Gladiatorial Combat In Rome

Commodus takes power and orders Maximus to be executed; Maximus is able to escape and make a journey back to his farm where he finds his wife and son murdered. After he buries his family, he gets captured by slave traders and renamed Spaniard. In his new life, Maximus trains to be a gladiator and becomes one of the most famous person to fight in the Colosseum. At the end of the movie, Maximus fights Commodus to gain back his fame, glory and avenge the loss of his family because “Brothers, what we do in life echoes in eternity” (Gladiator). The battle of death takes down the emperor and gives Rome back the Republic.

Gladiator Gladiatorial events were a token of the Roman civilization. A brutal form of sacrifice adapted from the earlier civilization of Etruscans, who believed when a person dies, his spirit relies on a blood sacrifice to survive in the afterlife. The first event to take place in Rome was in 264 BC, when Decimus Brutus held a sacrifice to honor his dead father (Roman Gladiator). Soon after these events became an undeniable part of the Romans lives, used for political power and general entertainment. A gladiators life was far from easy.

THE FIRST GLADIATORS The first known gladiatorial combat in Rome took place at the funeral of a nobleman named Junius Brutus in 264 B.C.2 His sons Marcus and Decimus revived an ancient Etruscan custom of having slaves fight at the funeral of a great leader in the belief that such a sacrifice would please the gods. During the ceremony, three pairs of slaves were forced to fight to the death. In 216 B.C., twenty-two pairs of slaves fought at the funeral of a man named Marcus Lepidus. Sixty pairs of slaves fought when Publicus Licinius died in 183 B.C. These slave fighters were now known as bustiarii, or funeral men.3 By the time of Julius Caesar, any direct association with funerals and religion was gone, and these fighters, now known as gladiators, meaning swordsmen, were a powerful force in Roman politics.

The Roman coliseum was built in order to fit the standards of a bloody, brutal battle while also being able to keep thousands of Roman citizens comfortable and entertained. Gladiators were usually prisoners of war brought from conquered regions, as well as Christians and criminals accused for harness crimes including: thievery, rape, and murder. Gladiators were sent to a ludus gladiatorious to be trained where abuse was common. A day there consisted of lifting weights and learning the art of death. They were trained according to physical attributes or skills.

This tradition was taken from the Etruscans. Although today we would see such a custom as cruel, it was in fact made less so than it originally was. Festus wrote - "it was the custom to sacrifice prisoners on the tombs of valorous warriors; when the cruelty of this custom became evident, it was decided to make gladiators fight before the tomb. It seems strange to modern people that somebody would want to have people die at their funeral, but then it was seen as "appeasing the spirit" of the dead man, by honouring them with as big a thing as the life of a man. The Romans would not have seen the loss of a gladiator as too much anyway, as the slaves or convicts that became gladiators were generally considered unimportant anyway.

Antony also understood that Brutus killed Caesar for the good of Rome and not because of jealousy or hatred. Octavious then comments ".with all respect and rites of burial. Within my tent his bones to-night shall lie, most like a soldier, order'd honourably." The men wish for his body to lie in their tent for the night, and then they will give him proper burial rites. One last lesson in this tragedy is wealth and powers are the roots of all evil.

Hector is motivated by the fact that he wants to kill Achilles because he has killed multiple members of his family. “My doom has come upon me; let me not then die ingloriously and without a struggle, but let me first do some great thing that shall be told among men hereafter (The Iliad, Book XVIII, Line 483).” This showed how death was valued and how the warriors, even after death were looked upon as heroes. Their courage and nobility were glorified even after

It was by his speech that Marc Antony got his revenge towards Brutus and Cassius. Octavius Caesar was the nephew of Julius Caesar. When he got to Rome he and Marc Antony teamed up to fight against the forces of Brutus and Cassius. It was at Brutus and Cassius's last battle where Octavius and Marc Antony succeeded in their plan. Cassius had many motives for the killing of Julius Caesar.

Honorable Brutus, his best friend, helped in the killing of Caesar. All actions of this noble man, in the past, have been admirable. I am at the Forum, and the funeral for beloved Caesar is about to take place. Brutus will explain his reasons for murdering Caesar, which will surely be logical. Then, Mark Antony will be delivering a speech, and conducting the funeral rites.

Furthermore, the most popular and exciting sport was the gladiator battles. The spectators enjoyed this sport because it was considered one of the most brutal and merciless sport of all in Rome. According to Ancient Rome Sports, Roman invented the gladiator battles and it was a ritual of a blood offering at funerals of deceased rulers. Later, it turned into violent sport. The gladiators were recruited from lower class society by