Roman Gladiators:
For my project, I researched Roman gladiators, focusing on the types of gladiators and contrasts between gladiators and Roman soldiers because I think that they are better than Roman soldiers. I learned that there were many different types of gladiators ranging from the retiarii, that wielded tridents and nets, to the gallus, that had a short sword and heavy armor (Types of Gladiators). More types of gladiators here. The gladiators trained everyday at gladiator schools but only had to fight three to five times a year. The fights served as a large source of entertainment for the Romans and gave some citizens the chance of honor, glory, and fame (Types of Gladiators).
We do not have gladiator fights today because sport killing would be poorly looked upon and people would protest it, Also, gladiator fights today would only be two people with guns trying to kill each other. The matches would be so short that many of them would have to be played in one day, meaning more killing. Fights were outlawed in later Rome, and will likely never return. The Latin word gladius is the word for sword.
To test who is better at combat I looked at The Battle of Cannae, a colossal Roman defeat, and evaluated who would have won the battle if the Romans had used gladiators to fight instead of typical Roman soldiers. I determined that the well trained, self-thinking, and fearless gladiators would have won the battle if they had fought instead of the Roman army. Their diverse types of gladiators would have filled all the roles of a real army, footmen, cavalry, and archers (even though the Romans did not use archers in this battle). Throughout the whole project, I learned many things about gladiators that I did not know. For example, I learned that slave and prisoners that were gladiators could win their freedom in the form of a wooden sword, if they fought long enough or well. I was also very interested in learning that gladiator schools existed and were run by veteran gladiators. The link to my short video evaluating what would have happened in gladiators fought in The Battle of Cannae is here.
"Battle of Cannae." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 22 Dec. 2014.
Macdonald, Fiona, and Richard Tames. 100 Things You Should Know about Ancient Rome. Bromall, PA: Mason Crest, 2003. Print.
Robinson, Russel H. Roman Soldiers for Colouring and Cutting Out. Colchester: Iceni Publications, 1976. Print.
"Types of Gladiators." Types of Gladiators. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Dec. 2014.
We do not have gladiator fights today because sport killing would be poorly looked upon and people would protest it, Also, gladiator fights today would only be two people with guns trying to kill each other. The matches would be so short that many of them would have to be played in one day, meaning more killing. Fights were outlawed in later Rome, and will likely never return. The Latin word gladius is the word for sword.
To test who is better at combat I looked at The Battle of Cannae, a colossal Roman defeat, and evaluated who would have won the battle if the Romans had used gladiators to fight instead of typical Roman soldiers. I determined that the well trained, self-thinking, and fearless gladiators would have won the battle if they had fought instead of the Roman army. Their diverse types of gladiators would have filled all the roles of a real army, footmen, cavalry, and archers (even though the Romans did not use archers in this battle). Throughout the whole project, I learned many things about gladiators that I did not know. For example, I learned that slave and prisoners that were gladiators could win their freedom in the form of a wooden sword, if they fought long enough or well. I was also very interested in learning that gladiator schools existed and were run by veteran gladiators. The link to my short video evaluating what would have happened in gladiators fought in The Battle of Cannae is here.
Bibliography:
"Battle of Cannae." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 22 Dec. 2014.
Macdonald, Fiona, and Richard Tames. 100 Things You Should Know about Ancient Rome. Bromall, PA: Mason Crest, 2003. Print.
Robinson, Russel H. Roman Soldiers for Colouring and Cutting Out. Colchester: Iceni Publications, 1976. Print.
"Types of Gladiators." Types of Gladiators. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Dec. 2014.
I really like your idea of comparing Roman soldiers to gladiators, a nice creative twist. As a side note, what was with the random throwing in of the word gladius? The blog post seemed like a bit of a mess of information.
ReplyDeleteI didn't want to get an F, so I put the word gladius in. Thank you, I worked hard to make it a mess of information, and did not except someone to notice. :)
Deletei liked how you compared them to soldiers but were they looked at differently then soldiers in the eyes of the public in a better or worst way?
ReplyDeleteThe good gladiators were celebrities of their time, so they were looked upon better than soldiers were.
DeleteWere there different types of gladiators?
ReplyDeleteI really like the comparisons that you researched and used for this blog. It was a great idea to use the Battle of Cannae to describe what you thought might happen if you put the gladiators in the spot of the soldiers.It was easy to imagine the gladiators stepping in and doing a good job. Great job desribing the differences between the two and how they fought in battle
ReplyDeleteI like how you could describe gladiator fighting into a perspective we could understand today. It makes your topic easier to understand and visualize.I also liked how you compared 2 types of gladiators and voiced your opinion.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting how the ancient Romans would watch Gladiators slaughter other Gladiators all for entertainment huh? Also, did you know they would also fight animals such as bears and lions? This is what I also had to research since this was a form of entertainment in ancient Rome.
ReplyDeleteI like how you described the fighting in a really understandable to someone who didn't understand what it was before reading the post
ReplyDeleteI like how you showed that times have really changed, and no matter what country this would be looked down upon in todays society.
ReplyDelete