Gladiators

Cultural mirror of the Roman Empire: Gladiators

In most of the societies sport games have a precious place for people because they are seen as a way of amusement.   The favorite sport game may differ from society to society according to their life styles and characteristics.   For example, the most popular game in U.S.A is American football, which may prove us the violence in American people; where as the most popular game in Turkey is soccer, which may prove us the fanatic side of Turkish people.   Although it may not be seen as a sport game today, the most popular game in Roman Empire was the gladiatorial games and it was treated as a sport game in ancient times.   The interest shown to these games by the Roman citizens may tell us something about their cultural belongings such as violence and warfare.   In my paper, I will basically discuss different parts of the gladiatorial games such as; advantages of being a gladiator, the reason for the popularity of the games, how the emperors used the games as a way of propaganda, objections to these games by the writers of the ancient times, emergence of female gladiators, the sponsorship of the games, metaphorical meaning of a gladiator, volunteer gladiators and some other interesting aspects of the gladiators and gladiatorial games.
First of all, to understand the relationship between the gladiatorial games and Roman culture; we have to know who the gladiators were, what they were doing in the arena and why people were coming to watch these violent games.   The most common source for gladiators was the captured soldiers of the enemies who were the prisoners of war.   Slaves who were bought to become a gladiator were a good source as well.   Also the criminals of the empire were used as gladiators.   Beside all of these sources, interesting enough, normal citizens could become gladiators by their own will. (Roman Civilization, the gladiator).   The gladiators were usually fighting with each other and in most of the cases;... [continues]

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