Picture an image of a gladiator in your mind. Now, you might be imagining fierce warriors, covered in armor, fighting to the death with thousands of people cheering in the crowded Colosseum. However, history tells us a different story. Although gladiators were fierce and did fight to entertain the crowd, they didn’t usually fight to the death and they wore very little armor to protect themselves. Thanks to historians, we know a little more about what life was like for these important entertainers.
Gladiator games didn’t start off as fights for people’s entertainment, but rather started as part of a funeral service. Paid performers would portray a scene from the deceased person’s life as a tribute to them.
These performances became so popular that senators and people running for office would sponsor games to help win the public’s support. Soon, these types of events were happening for celebrations like festivals and the emperor’s birthday. Over time, the fake battles turned into real ones in front of large crowds. Thus, the gladiator games were born.
It didn’t take much to become a gladiator. Nearly anyone who wanted to could fight in the arena, even women! Typically, gladiators were prisoners or slaves taken from conquered lands, but many free men fought as well. Gladiators had to go through months of rigorous training before they were allowed into the arena for their first fight. A gladiator trained at a special school called a ludus. When a gladiator joined a ludus, he became its property or the property of its patron. Before being accepted to a ludus, a gladiator took a vow to allow himself to be burned, whipped, beaten, and even killed; giving up all of his human rights to the school. Since the gladiator was now the property of the school, every part of his life was controlled by his ludus including his diet, exercise, health, and training.
A proper diet was an important part of a gladiator’s training. A gladiator’s diet consisted mostly of grains, vegetables, and little to no animal products. In fact, historians found that these warriors were sometimes called hordearii, or “barley men,” because they consumed so much barley. There was a very important reason why gladiators ate a lot of barley, beans, and vegetables instead of meat. When the gladiators were performing in the arena, the audience expected to see a little blood. Since muscle doesn’t bleed as much as fat, it was very important that gladiators had a thick layer of fat on their bodies. Now, when a gladiator was cut during a fight, he would bleed a lot even though the cut was very shallow. Each ludus made sure that all its warriors ate a lot of beans, barley, and vegetables so that each man had a layer of fat over his body to help keep him safe while also putting on a great performance.
Because so much time and money was spent on each gladiator at a ludus, gladiators were not often killed when fighting in the arena. Each gladiator was paired with someone of the same skill level to make sure that the fight was fair. Once a man dropped his sword and shield, went down on one knee, and lifted a finger in surrender, the fight was over.
On rare occasions, the person sponsoring the game, who also acted as the referee, would demand the death of the losing gladiator. If the sponsor made this request, he would have to pay a very large sum of money to the gladiator’s ludus. The sponsor would give a “thumbs up” signal to show that the winning gladiator should spare the life of the defeated. A “thumbs down” meant death. Since no one wanted to pay a ludus for the death of a gladiator, the life of the losing warrior was often spared.
The gladiator games had to keep the crowds entertained. To keep everyone on their toes, the sponsors would create scenes, like a live theater, for the gladiators to fight in. Props were used to make the arena look like a jungle or a desert, transforming the games into true shows. In some arenas, the central area could be flooded to create a small lake and host spectacular naval games as well. There were also trap doors on the floor of many arenas, like the Colosseum, where wild and exotic animals would be set loose to add an extra layer of suspense. Lions, jaguars, bears, wolves, crocodiles, and even elephants were set loose in the arena to give the warriors an extra challenge. Sometimes dozens of these animals would all be set free at once, bringing chaos and drama to the battle.
We haven’t always had this much information about the lives of these warriors. In fact, the recent discovery of a gladiator graveyard in Turkey has given us a lot of the information we know today. Historians and scientists have been able to study the bones of deceased gladiators and have found they had vegetarian diets and received amazing medical care. Books, movies, and television shows often portray gladiators as ruthless and muscular warriors who battled to the death. Thanks to historians who are constantly looking for answers, we know the truth about these brave warriors and the incredible lives they led.