Putting on a Show: The Costs and Organisation of Hosting Public Entertainment in the Roman Empire

Public entertainment was a staple of the Roman city. During the Imperial period, Roman forms of entertainment were hosted by local elite throughout the Empire. This thesis aims to analyse and reconstruct the organisational processes which facilitated these events. It will breakdown the organisation and financing of each of the major games taking place in the Roman Empire: gladiatorial combats, beast-hunts, chariot racing, and agonistic festivals. It will consider games that were hosted throughout the entire Empire and taking place between the first and third centuries AD. The city of Rome will not be considered, as the scale and variety of games that could be seen there were not replicated in the municipal and provincial cities. While the better documented organisational entities that supplied the games in Rome will be referenced when necessary, they will not be the focus of this study.

By comparing the organisation and cost of these games in the Empire, this thesis demonstrates how the choice of which games were hosted was not wholly dictated by benefactor preference. Rather, organisers were restricted by the resources that were readily available to them. Costs, such as those for exotic animals, illustrate that while a variety of resources could be imported to host these games, many benefactors were unable to afford to host anything outside of what was regionally available. This is also reflected in the different frequencies that certain types of games were hosted throughout the Empire. What can be seen is that the choice of games hosted by the local elite matched the regions which served as the main supply lines for entertainment in Rome. Local variations of organisational entities for games suggests that there was a degree of localisation taking place throughout the Empire as suppliers for these events created unique businesses to accommodate the particular needs of benefactors.