Traditionally, gladiators were selected slaves or conquered people. Typically chosen for their strong physiques, they would be hand selected and trained into gladiators. However, as the gladiator games gained steam, many gladiators were free working class men who willingly signed up. Lured by the fame, crowds and potential money and prizes to be won, there were even gladiator schools that accepted volunteers. Female gladiators existed, but they were almost all slaves.
A prominent fixture on the gladiator scene, female gladiators were pitted against one another as well as male gladiators and even against dwarfs. Historical records indicate that gladiator matches began as a crude form of human rituals at funerals. Nobleman or royalty would force slaves to fight to the death as part of a funeral service.
Once this gained popularity, it transcended into public displays and matches. Gladiators were divided by type of skill and fighting style type. Placed in categories rated on their skill level, experience and weaponry specialty. A few Roman Emperors even got in on the action and fought amongst the gladiators. Caligula and Titus are just two of the known Emperors to enjoy a bit of gladiator fighting. Historians argue that these were likely highly styled, and the opposing gladiators would have more than certainly allowed the Emperor to easily win and win unwounded.
Insane Emperor Commodus even shot down panthers and bears from the comfort of a protected platform and forced members of the crowd to fight him - who he almost certainly would have killed. Gladiators were major celebrities of their day. Triumphant gladiators would appear on paintings, walls and sculptures.
Women were particular fans, and saw them as sex symbols. Despite this unfair advantage, Attilius surprisingly was victorious and continued to defeat some of the toughest warriors throughout his career. His legendary spirit goes down in history mainly due to his battle over Prudes. The battle was the first gladiator fight ever to be fought in the Flavian Amphitheatre.
The fight was said to of dragged on for hours as both fighters were well matched and spirited. Finally, both fighters dropped with weapons down, conceding a draw and their respect for one another. The fight was so impressive that Emperor Titus awarded both combatants their freedom, with both fighters leaving the stadium side by side as free men. He was a skilled fighter, with many wins against skilled adversaries, however, his winnings were a lot greater than other gladiators.
Emperor Nero took a liking to Spiculus, granting him palaces and gold far greater than any other gladiator prize. Nero liked Spiculus so much that when he was overthrown, he requested to be killed by Spiculus, however, this message did not reach him in time and Nero ended up ending his own life.
After fighters won this prize, there became free men, letting them start a new life however they choose. Flamma went down in history as one of the only gladiators to turn this prize down. He died at age 30, fighting a total of 21 times, only losing a total of 4 times. Carpophorus Carpophorus differs from the other fighters on the list as he falls under the category Bestiarius.
This means rather than defeating other gladiators, a Bestiarius gladiator fought against vicious animals. He was famed in fighting more than one animal at once, one of his most remembered performances was at the opening of Flavian Amphitheatre, where he took down a bear, leopard and lion in one singular battle.
However they ended up in the arena, in general, throughout the Roman era they were considered "crude, loathsome, doomed, and lost" men altogether, without worth or dignity.
They were part of the class of moral outcasts, the infamia. The combat between gladiators had its origins in Etruscan and Samnite funeral sacrifices, ritual killings when an elite personage died. The first recorded gladiatorial games were given by the sons of Iunius Brutus in BCE, events that were dedicated to their father's ghost. In BCE, 74 men fought for three days to honor the dead father of Titus Flaminus; and up to pairs fought in the games offered to the shades of Pompey and Caesar.
The Roman emperor Trajan caused 10, men to fight for four months to celebrate his conquest of Dacia. During the earliest battles when the events were rare and the chances of death were about 1 in 10, the fighters were almost entirely prisoners of war.
As the numbers and frequency of the games increased, the risks of dying also increased, and Romans and volunteers began enlisting. By the end of the Republic, about half of the gladiators were volunteers. Gladiators were trained to fight in special schools called ludi singular ludus. They practiced their art at the Colosseum , or in circuses, chariot racing stadiums where the ground surface was covered with blood-absorbing harena "sand" hence, the name "arena".
They generally fought one another, and were rarely, if ever, matched with wild animals, despite what you may have seen in the movies.
Gladiators were trained at the ludi to fit into specific gladiator categories , which were organized based on how they fought on horseback, in pairs , what their armor was like leather, bronze, decorated, plain , and what weapons they used.
There were horseback gladiators, gladiators in chariots, gladiators who fought in pairs, and gladiators named for their origin, like the Thracian gladiators. Popular skilled gladiators were allowed to have families, and could become very wealthy.
From under the debris of the volcanic eruption of 79 CE in Pompeii, a presumed gladiator's cell that is, his room in a ludi was found that included jewels that may have belonged to his wife or mistress. Archaeological investigations in a Roman gladiators' cemetery in Ephesus identified 67 men and one woman—the woman was likely a gladiator's wife.
The average age at death of the Ephesus gladiator was 25, slightly more than half the lifespan of the typical Roman. But they were in excellent health and received expert medical care as evidenced by perfectly healed bone fractures. Gladiators were often referred to as hordearii or "barley men," and, perhaps surprisingly, they ate more plants and less meat than average Romans. Their diets were high in carbohydrates, with an emphasis on beans and barley.
They drank what must have been vile brews of charred wood or bone ash to increase their calcium levels—analysis of the bones at Ephesus found very high levels of calcium. The gladiator life was clearly risky. Many of the men in the Ephesus cemetery died after having survived multiple blows to the head: ten skulls had been bashed by blunt objects, and three had been punctured by tridents. Cut marks on rib bones show that several were stabbed in the heart, the ideal Roman coup de grace.
In the sacramentum gladiatorium or "oath of the Gladiator'" the potential gladiator, whether enslaved or a hitherto free man, swore uri, vinciri, verberari, ferroque necari patior —"I will endure to be burned, to be bound, to be beaten, and to be killed by the sword.
The oath was one way—the gladiator demanded nothing of the gods in return for his life. However, victors received laurels, monetary payment, and any donations from the crowd.
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