5 ms·

Many of them were slaves, who were also trained athletes

by ca01an 5y ago

peoplefromibiza 5y ago
All of them were slaves, if they fought well they could buy back their freedom and become freemen. The important part is that "they were not sent to die" They costed a lot of money to their owners and matches were often just representations of battles, like modern wrestling, not real battles. It wasn't uncommon to fix matches, they had to provide entertainment, not death. But more interestingly, many gladiators trainers rented them to fight in the Colosseum and they had insurance policies on their lives, if the gladiator was injuried or died in the fight, there were penalties to pay. Most of the games were paid for by low level politicians that wanted to make a name for themselves and rented the gladiators from the trainers. Also the thumbs up/thumbs down it's also a myth, it never existed as a gesture, if the organizer decided to send some gladiator to death because the crowd asked for it, they had to pay the aforementioned penalties to the trainer. Not surprisingly the organizer had the last word and often times they spared them. Most of those that died were war slaves already sentenced to death. It was games, like we intend them today, they also had a referee on the ground. It was a very modern take on the matter at the times, to the point that we still use the same setup for sports entertainment.
- maccard 5y ago
  Have you any resources to read more about this? Your explanation was great, and I'd love to find out more!
  - peoplefromibiza 5y ago
    Thanks! Honestly I don't, not in English, but I'll be back with some if you can wait a couple of days. I am from Rome, live at walking distance from the Colosseum and visited it many times. One of my closest friend is a tourist guide there and he's also an historian specialized in roman history. That's were I gathered most of my knowledge.
    - toyg 5y ago
      And you're clearly a Sandy Marton fan...
- yunohn 5y ago
  > they were not sent to die While I can’t speak for OP, the way I see it is that the athletes were expected to kill each other, so the wording you dispute is just semantics. Sure, trainers wanted their slave to survive, so they could win the prize money and influence with the king. But that still means they fully acknowledged that the majority of them would die.
  - vosper 5y ago
    > At a time when three of every five persons did not survive until their twentieth birthday, the odds of a professional gladiator being killed in any particular bout, at least during the first century AD, were perhaps one in ten. For a full year in Nero's wooden amphitheater in the Campus Martius, no-one died at all, not even criminals (Suetonius, Life of Nero, XII.1).
  - peoplefromibiza 5y ago
    it's not semantic, it wasn't their job to kill each other the job was fight, like boxers or mma fighters fight today of course they are able to kill someone else, but that's not their main goal
    - _ph_ 5y ago
      What is the percentage of gladiators which survived their career in arena fighting?

Many of them were slaves, who were also trained athletes

by ca01an 5y ago

Many of them were slaves, who were also trained athletes

All of them were slaves, if they fought well they could buy back their freedom and become freemen. The important part is that "they were not sent to die" They costed a lot of money to their owners and matches were often just representations of battles, like modern wrestling, not real battles. It wasn't uncommon to fix matches, they had to provide entertainment, not death. But more interestingly, many gladiators trainers rented them to fight in the Colosseum and they had insurance policies on their lives, if the gladiator was injuried or died in the fight, there were penalties to pay. Most of the games were paid for by low level politicians that wanted to make a name for themselves and rented the gladiators from the trainers. Also the thumbs up/thumbs down it's also a myth, it never existed as a gesture, if the organizer decided to send some gladiator to death because the crowd asked for it, they had to pay the aforementioned penalties to the trainer. Not surprisingly the organizer had the last word and often times they spared them. Most of those that died were war slaves already sentenced to death. It was games, like we intend them today, they also had a referee on the ground. It was a very modern take on the matter at the times, to the point that we still use the same setup for sports entertainment.

maccard 5y ago
Have you any resources to read more about this? Your explanation was great, and I'd love to find out more!
- peoplefromibiza 5y ago
  Thanks! Honestly I don't, not in English, but I'll be back with some if you can wait a couple of days. I am from Rome, live at walking distance from the Colosseum and visited it many times. One of my closest friend is a tourist guide there and he's also an historian specialized in roman history. That's were I gathered most of my knowledge.
  - toyg 5y ago
    And you're clearly a Sandy Marton fan...
yunohn 5y ago
> they were not sent to die While I can’t speak for OP, the way I see it is that the athletes were expected to kill each other, so the wording you dispute is just semantics. Sure, trainers wanted their slave to survive, so they could win the prize money and influence with the king. But that still means they fully acknowledged that the majority of them would die.
- vosper 5y ago
  > At a time when three of every five persons did not survive until their twentieth birthday, the odds of a professional gladiator being killed in any particular bout, at least during the first century AD, were perhaps one in ten. For a full year in Nero's wooden amphitheater in the Campus Martius, no-one died at all, not even criminals (Suetonius, Life of Nero, XII.1).
- peoplefromibiza 5y ago
  it's not semantic, it wasn't their job to kill each other the job was fight, like boxers or mma fighters fight today of course they are able to kill someone else, but that's not their main goal
  - _ph_ 5y ago
    What is the percentage of gladiators which survived their career in arena fighting?