GLADIATORS (Lat. gswordsmenn, com batants who fought at public games in Rome for the entertainment of the spectators. Gladi ators were first exhibited at Rome in 264 B.C, by Marcus and Decimus Brutus at the funeral of their father; and the custom probably orig inated in Etruria, where a slave was killed at his master's pyre. In the course of time the shows, begun as part of funeral rites, became a popular amusement, and gladiators also fought at public festivals and other entertainments. They were at first prisoners, slaves or con demned criminals; but afterward freemen fought in the arena, either for hire or from choice. Under the empire persons of senatorial rank, and even women, fought in the arena. One of the most celebrated of these shows was given by the Emperor Trajan, when 5,000 gladi ators fought in the arena. Attempts were made to limit them as a danger to the public peace. The regular gladiators were instructed in schools ("ludi” established for this purpose. The overseer of the school (glanista” pur chased the gladiators, trained them and rented them to those who gave games to the people. Men of position, especially such as aimed at popularity, sometimes kept gladiatorial schools of their own and hired lanistte to instruct them. The gladiators fought in the schools with wooden swords. The games were commenced by a upralusio," in which the combatants fought with their weapons of wood till, upon a signal, they assumed their arms and began in earnest to fight in pairs. In case the vanquished was not killed in the combat, his fate was decided by the people. If they decreed his death, the
thumb was held up in the air; the waving of handkerchiefs was the signal to save him. In general they suffered death with wonderful composure, and the vanquished often exposed himself to the death-blow. If he wished to appeal to the people he raised his hand. When a gladiator was killed attendants dragged his body away with iron hooks. The gladiators were often released from further service and presented with wooden swords as badges of freedom, from which they were called erudi arii.° The gladiators were divided into classes, according to their mode of fighting: the eandabataw° fought blindfolded; the ecatervariia fought in troops; the uessedarii° fought in chariots, like the Gauls and Britons. Other classes were the eretiarii,S armed with net and trident but unprotected by any armor, their usual opponents being armed as Gauls and styled emirmillones.° The most celebrated gladiatorial statues are: (1) The Gladiator Borghese, a combatant with extended arm in the act of warding off a blow. It is a statue of the first rank, made of fine grained marble, and is nqw in the capitol, to which it was restored from Paris in 1815.
(2) The Dying Gladiator, purchased from the Ludovisian collection for the Museum Capi tolinum. It is a dying warrior and not a gladi ator, probably, to judge by his °torques° or twisted necklace, a Gaul who is wounded and is trying to rise. Consult Friedlander, 'Roman Life and Manners in the Early Empire> (New York 1909).