Gladiators in Ancient Rome

 by Eva Burkinshaw, Maggie Frazer and Savannah Paterson

 

In Roman times entertainment was very different but still very important to the general population Instead of going to football matches they would go to Gladiator fights. Gladiators were mostly either convicted criminals or enslaved people  that didn’t work in the house or the garden 

Gladiators were armed fighters that would fight each other in the arena for many people to watch. Gladiatorial shows were usually shown  in amphitheatres, some of which you can still see the ruins of in Italy now.An amphitheatre was a large oval building that didn’t have a roof, and which had tiers of seating around a large arena. An interesting fact is that the amphitheatre in Pompeii, which was a big city in Rome, was large enough to have every member of the the population there watching.  

Spectators paid no admission fee because the shows were given by rich people themselves. There was lots of advertisements that went round about gladiatorial as everyone would want people to come to their show. Gladiator shows lasted all day with the first spectators arriving just after dawn on the day of the show. Then a religious ceremony was held to mark the beginning of the games.The gladiators would then enter in a procession and would parade the full arena before saluting the sponsor of the show. 

The gladiators were paired up for the fights and then the show would begin. Even though gladiators were well loved by the public, and treated like a celebrity would be today (by the public), most of them  were still slaves, prisoners or convicted criminals and so they lived and trained in a school with barracks and were supervised by a professional supervisor at all times. Some looked forward to fights, while the less experienced dreaded them. 

The fight always ended with either the death or the surrender of one of the gladiators. The defeated gladiator facing the spectators and the winner stands prepared to kill if he should decide to. The defeated would raise his hand and the crowd would put a thumbs up or down to show whether they want him to live or die. The final decision would be made by the sponsor of the show- and it was not that uncommon for the loser to be spared if they were a well known gladiator. The best gladiators were the ones that were most popular with the crowd and received money from their admirers.