# Gladiators - a few questions



## TheMirrorMage (Feb 4, 2014)

Few questions about gladiators, hopefully someone will know the answers.

1. Has a gladiator ever been enrolled into the military as part of his slavery or is there more to it? Could he have been forced to join by either his master or a local leader (a leader in either the military or politics)? Or could he ask to be included in a military force?

2. Would a gladiator have to procure his own weapons or would his master give them to him?

3. Who could a gladiator's master be? A merchant or was it a full-time occupation (rather than a hobby on the side)?

4. What privileges were granted to a gladiator upon victory or in day-to-day life?

5. Were gladiators ever allowed to own land or property during their life as a gladiator?

6. Were gladiators allowed to leave and if so, how?

7. Were gladiators viewed the same as slaves in terms of societal status?

8. Apart from Ancient Rome, were there any other periods in history where gladiators (possibly known by another name) existed? 

9. Were the Romans first to adopt this culture?

Thanks guys!

There may be more questions


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## Super Fun Pop (Feb 4, 2014)

I haven't studied up on Gladiators for quite some time, but I answered, to the best of my knowledge, a few of your questions. There are a few good documentaries on the subject that could be found in their entirety on youtube.

*1. Has a gladiator ever been enrolled into the military as part of his slavery or is there more to it? Could he have been forced to join by either his master or a local leader (a leader in either the military or politics)? Or could he ask to be included in a military force?*

A gladiator was only a gladiator during his time in the ring, if he was not successful and lost his master money, he could be sold off, gifted, or his master could do about anything else he pleased. A gladiator who only lost was a waist of money and better suited for something else.

*2. Would a gladiator have to procure his own weapons or would his master give them to him?*

This depends on the ranking of the gladiator and where he fought. There were many arenas and smaller venues; some were hosted by nobles with high pay outs and others were much lower affairs. A prestige gladiator could own items, be gifted items by his master, and even own land/titles/money, eventually buying his own freedom, but this wasn't always the case. Gladiators were almost always provided with the things that they needed as their owner invested in them and would like to protect his investment. *This is also the answer to 5 & 6.*

*3. Who could a gladiator's master be? A merchant or was it a full-time occupation (rather than a hobby on the side)?*

Anyone who could afford a slave, afford their training, afford feeding and housing them, and afford entry fees and tithes could own a gladiator. It was a hobby for most and an occupation for some.

*4. What privileges were granted to a gladiator upon victory or in day-to-day life?
*
Depending on the tournament, gladiators could win a small percentage of the pot, while the rest goes to the master. They also were given prestige and could make a name for themselves. Gladiators were usually treated very well by their owners, compared to common slaves, but it varied from owner to owner and province to province.

*7. Were gladiators viewed the same as slaves in terms of societal status?*

Not at all. They were, after a few wins, highly respected. Some were almost like celebrities.


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## Malik (Feb 4, 2014)

First off, remember that a gladiator was a slave. He was not a modern-day professional athlete. Think Pokemon, not MMA.

8. Anytime there has been slavery, there have been gladiators of one sort or another. Consider dogfighting, with humans. "Hey! Let's make 'em fight, and bet on it!"

9. See above. It has likely been around as long as humanity itself.

A great book on this is _The Far Arena_, about a Roman gladiator frozen in ice who wakes up in modern times. (Well, not modern times, but the 1970's, when the book was written.) It has a lot about the relationship and life of a successful Roman gladiator. I don't know if it's historically correct but it certainly sounds feasible when you read it.


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## Guy (Feb 4, 2014)

My knowledge of gladiators is only about the Romans, so with that...


TheMirrorMage said:


> Few questions about gladiators, hopefully someone will know the answers.
> 
> 1. Has a gladiator ever been enrolled into the military as part of his slavery or is there more to it? Could he have been forced to join by either his master or a local leader (a leader in either the military or politics)? Or could he ask to be included in a military force?


No. 


> 2. Would a gladiator have to procure his own weapons or would his master give them to him?


They were given what they used in the arena.


> 3. Who could a gladiator's master be? A merchant or was it a full-time occupation (rather than a hobby on the side)?


Full time occupation. Gladiators were expensive. They had to be housed, fed, trained, equipped.


> 4. What privileges were granted to a gladiator upon victory or in day-to-day life?


Rome had kind of a paradoxical relationship with gladiators. They were slaves, about as high on the social scale as prostitutes. Yet they were also esteemed celebrities. Women lusted after even the ugly ones. All that mattered was they were gladiators. Men wanted to be them. Some voluntarily became gladiators - slaves - for a shot at glory in the arena.


> 5. Were gladiators ever allowed to own land or property during their life as a gladiator?


While they were gladiators? No, but they could win fame and glory, but they couldn't really enjoy them until they won their freedom.


> 6. Were gladiators allowed to leave and if so, how?


Only if they won their freedom or were sold to another owner.


> 7. Were gladiators viewed the same as slaves in terms of societal status?


Pretty much, yet they were also celebrities. It was odd, and I can't think of a good contemporary analog. The closest I've thought of is porn stars - looked down upon, yet desired.


> 8. Apart from Ancient Rome, were there any other periods in history where gladiators (possibly known by another name) existed?


Depends on your definition of gladiator. If all you mean is people who fought for public amusement, yes, plenty of other cultures had them. We still do - boxing, wrestling, MMA, etc.


> 9. Were the Romans first to adopt this culture?


I believe they adopted it from the Etruscans.


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## Malik (Feb 4, 2014)

5. No. They were slaves.

6. A gladiator could, conceivably, win enough for his master that his master could pronounce him free. Sometimes that freedom had to be bought by the master with a tithe or fee, which could be considerable. If this happened, the gladiator would become a functioning member of society. It's possible that he would continue to fight, but he'd have to be insane to do it. I could see a system working out where a gladiator, after a very successful career, could be set free and then hired back to train gladiators for his former owner. The former owner would have to have been pretty decent to him, though.


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## Malik (Feb 4, 2014)

Also, keep in mind we're talking about gladiatorial slaves, not professional fighters, which have also been a thing pretty much since the invention of money.


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## Guy (Feb 4, 2014)

Another thing to remember is that most gladiatorial bouts were not to the death. They were too expensive to use up that quickly. A losing gladiator wasn't necessarily a dead man. If he gave a good show and displayed courage, the crowd would usually demand he be spared.


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## Super Fun Pop (Feb 4, 2014)

Guy said:


> Another thing to remember is that most gladiatorial bouts were not to the death. They were too expensive to use up that quickly. A losing gladiator wasn't necessarily a dead man. If he gave a good show and displayed courage, the crowd would usually demand he be spared.



This is indeed true and when a fight was to the death or when the host decided that the looser should die, the host of the event was responsible to compensate the gladiator's master and replace his fighter. It was pretty much like gladiatorial insurance.


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## TheMirrorMage (Feb 5, 2014)

Thanks guys for the quick and informative responses

Another question - I know that the gladiators had specific styles of fighting and those styles came with their own armour and weaponry. But who chose the gladiator's style (weapons and armour) - was it him, his master or someone else?


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## Super Fun Pop (Feb 5, 2014)

TheMirrorMage said:


> Thanks guys for the quick and informative responses
> 
> Another question - I know that the gladiators had specific styles of fighting and those styles came with their own armour and weaponry. But who chose the gladiator's style (weapons and armour) - was it him, his master or someone else?



I'd assume it worked like this.

Man Captured > Turned to Slave > Sold to Training Camp > Trained and turned into Gladiator (in the lowest sense of the term > Purchased by Master > Instructed further by Master & Instructors.

Weapons were often determined by the tournament itself, with rules as to what was allowed and what was not. The Gladiator probably had some say, depending on his relationship with his master, and his master probably knew where his gladiator's skills laid. 

You must understand though that each interpersonal relationship between gladiator, master, tournament, and instructor is different in every situation. So there is no ONE way that things were done and I'm sure there were some pretty odd and unusual circumstances.


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## Guy (Feb 5, 2014)

TheMirrorMage said:


> Thanks guys for the quick and informative responses
> 
> Another question - I know that the gladiators had specific styles of fighting and those styles came with their own armour and weaponry. But who chose the gladiator's style (weapons and armour) - was it him, his master or someone else?


The master. It would depend on a number of factors - what type of gladiator was needed, what was the individual gladiator's aptitude, body type, etc.


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## wordwalker (Feb 6, 2014)

Besides body type and so on giving people a reason to keep a gladiator in one fighting style, once one had started to make a name for himself he'd be less likely to be shifted to a different style. Why bypass the fame someone has already earned as "the best retiarius (trident and net fighter) we've seen in a while"? --unless the match's idea was "You've seen his net fighting, but can he survive with a sword?"


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## TheMirrorMage (Feb 6, 2014)

Thanks again

I've seen the film Gladiator, and in the end, Maximus kills Commodus (in real life he was killed as part of a conspiracy) in the arena. If an emperor or anyone of a higher social standing was killed or wounded by a gladiator in the arena, would there be consequences for the killer?


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## Malik (Feb 6, 2014)

That would be the end of his life. It would be historically ridiculous but it would make for great drama if the king / emperor / whatever stepped in the ring with a gladiator. But if the ruler lost, then even if the gladiator was allowed to live at the end of the match the next ruler in line would go full-bore Joffrey on him as soon as he was out of sight of the crowd. It would be a fight worth losing.


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## wordwalker (Feb 6, 2014)

Even if it started an uprising and a full regime change. Whoever does take over as emperor --unless somehow it's that gladiator or a close friend of his-- is going to take a moment to send assassins after him the moment he can. Slaves that kill kings are just too dangerous to live: even if he's "on your side," a true politician is always going to treat that as "on my side, for now."


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## Guy (Feb 6, 2014)

TheMirrorMage said:


> Thanks again
> 
> I've seen the film Gladiator, and in the end, Maximus kills Commodus (in real life he was killed as part of a conspiracy) in the arena. If an emperor or anyone of a higher social standing was killed or wounded by a gladiator in the arena, would there be consequences for the killer?


Commodus really was obsessed with the games and participated in them but, as Malik and Wordwalker have said, nobody in their right mind actually tried to beat him because they could look forward to an exceptionally painful, humiliating and publicly amusing death. Often Commodus had an iron sword while his opponents had wooden ones, things like that. I love that movie, but the emperor they portrayed was much closer to Caligula (right down to appearance) than Commodus.


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## Spider (Feb 6, 2014)

At around what age did gladiators start fighting? I would think that it would take a while for them to get trained first before being put in the arena.


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## Guy (Feb 6, 2014)

I've never seen anything on how long it took to train one, but I do know they spent much more time training than they did actually fighting in the arena. I've never seen anything on age, either, but I'd guess there was no hard and fast rule. There were female gladiators, little person gladiators, whatever provided a good spectacle. So if somebody had a large 13 year old slave (and I've seen kids that age that stood close to six feet tall and weighed 180 lbs or better), they'd probably use him.

A good source for general information is _ Gladiators_ by Michael Grant. There's another book called _We Who Are About to Die_ but I can't recall the author's name offhand, nor do I recall his credentials. Grant had been a professor of humanities at Edinburgh University.


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## TheMirrorMage (Feb 7, 2014)

Apparently a few of the emperors fancied themselves as gladiators, such as Commodus, Caligula, Hadrian and Claudius, though of no or little risk to themselves. They were seen as "odd" because of the vastly different social status of the emperor and the gladiators.



> A good source for general information is _Gladiators_ by Michael Grant. There's another book called _We Who Are About to Die_ but I can't recall the author's name offhand, nor do I recall his credentials. Grant had been a professor of humanities at Edinburgh University.



I'll have to check out those books Guy, thanks.

In terms of age, I guess they'd have to be/look strong enough to fight. I assume most of the boys who didn't make it into the gladiator world (and they would be few and far between) would either end up as slaves (most common) or prostitutes. I can't imagine they'd just kill them either, the slavers would manage to find a suitable role for all the captives. So they'd probably be nearing or in puberty, so between 13 and 40? Many probably wouldn't survive the training, let alone the arena.

I've also noticed while researching that some of the gladiators were modeled after gods, or at least they appeared to have been. Those that fought with nets and tridents/retiarius look like Neptune. And those that fought with round shields and spears/hoplomachus look like Mars. There are also those that look like Roman legionaries, with the rectangular shields and the same sword. I guess this would reinforce the Roman stereotype and culture.


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## skip.knox (Feb 7, 2014)

Claudius? Do you have a source for that? I'm having trouble picturing Uncle Claw-Claw fighting in the arena, even for pretend.


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## Super Fun Pop (Feb 7, 2014)

skip.knox said:


> Claudius? Do you have a source for that? I'm having trouble picturing Uncle Claw-Claw fighting in the arena, even for pretend.



Let me google that for you



> Caligula, Titus, Hadrian, Lucius Verus, Caracalla, Geta and Didius Julianus were all said to have performed in the arena (either in public or private) but risks to themselves were minimal.[77] Claudius, characterised by his historians as morbidly cruel and boorish, fought a whale trapped in the harbor in front of a group of spectators.[78] Commentators invariably disapproved of such performances.[79]
> 
> Commodus was a fanatical participant at the ludi, much to the shame of the Senate, whom he loathed, and the probable delight of the populace at large. He fought as a secutor, styling himself "Hercules Reborn". As a bestiarius, he was said to have killed 100 lions in one day, almost certainly from a platform set up around the arena perimeter which allowed him to safely demonstrate his marksmanship. On another occasion, he decapitated a running ostrich with a specially designed dart, carried the bloodied head and his sword over to the Senatorial seats and gesticulated as though they were next.[80] He was said to have restyled Nero's colossal statue in his own image as "Hercules Reborn" and re-dedicated it to himself with the inscription; "Champion of secutores; only left-handed fighter to conquer twelve times one thousand men." For this, he drew a gigantic stipend from the public purse.



It doesn't say exactly that Claudius fought in formal gladiatorial matches, but did participate in games. I'm pretty certain, as history doesn't tell the whole tale, that he did more than just kill a trapped whale.


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## TheMirrorMage (Feb 7, 2014)

Apparently he "fought" a beached whale single-handed, which kind of makes him a bestiarius/animal fighter but not the conventional, arena-bound gladiator. There are a few book previews on Google that tell of this ridiculous tale, just search for "claudius and the whale".

He also hosted a mock sea battle on a man-made lake which had 19,000 competitors. That all ended in tragedy when the crowd were drenched. Presumably this is either a myth or exaggerated.


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## AWAbooks (Feb 18, 2014)

The “Gladiator" entry on Wikipedia can be read pretty quickly, and even though I thought I knew “a bit" about the subject, there's a lot to learn.

The Wiki entry on the revolt of the Thracian gladiator Spartacus is amazing.

Descriptions of the “big picture" of what went on in Roman arenas, as found in books like “The History of Torture" by Daniel Mannix, etc, defy belief, and are hard to stomache :-(


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