To this day the ancient Romans remain infamous for their dramatic use of spectacle and other forms of entertainment. A lesser known variation of Roman spectacle is the mythological re-enactments that took place during the ludi meridiani (midday spectacle). These performances were not only re-enactments for entertainment's sake, but were also a very real form of execution. The unfortunate souls forced to re-enact the myths were primarily condemned criminals who had committed a capital offense, but they may also have been prisoners of war. Within the Roman world it was only the humiliores (people of lower status) and non-citizens who were condemned to die in such a way, as public executions were often performed in a manner that was considered degrading and humiliating. Kathleen M. Coleman suggests that non-citizens, along with lowly criminals, were entitled to the most degrading of penalties as a result of their lack of status within society. It was the intent of the individual responsible for condemning the criminals/prisoners to separate the condemned from society, both physically and emotionally, in order to prevent sympathy among the spectators. By humiliating the condemned, the spectators would experience a sort of shared moral superiority over the individual that had been sentenced to die.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original content at https://www.worldhistory.org/article/796/mythological-re-enactments-in-ancient-roman-specta/.