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Gladiators were professional combattants in ancient Rome who fought against each other and against wild animals, often to the death, for the entertainment of spectators. These fights took place in arenas in many cities during the Roman republic and the Roman empire.

The word comes from gladius, Latin for "sword."

The origins of gladiator fights lie probably in the custom of human sacrifices to honor the dead. The first Roman fights took place in 264 BC. Initially, these were organized by rich private individuals, often to gain political favor with the public. Later the emperors would exert a near complete monopoly on staging the ludi circenses, "games" which included hunts of wild animals, public executions and gladiator fights. These games took place in amphitheatres (like the Colosseum).

Gladiators were typically picked from prisoners of war, slaves, and criminals, who didn't have a choice in the matter. They were trained in special schools and belonged to a troupe which travelled from town to town. The troupe's owner rented gladiators to whoever intended to stage games. A gladiator would typically fight no more than three times per year.

Different gladiators specialized in different weapons, and it was popular to pair off combattants with widely different equipment, such as one with a shield, helmet and sword and another with a net and trident.

At the end of a fight, when one gladiator acknowledged defeat by raising a finger, the audience could decide whether the loser should live or die. A gladiator who won several fights was allowed to retire, often to train other fighters.

The attitude of Romans towards the gladiators was ambivalent: on the one hand they were considered as lower than slaves, on the other hand some successful gladiators rose to celebrity status. Despite the extreme dangers and hardships of the profession, some gladiators were volunteers (called auctorati); effectively this career was a sort of last chance for people who had gotten into financial troubles.

Their oath (which Seneca describes as particularly shameful) implied their acceptance of slave status and of the worst public consideration (infamia).

Some emperors, among them Hadrian, Caligula, Titus Flavius and Commodus, were also seen entering the arena for (presumedly) fictitious combats.

Female gladiators also existed; Emperor Commodus liked to stage fights between dwarfs and women.

One of the most famous gladiators was Spartacus, perhaps a Thracian slave, allegedly a deserter from the Roman Army, who also deserted from the gladiators and became the leader of a group of escaped gladiators and slaves hiding on Mount Vesuvius (near Naples), about 70 BC. These escapees fought on several occasions against the official army, and the story of the combats is popularly knwon as the "Third Servile War". Spartacus crossed the Italian peninsula many times, reached Gaul in the north and was finally defeated in southern Italy by Crassus after a long escape between Calabria and Lucania. He was killed in battle, his comrades crucified. The last survivors were killed by Pompey, coming back from Iberia. His name has been used by many revolutionaries, but the gladiators' wars were not meant as true revolutions: they were perhaps only military conflicts or, better, conflicts among soldiers, some of which refused to surrender and respect rules.

Gladiator fights were first outlawed by Constantin I in 325 but continued sporadically until about 450.

References

• Thomas Wiedemann: Emperors and Gladiators, Routledge 1992
• James Grout: Gladiators, part of the Encyclopædia Romana, http://itsa.ucsf.edu/~snlrc/encyclopaedia_romana/gladiators/gladiators.html

See also: Gladiator (2000 movie)