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The subject on Ancient Rome I am writing about is Roman Gladiators. To watch men kill each other was what the Roman loved to watch. It was entertaining to the Romans. They took pleasure in watching elaborate show that involved danger to life and bloodshed.
Originally they were for funerals but turned into holidays then into ways to exploit for political purposes. When holidays were announced all public business stopped and all citizens had a holiday. In this paper I will talk about where they fought, who fought and how they fought. Senators or rich men originally paid for gladiatorial games. They were used to get votes so they could become reelected.
The participants of the gladiatorial games mostly consisted of slaves, prisoners of war, and condemned criminals. The captives of war were the most exciting to watch because of their experience in fighting. The crimes committed that turned people into gladiators were murder, treason, robbery, and arson. Later when supply of fighters was running low, judges condemned people with minor offenses to fight in the arena. Many Christian martyrs were thrown in to the arena because of their refusal to sacrifice to the emperor.
And sometimes free men fought also. By the end of the Republic era almost have of the gladiators were free men. Free men who volunteered were social outcasts, desperate men, and violent men. Also many ex-gladiators who were popular were always asked to fight again. Even though they volunteered they had to sign a contract saying they were the master gladiator slaves. There were three gladiatorial schools or louis where slaves were trained to become fighters.
There were 3 of these and 1 was for training to fight against beasts like lions and tigers. In Judea the ruler of this territory was able to eliminate many rebellious Jews by organizing gladiatorial games which killed hundreds of Jews. Gladiatorial contest lasted all day and the people were given free food and drink. There were many different kinds of fighters.
This is because the host of the games wanted to make the games as interesting and as fun to watch as possible to the spectators The host actually purchased gladiators the gladiators depending how they fought and previous battle experience. Gladiators with different styles of fighting paired together, and this created a more intriguing match up. Some of the types of gladiators are the following. A Thracian, this gladiator had a chest covering of metal, he had a small shield and his weapon was a scimitar (long curved sword). A Sector had rectangular shield and a high visor helmet. His weapon was a dagger or short sword.
A Retiarius fought with a trident and a net. He wore virtually no armor except on his left shoulder which made him nimble and quick. A Hoplomachus, he carried a very large shield but wore no armor and his weapon was a sword. The Essedarii fought from war chariots, which came from Caesar who saw this type of fighting in Britain. The Equites fought with a lance while riding on a horse and carried a round shield. A Dimachaeri fought carrying two swords.
A Laquearii fought with a lasso and little armor. The And abates was an unusual fighter. He wore a fully visored helmet and had no vision. He found his enemy by groping. He wore full body armor and his only weakness was at the joints. The Myrmillo fought whit a crested helmet and a spear and shield.
And the Velites fought with a spear attached to a rope so when he threw and missed his target he could retrieve his spear. In addition to armed contest other spectacles became associated with the games. The first fights were called Bestiarii. These were combatants trained to fight animals; they fought wild animals from all over the empires vast reaches. The animal slaughter of animals was Crazy, hundred a day were killed. Now we are appalled at this slaughter but back then to people living 2, 000 years ago, wild enemies were as much as an enemy as the invading Germanic tribes.
Rarely were spectators sympathetic toward the animals. Romans sided with the human fighter in these contests. These fights were symbolic. It symbolized the ability of human society to protect itself from hostile forces of nature. This was a very popular concept with the Romans. For example Christians never attempted to outlaw these types of fight but fought strenuously to end man vs.
man combat. The Coliseum was the main place where the gladiators fought. The emperor Titus built it in AD 80. The huge theater consisted of 4 floors. It was 144 feet tall. The arena floor was made of wood and covered with sand.
Each marble block in the coliseum weighed 5 tons. Underneath the arena floor were the staging and prepping areas were gladiators waited to fight. It took 8 years to build it. But gladiators fought wherever there was a Roman town. All provinces had smaller arenas and were the most popular sport to watch. Roman Gladiatorial combats lasted until 5 th century when the Emperor Constantine outlawed it from the empire.
Some experts believe that this was one of the main reasons the empire crumbled at the end. No work was being done because towards the end of the empire there were at least a hundred holidays a year and farmers and merchants never worked throwing into economic chaos. The Romans were violent people who loved to view gladiatorial matches and it one the main things people think of when they think of Rome.
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Research essay sample on Gladiatorial Games Free Men
