Colosseum and I shall explain why presently.
Are Dwarfs Even Disabled?
I feel it is important to explain some terminology. Although dwarf can now be interpreted as an offensive term, it is used by academics, as that is what the Romans called them. For this reason, I will also be using the term dwarf.
You may now be wondering if dwarfism is even a disability. The short answer is, it’s complicated. There has been some academic debate on that very question. I think the simplest thing to do is to give my take on the situation and explain why I am focusing on dwarfs this week. Brace yourself for some more terminology. According to dictionary.com, the definition of disability is ‘a physical or mental handicap, especially one that hinders or prevents a person from performing tasks of daily living, carrying out work or household responsibilities, or engaging in leisure and social activities’. Judging by this definition, I would say that having dwarfism can indeed be disabling in certain circumstances. Personally, sitting in a wheelchair, there are things I cannot reach on shelves etc., because they are too high up for me, which is disabling.
In the context of Ancient Rome, I would definitely consider dwarfs to be disabled. Not only would they have experienced hindrances due to their short stature, their physical difference meant that they were not seen as human. I will go into greater detail on this in another post, but basically, the Romans believed that deformity granted people special powers. The key reason that dwarfs are the main focus of this post is a matter of necessity. Simply put, there is not a whole amount of source material related to other disabilities. This may be due to disabled babies and children not surviving into adulthood. It could also be possible that they were just not noteworthy enough to record.
Fighting Dwarfs
Dwarfs are known to have fought in amphitheatres, such as the Colosseum. However, there is some disagreement as to how this played out. For instance, it has widely been believed that women fought dwarfs in the arena. However, this may not be true. It all depends on how you interpret the evidence. According to the Roman historian, Cassius Dio,
“Often he [Domitian] would conduct the games also at night, and sometimes he would pit dwarfs and women against each other”.
At first glance, it appears as if he is saying that dwarfs fought women. This is highly unlikely, as a woman would have a huge advantage over a dwarf, resulting in a quick and dull contest. I think the crowd would not be entertained! Instead, I believe the above quote should be read as dwarfs fought dwarfs and women fought women. This would have led to much fairer fights and would have been much more enjoyable (for the audience at least). There is evidence, including statuettes, which suggest that dwarfs would compete in boxing matches against each other. These matches usually took place as the warmup act before the main bloodshed began. I suppose in a sense, the dwarfs got off lightly.
A common occurrence in the arena was for mythological scenes to be recreated. Dwarfs were used to tell the tale of the ferocious battle between the Pygmies and their natural enemies, Cranes!! This is how the poet Statius described the event,
“Then in turn come forth the bold battalions of dwarfs, whom Nature from their birth cramped and bound once for all into a knotted lump. These join in battle and deal wounds; see, with Lilliputian hands they menace each his fellow with death; while Father Mars and murderous Valour, and the cranes, ere in random raid they pounce, marvel at the courage of the pygmies.”
This particular translation is from 1908, hence the old timey language.
Commodus as Hercules
I cannot finish this post without telling you the story of the time a bunch of cripples had their heads caved in. As anyone who has seen the movie Gladiator can attest, Commodus was not a nice guy. It’s reported that on one occasion, he gathered up every dwarf he could find and brought them to the Colosseum. He then let them loose in the arena with meat cleavers, until only one remained. On a separate occasion, he gathered people who had no feet and tied them up in a line at the centre of arena. He then proceeded to walk down the line, with a Hercules-style club, and smashed each of their heads in.
I think it is safe to say that it was probably best to steer clear of the Colosseum if you were disabled in Ancient Rome.
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Next week I will stick with Ancient Rome but focus on what it was like to be a disabled slave.
The Wheelchair Historian
Further Reading
Aeilia, Cleopatra, ‘General Misconceptions about Gladiators and Munera’,
http://www.societasviaromana.net/Collegium_Historicum/misconceptions.php
Accessed: 2nd October, 2020.
Brunet, Stephen, ‘Dwarfs in Early Imperial Spectacles’, https://camws.org/meeting/2008/program/abstracts/07b4.Brunet.html Accessed: 2nd October, 2020.
Brunet, Stephen, ‘Women with Swords: Female Gladiators in the Roman World’, 2014 https://sites.middlebury.edu/gsaw/files/2016/02/women-with-swords.pdf Accessed: 2nd October, 2020.
Conliffe, Ciaran, ‘Commodus, Roman Emperor and Gladiator’, Last updated Mar 29, 2019, https://www.headstuff.org/culture/history/terrible-people-from-history/commodus-roman-emperor-gladiator/ Accessed: 2nd October, 2020.
Dio, Cassius, Roman History, 67.8.2 http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/roman/texts/cassius_dio/67*.html Accessed: 2nd October, 2020.
Jeffery, Simon, ‘Gladiators: Everything you need to know about bloodthirsty Roman entertainment on the net’, Fri 12 May 2000, https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/may/12/netnotes.simonjeffery Accessed: 2nd October, 2020.
Oliver, Mark, ‘10 Crazy Shows Romans Could Watch At The Colosseum’, November 25, 2016 https://listverse.com/2016/11/25/10-crazy-shows-romans-could-watch-at-the-colosseum/ Accessed: 2nd October, 2020.
Spectacular Antiquity, ‘Dwarfs in the Roman Arena’, https://spectacularantiquity.wordpress.com/case-studies/public/dwarfs-in-the-arena/ Accessed: 2nd October, 2020.
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