Jordan Reichlin

humanities

Mr.Whitson

7/3/10

Daily Life In The Roman City

Gregory S. Aldrete

Gladiatorial fights were not always in Rome. They most likely started from the people before them in that part of Italy, or the Etruscans. When they first started they were focused on a small scale mostly at funerals. But when Julius Caesar was in command he started to make them as a form of entertainment also. While trying to become more popular and several decades after his fathers death he had a enormous gladiatorial fight featuring over six-hundred gladiators. This actually did get him more popular respect since he provided entertainment and said they were for his father. The Roman senate could also do gladiator fights but they were only allowed to sponsor two a year though the emperor could do as many as he wanted to. Before fights the gladiators would eat dinner together. There were several famous incidents in Roman history when their were mass suicides because they were captured soldiers and did not want to fight their former comrades. The next morning they would all parade around with the sponsor at its head. Before the fight but after the parade they would also bring in criminals that had done some crime thats punishment was death. Right before the fight they would have their throats cut, spectators could choose wether or not they wished to see this or eat lunch. “Once at some games at which he was presiding, the emperor Caligula became bored because there were no criminals to be executed during the intermission. His solution was to order his guards to throw an entire section of the crowd into the arena to be eaten by animals.” Quote. At one of the largest games of all time in Rome an emperor had a 10,000 gladiators fight in about one-hundred twenty days.

Too become a gladiator was fairly easy. While woman gladiators were rare you could become one by choice. The other types of gladiators were either slaves/war prisoners or the occasional criminal. Before fighting you trained for many years. He went to a special school were they trained for many years. When he became reasonable at fighting styles the lanista or trainer would evaluate them and assign them a special way to fight. This was assigned by their strengths, weakness’s, their choice of weapons, and their style of fighting. There was not a certain time when they were supposed to fight. When someone wished to put on a show they would pay on of the schools for a certain amount of gladiators, the price depended on wether they were veterans or new.

Gladiator fights were not meant to be unfair usually. But what usually happened was a fight between a lightly armored man vs a heavily armored one. Two men with different equipment fighting each other. There were many different ways a gladiator could fight. He could be a retiarius or a man with no armor and a trident and weighted net. Another could be a Thracian who would wear little armor but had a small shield and sword who would try to tire their enemy out and find weak links in their opponents armor. Finally when they started to fight with no time limit or rules. When a gladiator was wounded the crowd would shout out. The gladiator was then obliged to ask for mercy by dropping his shield and raising a certain finger. The crowd then could scream out or signal using their thumbs wether to spare or kill them. If the crowd decided that he deserved to die the gladiator would stab him in the throat, though when he lived he would drop his weapon. It seems that some games the crowd was inclined to be merciful to the loser and others they would scream for their deaths. The record is supposedly eighty eight fights which is amazing since that meant that either they were a amazing fighter and lucky.