Gladiators

The Gladiators were warriors. The Gladiators would fight in front of often huge crowds with the promise of great wealth if they became famous. There was a down side though. If they lost a fight they would probably be dead! At least the gladiator would be badly injured. 

The Gladiator wasn't much like the Gladiators that you see on the television nowadays. A Roman Gladiator wore armour and carried a variety of weapons. As many of them were slaves and criminals they fought for one reason only: freedom, as famous gladiators could be freed from slavery. Because of this the Gladiator would fight extremely hard and often fights were to the death.

This type of entertainment was very popular with the Romans and many captured soldiers were forced to fight as Gladiators in a bid to gain their freedom. They trained for the fights very hard and there were special Gladiator centre's where they would practice using the different weapons and try to work out ways of avoiding being hurt. 

Other types of entertainment in Roman times were also very 'bloody'. The Romans often put people into the stadium with Lions to see what happened! The people chosen were often those that the Romans didn't like, for example many of the early Christian's were sent to the 'Lion's Den' as the Romans were worried about the new religion!