Note 1661 — BOOK IV.

The magistrate who exhibited the shows of gladiators was said edere munus. The first editores were the brothers Marcus and Decimus Junius Brutus, A.U.C. 490, B.C. 264, who exhibited a munus gladiatorium in the Forum Boarium, at their father's funeral. Val. Max., II., iv., 7, Liv. Epit., xvi. The country of Samnium afterward produced many of these gladiators, though probably the name Samnis was also given to those who were armed after the old Samnite fashion (as Threx, Gallus, etc. Hor., i., Ep. xviii., 36; ii., Ep. ii., 98. Livy describes their equipment in detail, ix., 40, which tallies exactly with the paintings discovered at Pompeii. Vid. Pompeii, vol. i., p. 308, seq.). Æsernia, now Isernia, was a town in the district of the Pentri in Samnium, to which the Romans sent a colony in the year above mentioned. Æsernius was probably some famous gladiator who was a native of this place, but his name and that of Pacideianus were afterward used proverbially for any eminent men of that class. Cf. Cic., opt. gen., Or. vi. Tusc., iv., 21, ad Quint. Frat., iii., 4. Hor., ii., Sat. vii., 97. Nonius explains "spurcus" to mean "savage, blood-thirsty."