Gladius

The word “gladiator” is derived from “gladius,” which is the Latin word for sword. Historians believe gladiator fights started as a blood rite staged at the funerals of wealthy nobles as a kind of eulogy. The Roman writers Tertullian and Festus, document the Romans belief that human blood helped purify the deceased person’s soul, so these contests may have acted as a crude substitute for human sacrifice. The funeral games later increased in scope, proving hugely popular, and by the end of the 1st century BC, government officials began hosting state-funded games as a way of gaining favor.

Slaves, criminals, and prisoners of war were forced into the roles of the first gladiators. Eventually, entrance in to the gladiator games was opened to free persons. Some were former soldiers who wanted glory, some entered the games as a way to earn money to pay off debts. The gladiator games developed into big business, political careers could be launched by backing a successful gladiator, and large sums of money could be won by gambling on the outcomes of the fights.

Regardless of their class status, gladiators often had an extensive following like a modern-day celebrity. Walls in the ancient city of Pompeii contain graffiti with such sayings as “Celadus, suspirium puellarum” loosely translated, “Celadus makes the girls swoon.”

Typically, Gladiators were not from the upper classes of society, but the displays they participated in were the cords that kept the social and economic fabric of the Roman empire bound together. Their displays brought the entire spectrum of society together in one arena 10 to 12 times per year.

Regardless of its importance to society, the violence of gladiatorial combat and the out of control crowd of spectators, did have detractors. Emperor Marcus Aurelius dissented, along with both pagan and Christian religious leaders of the day. Women and animals were not spared from the arena, and as an opening act, prisoners would be executed, often mauled to death by hungry animals while tied to a stake. Gladiators commonly aimed for major arteries under the arm and behind the knee, and also the skull of their opponents to inflict a deadly blow. A few gladiators used metal gloves during a form of boxing to increase cutting and bleeding of their opponent.

In ancient Rome, death had become a form of entertainment in which the performance of the gladiator could be judged by the crowd ultimately determining if a fighter lived or died.

The catalyst for change was an Egyptian monk named Telemachus who interrupted a gladiatorial competition to plead for the games to stop. He was stoned to death by the crowd, but Emperor Honorius was moved by his martyrdom, so he issued a decree in 399 AD ending the gladiatorial contests. The last known gladiator fight in the city of Rome took place on January 1, 404 AD, ending the era of the gladiator.