The Gladiator Print

Acrylic painting on Alupanel The gladiator Under the Roman Empire, in arenas, slaves and prisoners of war were staged to fight to the death. They were called the Gladiators. The gladiators (from the Latin Gladiatores, from Gladius, sword, meaning "sword fighters", or "swordsmen"). They were, in ancient Rome, professional fighters who fought in well defined pairs. Each of the two adversaries belonging to a category and specific combat techniques. The origin of gladiatorial combat is found in southern Italy, where the armed combat between members of the same family was intended to honor the memory of a dead man. The oldest were found in Campania in tombs at Paestum, dated between 380 and 320 BC. AD Historical In Rome, the oldest gladiatorial combat mentioned in the texts takes place in 264 BC. AD with three pairs of slaves. Organized during the funeral of his father by Decimus Junius Brutus at the Forum Boarium. The Rome Ox Market, a utilitarian space without prestige located near the north end of the Circus Maximus. This fight was quickly followed by many others. Thus, in 105 BC. AD, the games became public. The funereal nature of these confrontations gradually faded in Rome, where the combatants became professionals. Whether committed free men or slaves. These fights, which took place in the framework of an amphitheater, became the favorite spectacle of the Roman crowd. Organized according to precise methods, they could end in the death of one of the two adversaries. In the fourth century, they were subject to restrictions by the emperor Constantine I, a measure with no real effect before the end of the fourth century. More than prohibitions, it is the reluctance of the elites to bear the financial weight of the Munera following the weakening of cities and the economic recession which would have resulted in the disappearance of the gladiators.