Gladiator

Gladiator (Latin, gladius, “sword”), professional fighter who performed in spectacles of armed combat in ancient Roman circuses and amphitheatres. The practice of armed men fighting to the death originated in Etruria, in central Italy, probably as a ritual at funerals of dead warriors. The first gladiatorial exhibition in Rome was in 264 bc, when three pairs of gladiators fought as part of a funeral feast. By 174 bc, 37 pairs participated in a spectacle lasting three days. Large-scale exhibitions sponsored by Julius Caesar, which on one occasion included 300 pairs, prompted the Roman Senate to limit the number of contestants. The largest contest of gladiators was given by the emperor Trajan as part of a victory celebration in ad 107 and included 5,000 pairs of fighters. The emperor Domitian in ad 90 presented combats between women and dwarfs.

Gladiators were slaves, condemned criminals, prisoners of war, and sometimes Christians. Forced to become swordsmen, they were trained in schools called ludi, and special measures were taken to discipline them and prevent them from committing suicide. One gladiator, Spartacus, avenged his captivity by escaping and leading an insurrection that terrorized southern Italy from 73 to 71 bc.

A successful gladiator received great acclaim; he was praised by poets, his portrait appeared on gems and vases, and patrician ladies pampered him. A gladiator who survived many combats was sometimes relieved from further obligations of fighting. Occasionally, freedmen and Roman citizens entered the arena, as did Emperor Commodus.

Depending on which weapons and methods of fighting they employed, gladiators were divided into light- and heavy-armoured classes. For example, the retiarius (“net man”), clad in a short tunic, would attempt to entangle his fully armed opponent, the secutor (“pursuer”), with a net and then to kill him with a trident. Other classes fought with different weapons, or on horseback or from chariots. According to tradition, when a gladiator had overpowered his opponent, he turned to the spectators. If they wished him to spare the defeated man, they waved their handkerchiefs, but if they thought he should be killed, they turned down their thumbs.

Although Constantine the Great proscribed gladiatorial contests in ad 325, they continued to be held until about 500.