Who were the Roman Gladiators?

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Gladiator
The gladiators where the pro football players of their time. They fought in arenas for the people of Rome’s entertainment. This research paper will tell you all about the gladiators of Rome, the names of the gladiators, their classes and who they are. We will also discuss how the gladiators obtained their freedom.
What is the gladiator? The gladiator is a person who was often a slave or captive of war. (Gladiator). They often fought to the death. Most of the time they fought in an open arena in public area for everybody to watch the grueling fight. They didn’t just fight people. Sometimes they fought animals. They even had a specific gladiator to fight beasts. But, the main attraction was man vs. man (What gladiators do).
The gladiator fights began in a place called Etruria, even though they were made popular in Rome (Paff). “Gladiator” comes from the Latin word “gladius”. The first gladiator fights in Rome where set up by Decimus Brutus in 264 B.C. He had three gladiators fight. The reason for this is that his father had died and he wanted to honor him. So, what better way to honor you dad buy having other people killed. Eventually the gladiator fights became a way to display power instead of in honor of someone’s death. These games started 300 years before the Roman Coliseum was built. The gladiator games really took off when Julius Caesar became emperor. Instead of three pairs he used 300 pairs to entertain voters (types).
The gladiators where divided in to groups or classes. There are three classes. The first one, The Elites, they were the top notch superstars of the gladiators. The second, was the Heavily Armored and the Lightly Armored, they were paired up against each other beca...

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