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Gladiators in ancient Anatolia lived to entertain the masses
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- 082349872349872 2y ago> A pair of mounted gladiators featured in the initial spectacle Anyone have primary sources for this? Diodorus?
- iLoveOncall 2y agoI don't understand why the title got edited by OP from "How gladiators in ancient Anatolia lived to entertain the masses" to remove the "How". It just turns it into an obvious statement and doesn't convey what the article is about, which is about their life, training, etc.
- vbezhenar 2y agoHN automatically does that.
- jajko 2y agoWhat would be the reason? In most titles / statements I can come up with it changes the meaning, and saving 4 chars ain't good enough reason, better would be a/an/the.
- vbezhenar 2y agoApparently those kinds of titles are considered "clickbaity". I agree that this particular edit makes things confusing.
- fuzzfactor 2y agoI think there was a rapidly rising tide of auto-generated blogspam "How-To" articles at one point, that can be filtered in a fairly specifc way.
- remoquete 2y agoYou can re-edit it to preserve the How though.
- HPsquared 2y agoI wonder what the statistics look like on these auto adjustments.
- krisoft 2y ago> It just turns it into an obvious statement and doesn't convey what the article is about, which is about their life, training, etc. It's not an obvious statement. It tells us that the gladiators aimed to entertain the masses. It could have been that they didn't care about their audience (and only cared about money, or saving their lives). Or it could be that they had contempt for their audience (if they for example were forced to fight against their will). It could also have been that they lived to entertain the elites and not the masses. Or lived to entertain other gladiators, or please the gods or any other alternatives.
- apples_oranges 2y agoThis looks like professional wrestling to me. Way to go, Anatolians!
- cptnapalm 2y agoMore than you'd think! I recall reading about touring gladiators. Rome might have been the big city, but audiences get tired of seeing the same gladiators all the time, so they'd go on tour. Now if you have a highly successful gladiator and you're in Podunkus, Asia Minor, would you risk losing your meal ticket to some hairy local? No. You fix the match. After the tour, you head back to Rome for the triumphant return and people are excited to see your guy again.
- fuzzfactor 2y agoI would say they were dying to entertain the masses too. And then during the thrilling final act, it often came true.
- PittleyDunkin 2y ago> The most common perception of gladiatorial games is that they were violent and gruesome because someone always died,” says archaeologist R. R. R. Smith of the University of Oxford, who directs excavations at the site of Aphrodisias. “This isn’t true. In gladiatorial games, most of the time, both participants left the arena on their feet. The games weren’t about killing, but about the excitement of two men fighting, about showcasing skill, discipline, endurance, strength, tactics, and different weapons.” In the rare cases when gladiators were killed or condemned to death, they had been trained to die theatrically to add to the performance’s impact.
- tokai 2y agoYeah, would rather have been a gladiator than a charioteer.
- GJim 2y agoYet many of us bikers long to compete in the Isle of Man TT. Here is an example of what a lap of the circuit looks like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31RZ5wU-Fg0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31RZ5wU-Fg0 Riding in the TT is like climbing Everest. It's the ultimate challenge. Typically, there is at _least_ one death during racing each year. Often many more. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Man_TT https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Man_TT
- brendanfay 2y agoJust like me :(
- gosub100 2y agoThis is a semi-related topic from a video I recently watched during medieval sieges: "What motivated a person to be first to climb up a ladder attacking a fortress?" https://youtu.be/bwM0gP1p0xw?si=rt_lkLF5j-Mx3Gc8 https://youtu.be/bwM0gP1p0xw?si=rt_lkLF5j-Mx3Gc8
- sabujp 2y agothis is the one that I ended up watching a few days ago after the one above came into my feed : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmat8xK9raM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmat8xK9raM
- kgwgk 2y ago> a video I recently watched during medieval sieges Not so recently then.
- fuzzfactor 2y agoStill waiting for the sequel, seems to be getting a bit overdue . . .
- gosub100 2y agoLol. I should never edit before I have my coffee.
- rambojohnson 2y agoduh
- _DeadFred_ 2y agoI hate how politically jaded I have become reading anything related to modern archeology. When first introducing Ephesus (why not add '(a Greek founded and speaking city)'. I mean they are talking about Roman cultural introduction to the existing culture, saying 'Anatolia' doesn't give me context of the culture being introduced to Roman ways. There was no 'Anatolian' culture. Why say 'Greek-style athletic contests' when they were just actual greek athletic contests held largely in Greek founded, Greek speaking cities? With so much modern agenda filtering archaeology I can't help but see erasure that much of Anatolia was Greek or greek founded. I just see a misleading implication that these cities hosting 'greek style contests' weren't, you know, culturally Greeks. It is crazy that there are 14 instances of Anatolia and the only time Greek occurs is 'Greek style'.
- ilayn 2y agoAnatolia is a Greek word. Read some. It will give you confidence about yourself so you don't seek confirmation from every piece.
- _DeadFred_ 2y agoAnd your point other than a personal attack on my feelings of self worth (in direct violation of not just the rules but the ethos of Hacker News)? Anatolia is a location, not a culture. This is an article on cultural changes. Using Anatolia, a large region of land, as a descriptor for culture seems weird an needlessly imprecise in an archeological/anthropological sense for an article talking about an impact on cultures (what cultures?). Why would someone use 'Greek-style athletic contests' when 'greek athletic contests' is a more accurate/direct/correct description? It is totally valid to say 'I don't like the current trend of twisting words/obfuscating, it sucks and makes me defensive reading the article, and the use of this less descriptive subsubstition and zero direct mention triggered that distrust'. Or are you saying I should just brainlessly consume everything I read online and to do otherwise is somehow not manly?
- ilayn 2y agoYou should read more carefully to start with before accusing everything you see that does not fit into your narrative. requiring n time the word Greek until you are satisfied is a you problem. I don't care enough about you to attack you personally. If you read more on these you would not get stuck in these accounting problems.