Gladiators Stereotypes

Along with movie stars and musicians, athletes are arguably the most famous people to walk the planet. Most people think that athletes have become idols just recently but this is not the case. The first famed athletes can be traced back to Rome, these athletes being the gladiators. Now by watching movies or reading stories about gladiators it is easy to fall to the stereotype that pits them as bloodthirsty humans who kill for fun. This belief is mostly false and it is easy to forget where the gladiators came from. Most of them were forced to fight and did not do it for fun. The gladiators trained hard in order to perform well in hopes to finally win their freedom after a successful career. The gladiator games are misunderstood so it is now time to learn the truth about the famed gladiators.

The gladiators were not born athletes who had a mission in life to become warriors, most of them were normal men living a normal life on a farm located within the fringes of the Roman Empire, such as Moesia. These men had families and friend within their village and usually farmed to survive. They had little to no contact with people outside of their town and kept to themselves. This made them easy targets for the Roman armies to attack which was extremely common. As the Romans began their attack the men of a village usually sent their women and children off while they stayed to fight. Of course they stood no chance and were forced to surrender to be taken as Roman slaves. They would be forced to take the trip to Italy which usually took over fifty days. Immediately after reaching Italy the newfound slaves were taken to an auction where they would be sold off to the highest bidder. The men bidding on the slaves could be using them for various t...

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...ord which represented a freed man and at that point he could continue fighting on his own accord or go back to where he came from.

The inaugural games at the Colosseum were mesmerizing and like nothing the people had seen before. Titus had successfully pulled off what he had originally planned but unfortunately he died six months after the inaugural games of a mystery illness. This unfortunate even did not change the fact that he will always be remembered as one of Rome’s greatest emperors in history. The Colosseum and gladiatorial games will always have a special place in history and although Titus was the one who orchestrated the greatest games of all time it was the gladiators who made it happen. These men were not born different but trained hard to earn their freedom and it is that reason that they will be remembered as some of the greatest warriors in history.