Gladiators
... The games prepared by his sons, had three pairs of gladiators fight in celebration of Pera’s life (Wiedemann 165). ... In fact, the most momentous contribution was their production of permanent training schools, or ludi, for the gladiators and wild beast fighters. ... It was Julius Caesar, whose gladiatorial games need an astounding number of gladiators, that created his own ludi, and began a precedent of imperial run ludis. Before Augustus in 27BC, training for gladiators was provided both by private and imperial schools, during his serve the ludi became almost entirely the responsibility of the state (Potter and Mattingly 325). ... Suitable gladiators had to be located, recruited, fed, bathed, and nursed to health (Potter and Mattingly 317). Gladiators were under the care of a lanista, or trainer. ... When gladiatorial combats were first introduced, most gladiators were criminals or slaves (mainly the refuse of war: Gauls, Spaniards, Arabs, Thracians, Germans, Asians, Syrians, and Greeks). ... However, toward the end of the Republic half of all gladiators were volunteers, and with them they brought an increase in death rate. Voluntary gladiators made a contractual oath upon becoming a gladiator. ... Not only did the condemned criminals, or noxii, serve the other gladiators as the noxii’s superior, but frequently they were exposed in combat with beasts. A common misconception of modern society is the notion of gladiators fighting beasts. ... Gladiators rarely fought beasts as well as men (the Emperor Commodus had, but he was notably insane) (304). ... Unlike gladiators, man and beast competitions were expected by Roman society to provoke fear in the man, not courage (308). ... Even with the extensive training and discipline, gladiators were pampered in a physical sense. Gladiators were meant to depict an ideal physique for the time. ... In the late first century AD an official ranking system was developed to curb the mismatching of gladiators. The system divided gladiators into categories of skill. ... The day of the great event would begin inspection of the weapons, encouragement of the oath, and a “general showing off” of the gladiators with a parade through the arena. ... In a regular competition ten to thirteen pairs were expected to fight, with the average fight lasting ten to fifteen minutes and including a variety of competitive options including: gladiators on foot, armed with an assortment of weapons, mounted, and driving chariots (Potter and Mattingly 313-314). ... Gladiators, themselves, found pleasure based on the appeasement of the crowd and their master (Barton 19). ... Gladiators were more than potential warriors they were an immense component of Roman society. ... ” The movie, though inaccurate in its portrayal of gladiators and their combats, is exact in the spirit of the games, and how much they meant to the people. ... Inscriptions and graffiti on wall proved popular respect for particular gladiators. Often the fighting skills of these gladiators were discussed in polite conversation, and many children would play the role of their favorite gladiators (Barton 17, 37, 38, 165). This favoritism, however, does not depict the sentiments of gladiators as a group. The public perceived gladiators with incredulous resentment, associating them with a certain recklessness. ... In Roman legislation gladiators were classified with prostitutes in Roman law. Romans professed voluntary gladiators as suicides, and disrespected them for their abandonment of life. The gladiators’ trainer, the lanista, derived the meaning of the word from the latin origin leno, meaning pimp. The public shared feelings about the lack of trust toward gladiators.