GLADIATOR (Lat., swordsman). One who in antiquity fought in the arena, at the amphi theatre in Rome, and in other cities, for the amusement of the public. The gladiators were generally slaves, bought and trained for the pur pose, by masters who made this their business. The custom is supposed to have been borrowed from the East, and to have had its origin in the practice of human sacrifices, or that of taking the lives of captives or prisoners of war, in honor of heroes who had died in battle.
After a time all considerable funerals were solemnized by human sacrifices, which took the form of combats, in which, to increase the inter est of the spectators, the prisoners were required to sacrifice each other; and as prisoners, and afterwards other slaves, were kept for this pur pose, they were trained to fight with skill and courage, to make the spectacle more impressive. These contests first took place at funerals, but afterwards in the amphitheatre, and in process of time, instead of a funeral rite, became a com mon amusement. The first we read of in Roman history was the show of a contest of three pairs of gladiators, given by Marcus and Decimus Bru tus, on the death of their father, in the year B.C. 264. In the year ii.c. 207 a show of twenty two pairs was given in the Forum. In B.C. 217 the first Scipio Africanus diverted his army at New Carthage with a gladiatorial exhibition. The fashion now rapidly increased. Magistrates, pub lic officers, candidates for the popular suffrages, gave shows to the people, which consisted chiefly of these encounters. The emperors exceeded all others in the extent and magnificence of these spectacles. Julius Ca'sar gave a show of 320 pairs; Titus gave a show of gladiators, wild beasts, and sea-fights for 100 days; Trajan gave a show of 123 days, in which 2000 men fought with and killed each other, or fought with wild beasts for the amusement of the 70,000 Romans, patricians, and plebeians, the highest ladies and the lowest rabble, assembled in the Coliseum.
A vast number of slaves from all parts of the world were kept in Rome, and trained for these exhibitions. There were so many at the time of Catiline's conspiracy that they were thought dangerous to the public safety, and it was pro posed to distribute them among the distant gar risons.
Efforts were made to limit the number of gladiators, and diminish the frequency of these shows. The Emperor Augustus forbade more than two shows in a year, or that one should be given by a man with a property of less than half a million sesterces; but it was difficult to restrain what had become a passion. and men even had such contests for the amusement of their guests at ordinary feasts.
These shows were announced by show-bills and pictures, like the plays of our theatres. The gladiators were trained and sworn to fight to the death. If they showed cowardice, they were killed with tortures. They fought at first with wooden swords, and then with steel. When one of the combatants was disarmed. or upon the ground. the victor looked to the Emperor, if present. or to the people. for further directions: if they turned up their thumbs, the act signified death; contrary to the popular notion, mercy was indicated, not with the thumbs at all, but by a waving of handkerchiefs. A gladiator who had conquered was rewarded with a branch of palm, and sometimes with his freedom. Though the gladiators at first were slaves, freemen after wards entered the profession, and even knights. Senators and knights fought in the shows of Nero, and women in those of The Emperor Constantine prohibited the contests of gladiators, A.D. 325; but they could not at once be abolished. In the reign of Honorius a monk, Telemachus, went into the arena to stop the fight, but the people stoned him. They were finally abolished by Theodoric (A.D. 500).