paper gladtors

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Laurissa Lewis
Front Range Community collage
Art History
Gladiators






Widely know as History’s most deadly sport Gladiators have taken society with curiosity and surprise, what would hundreds and thousands of people want to compete for their lives in front of a huge audience of people?? From movies like “The Gladiator” played by Russell Crowe to “the Arena” played by Kellan Lutz we have been fascinated with these warriors. But often times these movies fail to explain what a gladiator’s life was really like. Such as how did Gladiators start? What did they eat? What did they wear? How was there life on a daily bases? How did they train? In the fallowing paper im going to be getting more into depth of what a Gladiator actually was and how did he really live his life, and what were the customs.
It all started in 264 B.C. when the leader Decimus Lunius Brutus had three gladiator pairs fight to the death in a cattle market. He called these warriors Bustuarii witch came from the word Bustum meaning funeral or grave. Than in 216 B.C. when rom suffered a defeat at the hands of Carthaginians, Aemilius took 44 fighters and placed them in the forum romaine to participate in his funeral death match. In 122 B.C. they began using slaves and prisoners of war to fight each other, the reward that was given to the man who won the battle was freedom. When some of the people realized that being successful in the arena meant that you could win your freedom or even become a hero more and more people willingly began to participate in the these battles you could win honor and respect. They began setting up training school and other programs, were you could learn from a young age how to fight, weight train and learn stagey. Even many school administrators believed that it was a good thing to do and it was encouraged. The men also were encouraged to fight against animals, the bigger the animal the more famous you would become. These animals were taken from Africa. One of these school/ training grounds was called Ludus Magnus. Normal everyday people come to receive training. A young man in training was called a Novicii. However they had a short life expectancy, they often never made it to live pass the age of 30. However I they won their life’s were very blessed. Men often had no trouble finding women who were very sexually attractive. There muscular and toned bodies and super strength made them very popular with the woman. They often would receive many gifts from women as well as tokens of good luck and favor, to help them win. Women often participated in the matches too, but mostly by force, the majority of these women were slaves. However Acgilla and Amazone were two of the most popular female gladiators. They often received the same armor that the men were given, but it was latter decided that women would be band in participating in the games. As the gladiator games advance it did not take long for the people who are higher up to relies that these grave battles were a perfect way to win money. Mangers and agents began to compete with each other to find better suited candidates to participate in these games, they also began to charge fees and gamble. The competing gladiators would often not see a penny of the mangers winnings. This caused many problems and disturbances in the whole process of the battles. Sometimes the battles would take so long that it was recommended to bring pillows or blankets for changing tempters.
There were many different kinds of gladiators. They would vary based off what type of weapon was used during the match or if there was any weapon used at all. Thraces and Murmillones gladiators often fought each other with a Thraxe witch is similar to a small curved sword kind of like a dagger, with a small shield called a Parma, which can either be round or square, with high leg plates. Murmillones took their name from a salt water fish that they would often eat. These gladiators also used fish nets. When these two warriors fight they often had sets and balances to who would win, meaning you never really knew until the end who would win. Retiarius was a rare type of gladiator, they wore no helmet, no sword, and not leg armor, just a small loin cloth around his waist. His greatest weapon was a trident. Secutor who was also known as an Contraretiarius used many of the same weapons that a Murmillones used but had a completely different set of armor and was easy to tell apart from the other warriors. Equites gladiators often just fought each other. They wore loose multi colored knee length tunics with medium sized shields with lances or swords; they often entered the arena on horseback. Provocatores often fought only each other too. They used rectangular shields, breast plates and leg plates but only on the left leg, with short swords. Essedarrii witch came from the name essedum, meaning a two wheeled Celtic chariot they were more lavish fighters. Dimachaerus gladiator is another type but little is known about them, but translated it means “man with two swords” this could mean two swords or one sword and one dagger, or two daggers. Paegnarii gladiators often fought each other without helmets and leather armor, they would use whips, these men were usually older or had been injured before. Andabate gladiators were blind folded, they worse helmets with blocked eye holes, as you can imagine this type of gladiator didn’t stick around for very long because the fights would last a long time.