Roman gladiators trained together, lived together, and traveled together as teams. They were highly skilled fighters and showmen who entertained the Roman masses.

Gladiatorial training

Gladiators, who were often slaves or prisoners of war and sometimes even volunteer Romans, were highly trained athletes with skills in weaponry and hand-to-hand combat. They received their very specialized training at schools known as ludi. In the early days of the games, these schools were privately owned, but their ownership was eventually transferred to the state, in order to avoid the threat of a private army forming within the boundaries of the Roman Empire. The ludi provided gladiators with intense athletic training, as well as training with weaponry.

The gladiators lived in barracks built especially for them, which were usually located near their home amphitheater. Because they were such expensive investments, gladiators were well fed and received the very best medical care of the day. Also, a gladiator usually did not fight on more than two or three matches each year. The gladiators from their certain ludi traveled together as a group, known as a familia, along with their lanista (trainer), from town to town throughout the Empire for gladiatorial games.

Gladiatorial combat

In a typical gladiatorial match, gladiators usually fought one on one, unless there was a request from the audience or the Emperor for another configuration of fighters. In that case, other types of matches would be fought, with two or more gladiators fighting together against another two or more fighters, or even gladiators fighting against the Emperor’s personal gladiators, known as fiscales. Depending on the type of gladiators fighting, they would be outfitted with appropriate armor and weaponry, and fight other specific gladiators.

At the conclusion of a match, one of the gladiators admitted defeat by raising his finger in submission. It was then that the audience or the Emperor decided his ultimate fate. Whether a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” was used to signal that the gladiator live or die is still a matter of debate (though it is likely that some type of hand gesture was used). The fact is, gladiators were very valuable, and it is doubtful that they were killed very often, especially if the gladiators were entertaining fighters to watch. Entertainment of the populus was the prime objective.

A gladiator that stayed alive for three years was allowed to retire, or was freed by his lanista. They often went on to train future generations of gladiators. Criminals, who were not often trained in ludi, usually did not make it past a year.

The picture of the gladiator as a savage and bloodthirsty animal might just be fiction, if recent evidence that has been studied is accurate. Researchers have found that gladiatorial combat might have been more of a civilized and disciplined skill than once thought. The level of training these men received suggests that they would have been very adept at putting on a show and controlling their violent movements. And even if the audience did order a gladiator dead at the conclusion of a match, it is highly probable that the opponent imposed only a superficial wound, in order to please the crowd. The losing gladiator would have then been dragged under the staging area and killed “charitably” by an executioner undercover. After all, it was all about entertaining the masses.

Source consulted:

"The Roman Gladiator". Retrieved from http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/consortium/gladiator1.html, 14 October 2006.