Gladiators In Ancient Rome

Gladiators were “created by the enactment of Roman justice and Roman authority” (Futrell 121). Thus, the lifestyle of the gladiator quite possibly originated from prisoners of war. During the second Sicilian slave war, the last standing survivors surrendered themselves to Aquilius who then took them to Rome where he “consigned them to fight with wild beasts” (Diodorus Historical Library 36.10). From there on, gladiators largely comprised of criminals, prisoners, slaves and other members of lower status within Roman society. Several literary inscriptions denote the status of a gladiator to be “low [and] vile” (Barton 2), and there being “no meaner condition among the people than that of the gladiator” (Barton 2). Gladiators and wild-beast hunters