How Did Gladiator Fights Took Place in the Arena?

HOW DID GLADIATOR FIGHTS TOOK PLACE IN THE ARENA? (AS WELL AS THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF GLADIATOR FIGHTS)

In this project, I will be writing about how gladiator fights took place in Pompeii and the different aspects of them. As an introduction, gladiator fights took place in the amphitheatre which means ‘double theatres’. They were a form of a Roman leisure activity and slaves fought with various types of armour and weapons. Gladiator fights originated from the highlands of southern Italy and the reason for it is because we can tell from what we have found at the excavations in Pompeii that there were many different types of gladiators. There were roughly 26 different types of them but many of them were very similar so it was very hard to distinguish them just by looking at them. Furthermore, the word ‘gladiator’ itself comes from ‘gladius’ for sword in Latin.

Moving on to the amphitheatre itself, many spectators back then in Pompeii as well as many other places, got extremely violent when they were watching gladiator fights, The picture on the left shows us a riot in the arena which was in Pompeii. Pompeii’s arena was extremely big compared to the other arenas back then and therefore many people from other villages often came to Pompeii to see the fights. However, as different people supported different people fighting, they often had arguments with each other and in this case, led to an extremely aggressive riot (just like in some football matches nowadays when the fans from two other teams have an argument). As a result of this riot, the arena in Pompeii had to be closed as it was damaged a lot. [pic 1]

Many people are curious about the people who actually fought in the arena. Most ‘gladiators’ back then were actually slaves or criminals as the criminals would have been killed anyway and the lives of the slaves were not that precious. So instead of killing them in a boring way, the people back then wanted them to fight each other as it will entertain many others! However, if gladiators- slaves or criminals- did well in fights, they became very popular as well as earning a lot of money as well. This was the main reason why many criminals and slaves agreed to fight as they were given the chance to become famous and earn a lot of money. In addition, if they did became exceptionally famous, they even built statues and drew paintings of them fighting in the arena.[pic 2]

The gladiator fight started with the gladiators entering the arena by the north gate. After they fought, the gladiators all left by the south gate, not through the north gate which they entered from. Two gladiators entered each time as it was a one on one battle. Many people believe that the gladiator fought until someone was killed but actually the gladiators would only fight until one was severely wounded or injured. The judge would then hold the person who was winning and the crowds would decide whether the wounded man would be able to live or just simply let the winner finish him off. At the end of the fight, often an official would club the wounded gladiator to make sure he was definitely dead. He would then be dragged through the ‘Death Gate’ with hooks.

As time went on, gladiator fights became more and more popular which meant that many other people also became a gladiator. Some people thought that it would be ‘fun’ being a gladiator as they enjoyed fighting and some people became a gladiator because they wanted to be seen as a strong and ferocious man. Additionally, women, even though it was very rare, also fought as gladiators sometimes to earn money for their family. As well as that, sometimes gladiators fought animals instead of other gladiators to try and make the spectators even more entertained. Furthermore, some Roman emperors fought as gladiators in fights to make people even more entertained and to also prove that they were strong! The Roman emperors who took place in gladiator fights were; Commodus, Caligula, Titus, Hadrian, Cracalla, Geta etc.[pic 3]

It is said that there were about 186 gladiator arenas around the Roman kingdom with about 50,000 people killed in the fights in total. There were roughly 26 different types of gladiators and within the 26, most of them were similar but there were some that were very unique. For example, a unique one was when the gladiators were blind folded which meant that they couldn’t see where they were attacking or where they were being attacked from. This increased the tension and excitement for the spectators! Another type is when gladiators fought strong animals like tigers or lions. When the gladiators were fighting animals, they often fought with no weapons to prove that they were extremely strong. Some gladiator did fight with an armour and a sword but the spectators did not find those fights very entertaining. Different gladiators fought with different weapons. There were gladiators that fought with no weapons at all, had two swords instead of one, and some gladiators even fought on horseback. In addition, there were even mounted archers, who did not carry any weapon other than a bow. This meant this was more commonly used for long distance fighting and if the opponent did get close, then it would not be very good for the archers. Another interesting type of gladiator was one that carried one sword, which had two blades. It looked like a pair of scissors, hence it was called 'Scissor', or plural 'Scissores'. In this fight they would have to try to trap the opponents weapon in the middle of the two blades of their own weapon to disarm them. At this point, it would be easy to win as the opponent doesn't have a shield, and only has a small amount of armour. If you had disarmed them, and you lost, it made you look really bad, and the other person would become quite popular. The audience from that point would probably have the Charun order your opponent to kill you as you had done a bad job. Another type of gladiator was a 'Tertiarius', meaning 'third man'. They had to jobs: to act as a substitutes if for some reason another gladiator couldn't fight, and their other job was to fight in a triplet of fighters: two of the men would fight, and the 'Tertiarius' would fight the winner. The 'Tertiarius' would frequently be the one to win, as the winner of the first part of the fight would be weakened or worn out.