glorantha-request_at_rpglist.org wrote:
> From: "TERRA INCOGNITA" <inarsus-ferilt-z_at_mrg.biglobe.ne.jp>
> Subject: Gladiator
>
> But when the Empire has first invented Roman Style Bread and Circus? Can I
> find hints in ILH series? (I don't have ILH-1 yet.)
>
Urvairinus first popularised gladitorial games as part of his funerary arrangements (GRoY29). Before that ... well there isn't much before Urvairinus ... before that it was probably a Shargashi sacred thing.
IMO it has been with the Dara Happans ever since.
> "Bread and Circus...is an entertainment for poor populace who lost almost
> all of privilege as inheritors of Old Time City Republic Citizens, before
> Emperors changed the system of SPQR into Empire of Fact."
>
> At the Funeral of Emperor Urivairinus: Contest over Death Rites (GROY p.29)
> maybe it is similar to one scene of "Iliad" (Funeral of Patruclus), but I
> guess at that age, it was purely ceremonial and for divinity, not for
> entertainment of populace.....
Check the rest of this paragraph, "He named men ... This augmented the old funerary athletic games." IMO there were games that were popularily celebrated and Urvairinus added blood sports to it. This may have been a deliberate effort to distract the citizenry while the governement underwent changes from one Emperor to the next and alleviated the uncertainty. Much as the Roman games distracted the citizenry from their poverty.
> I think Lunars reinstituted Bloody Games as an inheritor of Bright Empire. I
> don't think Ordanestyu-style Puritanism tolerate Roman Style luxurious
> Circus....
>
I don't see any mention of Ordanestyu purging society but even if he did, Urvairinus founded the blood games so any puritan would have to keep them. They are part of the ritual of death for emperors.
Wesley
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