ABSTRACT

It is claimed that duels were unknown in antiquity, perhaps because the forefathers, always suspicious, did not go armed in their temples or theaters or among friends. Perhaps because free men would not deign to admit that the duel was a frequent and common spectacle of debased slave gladiators, and free men disdained to be considered and called gladiators because of their private combat. Laws decreeing death for he who accepts a duel have tried in vain to eradicate this custom, but it is so much a part of a man's identity that he fears loss of respect before others more than death. The man of honor is exposed to his fate all alone, a terrible state for a social being, and becomes the target of insults and infamy, repeated over and over which entirely overshadows any fear of punishment.