Preview

Roman Gladiators

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
806 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Roman Gladiators
Bloodshed, gore, and death: these sights were not uncommon in the Roman Empire at “the colosseum, a huge arena that could hold 50,000 [and] would fill the rich and poor alike. These spectacles they watched combined bravery and cruelty, honor and violence” (Beck 152). Thousands of people would flood to the colosseum to watch gladiators duel with animals, and with each other. This form of entertainment attracted multiple spectators, yet is was an extremely deadly sport. A multitude of gladiators died while fighting in the colosseum. Through the sights of death, people still watched the fights for centuries. Gladiator fights were not always in an arena, they were originally fought by slaves at funerals of the wealthy. When slaves fought it symbolized …show more content…
The love of violence has not gone away with time. Romans loved gladiator fights due to the fact that “they are able to enjoy the rush of adrenaline and excitement that comes from a risky situation without actually being put in danger, much as people do today when they watch frightening or action filled films” (Intro Conclusion Activity). Not only is the love of adrenaline evident in modern television shows and movies, but also in sports. Millions of spectators watch American football, wrestling, hockey, boxing, race car driving, and more. They all include ideas of aggression and danger. Viewers of modern sports feel the same rush of adrenaline as viewers of ancient gladiator fights. Modern sports are just less deadly. The athletes and competitors themselves are similar in ancient times and present day, “the most successful fighters even had endorsed products like the top athletes of today” (Andrews). Gladiators formed themselves into unions, they had a special bond with the rest of their league. Each gladiator also fought in certain styles, whether it be with a trident or a sword. That is similar to modern American sports teams, and the different positions an athlete might play. While Emperor Commodus fought as a gladiator, he “ordered his fights to be inscribed… and announced in the city newspaper” (Alchin). Even in ancient times, there was a sports section in the
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    The Day Commmodus Killed A Rhino Analysis
    • 1517 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The Day Commmodus Killed A Rhino Analysis

    When reading about the Roman gladiator games as well as the chariot races and theater events, it can be quite difficult to truly envision what it was like for the participants and the spectators of such events. The participants in such activities were overall viewed as low-class citizens. Gladiators, charioteers and actors in the theater all “had little more status than slaves.” The participants of the games were meant to entertain the spectators, and nothing else. Besides the fact that the participants were seen as low class, they also faced very brutal conditions in the games. The gladiators and charioteers were susceptible to violent, gory deaths. For gladiators, often times their throats were cut and the knives eventually made their way to the gladiator’s hearts. Another possible outcome for gladiators, was being ripped to pieces by various animals. Whether their death came by combat with another gladiator or by animal, it was nothing short of gruesome. This gruesomeness though, was enjoyed by many. Chariot…

    • 1517 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Gladiator Movie Analysis
    • 506 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Gladiator Movie Analysis

    By currently taking this History & Philosophy of Sports class, this film “Gladiator” establishes the whole scenery during the time period of ancient Rome. In the film, it introduced Gladiator battles. These Gladiator battles reflected as entertainment to society, as well as, being a survival setting between life and death. Not only they would compete for survival, but they would compete to become the best. By this time, Commodus, is the new Roman emperor and he fears that Maximus could use his heroic ability to dethrone him and become emperor himself. Maximus would use his fame and popularity as a gladiator to invoke further damage to Commodus' insecure dominance of the devoted Roman people, hoping to influence them to restore their lost values and overcome the corruption that…

    • 506 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Roman Gladiator Research Paper
    • 417 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Roman Gladiator Research Paper

    The awning system was controlled by a series a poles that could be used to open and close the awning. The place where you were seated depended not on the price of the ticket, but on your social class.The building of the Colosseum helped create a place for leisure and showed the wealth of the Roman Empire. Also, the Colosseum was used to showcase the variety of exotic animals that they used to fight the gladiators. At the Colosseum, wild beasts fought in the morning, and the gladiators fought in the afternoon. Gladiators used a variety of weapons such as the oblong shield, a visored helmet, and a sword. Gladiators usually fought until one was killed. However, the life of the loser could be spared if the spectators waved handkerchiefs. Most gladiators were prisoners of war, slaves, or criminals who were required to fight in these contests. However, some free men fought for money and fame. Successful gladiators became famous in Rome. Gladiators were carefully fed, and they received medical care. They were generally housed in barracks. Most of the contests after that were held at funerals or celebrations, and were under state control.These cruel battles prepared the Roman citizens for the sight of human bloodshed, so they could endure war…

    • 417 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Gladiator. Comparison from the movie to actual history. similarities and differences.
    • 845 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Gladiator. Comparison from the movie to actual history. similarities and differences.

    Maximus was the general of Rome and a really good general at that. He lead Rome to many victories. He was so great and loyal that in the movie, Marcus Aurelius actually asked him to succeed him in the throne. When Commodus heard this from his father, he killed him and sentenced Maximus to death. When Maximus escaped, he was picked up by a group of men and sold as a slave to become a gladiator. As a gladiator, he fought many different types of gladiators. Quicker ones had nets with tridents and slower ones had curved swords with shields. There were some gladiators that even had chariots. In the actual history of Rome, there really were different types of gladiators. The gladiators with the net and trident were called the retarius. The gladiator with the curved sword and shield were called the samnite. I'm not too sure if there were gladiators that used chariots as their weapons but it sounds likely since it is thought that the colosseum was filled up and used for boat wars. Using chariots would be easy for them and entertaining for the crowd. There's a scene in the movie where it's a one on one battle between Maximus and a champion gladiator. Maximus is barely armed and protected. All he has is a sword and shield I believe. The other man has two swords, a mask for protection, and heavy armor. This shows how each type of gladiator was to fight a different kind of gladiator so the match would be even and fair.…

    • 845 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Gladiator: Fact or Fiction
    • 741 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Gladiator: Fact or Fiction

    Meanwhile, back in Rome, Commodus tries to win over the fickle mob with stupendous games in the Colliseum. Lasting 180 days, the games draw wild animals and gladiators from all over Rome. With Maximus in Rome, he sees his chance for revenge. This simple outline shows a couple of excellent points. The film is a combination of all the great themes of Rome. Rome's empire was won by its army - the discipline and training made the Roman army the most powerful weapon in the ancient world. The clash between Maximus' army and the German barbarians in the opening scene is a perfect replica of real events.…

    • 741 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Assess Attitudes Shown Towards Gladiators by Roman Society
    • 962 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Assess Attitudes Shown Towards Gladiators by Roman Society

    The origin of the gladiatorial games is not known for certain. One theory places the origin of gladiators to 264BC. According to this theory the first gladiators were slaves who were made to fight to the death at the funeral of a renowned aristocrat, Junius Brutus Pera. This spectacle was organized by his sons Marcus and Decimus Brutus in honor of their father.…

    • 962 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Gladiators In The Hunger Games
    • 1198 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Gladiators In The Hunger Games

    The seating and thoughts on the entertainment of Roman gladiators is similar to the audience experience of the Hunger Games. The Capitol watched the Hunger Games happily while people in the Districts watched painfully as young people from their district died. The Capitol watched the Hunger Games from their homes, seated and in plazas, which was much more luxurious than the Districts sitting in their homes and outside on outdated televisions and the projector. Much like the seating at the Colosseum, the Districts did not have the privilege of comfortable seating compared to the people in the Capitol. The audience experience of Roman gladiators and the Hunger Games were similar because the admission fee for both was free. This was because the leaders wanted to control the people watching the gladiatorial…

    • 1198 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    What Was The Role Of Prize Fighting In The 1890's
    • 1613 Words
    • 7 Pages

    What Was The Role Of Prize Fighting In The 1890's

    After forming the groundwork of the sport over the past twenty years, football was finally beginning to bear resemblance to the sport that we’ve grown to know today. Even though the love of football would eventually grow to take the nation by storm, the sport came under some of the same scrutinies that prize fighting did. The National Police Gazette would often times denounce the sport in the same way they did prize fighting; calling out the upper class individuals who played and watched the sport “hypocrites”. The gazette felt that there was a contradiction in the fact that the same people who supported the violence that college football represented were also the same people who couldn’t stand to see gory prize fighting matches. Even so, this publicity (as negative as it may have sounded) would be the start of people beginning to become more curious about the sport.…

    • 1613 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Roles of Gladiators in Roman Society
    • 1735 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Roles of Gladiators in Roman Society

    Gladiators were mostly unfree individuals either condemned criminals, prisoners of wars who had lost their citizenship rights, although, some of them were volunteers who were mostly freedmen or very low classes of freeborn men who chose to be a slave for monetary rewards or for the fame. Gladiators were brought for the purpose of gladiatorial combat and would endure branding, chains, flogging or death by the sword and subjected to a rigorous training, fed on a high-energy diet, and given expert medical attention. Gladiators were famously popular in ancient from for seven centuries, from the 3rd century BC to the 4th century AD fairly late in the Public occupied a prominent position in roman society, they would fight in massive amphitheatres, the most famous being the Colosseum in Rome. The games slowly transformed into spectator, a form of public execution and was seen by the public as entertainment in simpler, rougher times. It escalated as the Romans valued the art of killing and acted as a distraction for its citizens, allowed them to release their violent impulses and aggression within a completely separate social realm. We can assume that there were gladiatorial fights before this in Rome but were not recorded and the tradition of gladiatorial combats did not evolve in Rome but considered to have come from the Etruscans.…

    • 1735 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Enduring Cultures Cba
    • 439 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Enduring Cultures Cba

    The Roman world of entertainment was centered on violence. The Colosseum was the most popular amphitheater in Ancient Rome. People gathered to see the fights between gladiators, slaves, prisoners, and wild animals (History on the net, 2013). These fights often were very violent and resulted in death. Roman plays followed the same concept and could result in death of an actor. They also based much of their plays off of Greek tragedies…

    • 439 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    The Colosseum's Role in Ancient Roman Society
    • 5673 Words
    • 23 Pages

    The Colosseum's Role in Ancient Roman Society

    For as long as humans have existed, they have always found some way to entertain themselves. Even the earliest societies have left evidence of some sort of activity or hobby that they used as a form of entertainment. Perhaps the most famous building that was used as a form of entertainment is the Roman Colosseum, also known as the Flavian amphitheater. In ancient Rome, the most popular form of entertainment was the gladiator fights. These fights, usually among animals and trained public fighters, were staged in open arenas in a city's forum. There is evidence that the gladiator fights were originally staged in Rome's main town square because of a remark by the first-century B.C. Roman architect Vitruvius. He once wrote: "The custom of giving gladiatorial shows in the forum has been handed down from our ancestors." As the years passed, the fights became more and more popular so they drew more spectators. Since these spectators needed seating, games officials put up wooden seats around a forum just prior to a public show and dismantled them afterward. The name amphitheater is given to a public building of the Classical period which was used for spectator sports, games, and displays. Before the Colosseum was built, oval-shaped amphitheaters that could seat thousands of people were constructed of wood. However, many of them burned down and some collapsed. In A.D. 27, in a town not far north of Rome, an ancient wooden amphitheater collapsed because its foundations were not rested on solid ground and the wooden supports were not securely fastened. Fifty thousand people were crushed in the disaster. This made Romans realize that it was time to start building stronger, more permanent amphitheaters, ones made of stone. Building such a tremendous stone structure was no easy task. It was time…

    • 5673 Words
    • 23 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Essay On Gladiators
    • 558 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Essay On Gladiators

    Gladiators were put up against each other to fights to the death. The winning gladiator waited for a sign from the crowd on whether to kill or not to kill the other gladiator; if the gladiator put up a good fight then his life just might be spared (“Gladiators, Chariots, and the Roman Games”.) All Gladiators swore a solemn oath, “I will endure to be burned, to be bound, to be beaten, and to be killed by the sword” (McManus, “Gladiator Games”.)…

    • 558 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Gladiators And Blood Sports In Ancient Rome
    • 403 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Gladiators And Blood Sports In Ancient Rome

    Blood sports in ancient Rome served several purposes that would ultimately lead to the reinforcement or undermining of social orders. First, participants in these sports viewed them as professional careers (Potter, pg. 75).…

    • 403 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Unequal Pay in Sport
    • 708 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Unequal Pay in Sport

    Picture this; Ancient Rome 100 BC. Big beefy gladiators marching into the coliseum. Owned by the wealthy Romans. It’s packed with crowds, booing and cheering as they fight for their lives against each other.…

    • 708 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Art 101 Worksheet: Roman Theatre
    • 420 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Art 101 Worksheet: Roman Theatre

    Blood thirsty, competitive- The Romans were competive with their plays, like today Americans are competitive with their sports…

    • 420 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More

Related Topics