Thracian gladiators were one of the four most common gladiatorial groups in Ancient Rome. They evolved during the 2nd century BC when the Romans discovered the race of warriors in the northern Greece region of Thrace. 
The armor of the gladiators was used to helped draw the crowds to the games and their helmets became works of art. Thracian helmets changed a great deal over the centuries, especially during the reign of Emperor Tiberius, which allows them to be dated depending on their features. Earlier helmets have no visor, leaving the eyes exposed to the attacker while the cheeks are covered with plates, and the narrow rim protecting the face like a hat was only slightly curved. On the other hand, more recent helmets contain a grill covering the eye, a wider rim and a more covered neck piece, as shown in the photo.
Archaeological evidence dates the first use of purple dye to approximately 1600 B.C. Legend attributes the discovering of this colour to Heracles, whose dog’s mouth was stained purple from eating rotten shellfish along the Levantine coast. It is then said that Heracles gave a piece of purple cloth as a gift to the King of Phoenix who declared it to be the royal color. This rich purple color became known as tyrian or imperial purple.
Since then, purple has been associated with royalty in Egypt, Persia and Rome. The Roman Emperors, however, took this color used to an extreme. Public displays of status in Ancient Rome were important as it offered an opportunity for the wealthy and powerful to flaunt their position. As men all wore the same style toga, knee length tunic and cloak, for Emperors stand out he would wear a trabea or toga entirely purple. The Roman Sumptuary Laws, which date back to the Roman Republic, were put in place to curb the money spent on food, entertainment and clothing. These laws stated that only the Emperor was allowed to wear the purple clothes. The penalties for failing to comply included fines, property loss and sometimes even death. The only other people permitted to wear purple, as a strip along the hems of their togas, were the lesser dignitaries including senators and their sons.
There were two main reasons why purple clothing was limited to Emperors only. The first was because purple was also used to decorate statues of the gods to indicate the Emperors relationship with them. (It was Julius Caesar (100 BC–44 BC) who first claimed that as the Emperor he was related to the gods.) The second was the rarity of purple dye. For thousands of years, purple dye was worth its weight in silver. It could take up to ten thousand mollusks to made enough dye for one toga. For Tyrian purple dye to be extracted from the mollusk the shellfish had to be collected, then crushed and left the in sun to decay. The secretion, oozing from the rotting shellfish was then collected and used to dye fabric. The smell was so bad that areas along the coast were reserved for the production of dye away from other settlements.
With the decline of the Roman Empire came the decline of tyrian purple dye, especially with the fall of Constantinople (now Istanbul) in A.D. 1453. It was not until 1856 that a new source of dye was found that also produced the deep purple color. This was the first aniline dye to be discovered and is called mauveine or aniline purple. It was discovered by William Perkin (1838–1907) while he was searching for a cure for malaria. He was only 18 at the time. (Nowadays aniline is used to make dyes, plastics, drugs and photographic chemicals.) This was the first time in history that purple became accessible to the masses.
image 1 - Roman Painting - Villa dei Misteri Pompeii - examples of the Royal Color Purple
image 2 - This mosaic, from the Basilica of San Vitale in Italy, showing the Emperor Justinian of Byzantine (AD 483–565) wearing a tyrian purple cloak.
About the Author
Charlotte Gardner, a guest blog writer, is currently studying archaeology at the Australian National University. In her spare time she likes to read and write about eccentric historical moments. Her love of old buildings and older stories was sparked when she visited Italy. One of Charlotte’s greatest wishes is that in a few thousand years her skeleton will be dug up by an archaeological investigation team and put on display in a national museum. You may contact Charlotte via email at: charlotteg86@gmail.com.
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Tags: 1453 A.D., 1838-1907, 1856, analine purple, ancient rome, aniline dye, Byzantine Emeror Justinian, Decline of Roman Empire, Emperor's Purple, Fall of Constantinople, Julius Caesar, mauveine purple, Puple dye from mollusk of shellfish, purple as status symbol, purple dye history, purple fabric history, Roman Republic, Roman Sumptuary laws, Roman Toga, royal color purple, royal colour purple, search for malaria cure, Tyrian Purple, William Perkin
Little authentic information regarding the ancient Celts’ priestly caste, better known to the world as the Druids, has survived to the modern age. The mysterious segment of the Celtic hierarchy is thought to have first arrived in the British Isles, along with the rest of their people, between the 5th and 6th centuries BC.
Following the Roman occupation of Britain, however, the Druids’ predilection for outlandish rituals soon drew the ire of the Empire and the Emperor Claudius had the sect outlawed in AD 43. The final blow came during the battle that followed that decree, when a battalion of sixty Roman troops assaulted a Druid outpost on the island of Mona. No quarter was given and the majority of the Druid population – men and women alike – was wiped out, their sacred meeting groves razed in the aftermath. 
The fact that the Druids conducted their rituals in sacred groves and arbors, and not stone circles, rules out their long-suspected connections to the monoliths at Stonehenge. That notion was the product of an 18th century outsider cleric, Dr. William Stukeley, who theorized that the Druidic sect was the direct forbearer of a pure British religion – later to be embodied, in his view, by the Church of England.
The progress of nations was much more slow in ancient days than now, and these two rival empires - Rome and Carthage - continued their gradual growth and extension, each on its own side of the great sea which divided them, for five hundred years, before they came into collision. At last, however, the collision came. It originated in the following way:
The question, what answer to give to this application, was brought before the Roman senate, and caused them great perplexity. It seemed very inconsistent to take sides with the rebels of Messina, when they had punished so severely those of Rhegium. Still the Romans had been, for a long time, becoming very jealous of the growth and extension of the Carthaginian power. Here was an opportunity of meeting and resisting it. The Sicilian authorities were about calling for direct aid from Carthage to recover the city, and the affair would probably result in establishing a large body of Carthaginian troops within sight of the Italian shore, and at a point where it would be easy for them to make hostile incursions into the Roman territories. In a word, it was a case of what is called political necessity; that is to say, a case in which the interests of one of the parties in a contest were so strong that all considerations of justice, consistency, and honor are to be sacrificed to the promotion of them. Instances of this kind of political necessity occur very frequently in the management of public affairs in all ages of the world.
The contest for Messina was, after all, however, considered by the Romans merely as a pretext, or rather as an occasion, for commencing the struggle which they had long been desirous of entering upon. They evinced their characteristic energy and greatness in the plan which they adopted at the outset. They knew very well that the power of Carthage rested mainly on her command of the seas, and that they could not hope successfully to cope with her till they could meet and conquer her on her own element. In the mean time, however, they had not a single ship and not a single sailor, while the Mediterranean was covered with Carthaginian ships and seamen. Not at all daunted by this prodigious inequality, the Romans resolved to begin at once the work of creating for themselves a naval power.
Thus the Carthaginians did every thing by power of money. They extended their operations in every direction, each new extension bringing in new treasures, and increasing their means of extending them more. They had, besides the merchant vessels which belonged to private individuals, great ships of war belonging to the state. These vessels were called galleys, and were rowed by oarsmen, tier above tier, there being sometimes four and five banks of oars. They had armies, too, drawn from different countries, in various troops, according as different nations excelled in the different modes of warfare. For instance, the Numidians, whose country extended in the neighborhood of Carthage, on the African coast, were famous for their horsemen. There were great plains in Numidia, and good grazing, and it was, consequently, one of those countries in which horses and horsemen naturally thrive. On the other hand, the natives of the Balearic Isles, now called Majorca, Minorca, and Ibiza, were famous for their skill as slingers. So the Carthaginians, in making up their forces, would hire bodies of cavalry in Numidia, and of slingers in the Balearic Isles; and, for reasons analogous, they got excellent infantry in Spain.
Thus the Carthaginian power became greatly extended. The whole government, however, was exercised by a small body of wealthy and aristocratic families at home. It was very much such a government as that of England was in the early 1900’s, only the aristocracy of England was based on ancient birth and landed property, whereas in Carthage it depended on commercial greatness, combined, it is true, with hereditary family distinction. The aristocracy of Carthage controlled and governed every thing. None but its own sons could ordinarily obtain office or power. The great mass of inhabitants were kept in a state of servitude and vassalage. This state of things operated then, as it did in England, very unjustly and hardly for those who were thus debased; but the result was—and in this respect the analogy with England still holds good—that a very efficient and energetic government was created. The government of an oligarchy makes sometimes a very rich and powerful state, but a discontented and unhappy people.
Let the reader now turn to the map and find the place of Carthage upon it. Let him imagine a great and rich city there, with piers, and docks, and extensive warehouses for the commerce, and temples, and public edifices of splendid architecture, for the religious and civil service of the state, and elegant mansions and palaces for the wealthy aristocracy, and walls and towers for the defense of the whole. Let him then imagine a back country, extending for some hundred miles into the interior of Africa, fertile and highly cultivated, producing great stores of corn, and wine, and rich fruits of every description. Let him then look at the islands of Sicily, of Corsica, and Sardinia, and the Baleares, and conceive of them as rich and prosperous countries, and all under the Carthaginian rule. Look, also, at the coast of Spain; see, in imagination, the city of Carthagena, with its fortifications, and its army, and the gold and silver mines, with thousands and thousands of slaves toiling in them. Imagine fleets of ships going continually along the shores of the Mediterranean, from country to country, cruising back and forth to Tyre, to Cyprus, to Egypt, to Sicily, to Spain, carrying corn, and flax, and purple dyes, and spices, and perfumes, and precious stones, and ropes and sails for ships, and gold and silver, and then periodically returning to Carthage, to add the profits they had made to the vast treasures of wealth already accumulated there. Let the reader imagine all this with the map before him, so as to have a distinct conception of the geographical relations of the localities, and he will have a pretty correct idea of the Carthaginian power at the time it commenced its dreadful conflicts with Rome.
