Gladiatorial Combats In Imperial Rome

Gladiators seem to have entered the Roman scene quite late in the Republic, where they were employed as entertainers in various circuses. Their origin is traced to the Etruscan traditional of murdering slaves at funerals.

In the medieval Roman Empire gladiators were used to entertain spectators through fighting that often resulted to death. They were trained in "Ludi saeculares - secular games or centennial rites of ancient Rome that marked the commencement of a new generation (100 years representing the longest life in a generation).

The gladiators often prisoners of war or condemned slaves were trained to fight in the arenas of large Roman amphitheaters also called colosseum, these were build by the emperor Titus Vespasian of the Flavian dynasty who is well known for consolidating the Roman rule in Germany and Britain and reforming the army and under whose reign; the Roman empire flourished and prospered.

Gladiators were occasionally indulged

It was common for popular gladiators to amass wealth and form families. Prior to combats, gladiators were given plenty of food (usually grain barley that was nutritionally inferior). Excavations from a presumed gladiator cell in a medieval Roman town of Pompeii, which was decimated by the eruption of the volcanic Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. revealed jewels that could have belonged to the wife of a gladiator or mistress.

Category of Gladiators:

Gladiators during the Roman time were divided into categories based their fighting style, armor and weapons. There were gladiators who fought on horseback, gladiators who fought in pairs, gladiators in chariots and those named after their origin i.e. Thracian gladiators.

Rewards for gladiators

Gladiators who fought bravery and victoriously were awarded with money and donations from the spectators, many were also granted their freedom. At the conclusion of service, gladiators were given rudis. Those who demonstrated highest level of skill and bravery were promoted to become trainers or bodyguards, a good example is the men that followed Publius Clodius Pulcher, the Roman popularist politician who plagued the life of Cicero's.

Who Were the Roman Gladiators?:

Gladiators came from a surprisingly diverse group. Gladiators were usually men, but they could also be women. They were usually slaves, but their number included emperors. Free men who had spent their inheritance and lacked other means of support might take up a career as gladiator hoping to win lots of money and the rudis quickly.

Bravo!

There appears to be no evidence for the thumbs up gesture -- or at least, if it was used, it probably meant death, not mercy. A waving handkerchief also signified mercy, and graffiti indicates the shouting of the words "dismissed" also worked to save the downed gladiator from death.

Attitude towards the Games

The classicist and historian Mary Beard has outspokenly challenged conventional attitudes on gladiatorial games, she reiterates that even during medieval times, peoples attitudes towards the violence and cruelty of the games varied greatly. Other writers like Seneca express criticism, pointing that people attended these gladiatorial games.