Gladiators

=__Roman Gladiators__= Sophie

Most Roman gladiators came from countries that had been conquered by Rome. Many were slaves, prisoners of war, condemned men, criminals, as well as bankrupt Romans. The training schedule was extremely difficult for gladiators; they trained all day every day of the week. Gladiators that won fights for certain period of time could become trainers of other gladiators. Their diet consisted mostly of porridge, grain, beans and sometimes ashes to build them up. Though gladiators lived a tough life, they always had enough food, good shelter and medical care. There were several different types of gladiatorial games such as, naval, gladiator against animal and gladiator against gladiator. In naval fights the arena would be flooded with water and numerous gladiators fought to reenact a war between the Romans and the Persians. The Romans also brought animals from Africa such as lions, tigers and elephants to fight against the gladiators. In a gladiator against gladiator fight, if one man was disabled or disarmed, the crowd would hold their thumbs up or down to decide weather he would live or not. Thumbs up meant he would live, thumbs down meant he would die, the emperor decided what to do based on the crowd. The Romans adapted the tradition of gladiatorial fights from the Etruscans. The Etruscans believed that if a well-known man died his spirit wouldn’t carry on to the after life unless there was a blood sacrifice. As time went on the Romans had the fights as a form of entertainment rather than a ritual. The many types of gladiators included andabatus and essedarius who’s main weapons were horses. Retarius and laquerius were very similar in the fact that they both fought with tridents, daggers and shoulder armor but retarius a net instead of a lasso. Myrmillo and tharciam both fought with daggers and shields. Samnite wore a helmet and was armed with a sword and shield while dimachaerius was armed with two sword and little armor. Also, secutor wore little armor and chased his opponent while relitus was armed with only a spear. Today the only remembrances of the gladiatorial fights are the crumbled remains of the arenas.

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