Gladiator

A Gladiator was a combatant in ancient Rome who fought, often to the death, for sport and as a game for those who watched. It came from the Roman word gladius or short sword, the weapon that was used in regular army combat. Gladiators themselves could fight with a number of different weapons, and having varying weapons often made the games more 'exciting'.

Gladiator contests were common through most of the time of Rome, spanning a time period of hundreds of years. The Roman Colosseum had many gladiator contests, some of them quite ingenious (including filling it with water and having a sea contest.) Some games were quite costly. Many were sponsored by the state or paid for by rich individuals. Games could be held in honor of someone who died or for important events, like a military victory.

Gladiators were usually prisoners of war or slaves. Highly successful gladiators could be known to earn their freedom. At the end of a contest in front of the Emperor he could give a thumbs up or thumbs down as to whether the loser would be spared or killed.

One of the most famous gladiators was Spartacus, not because of his fighting in the arena, but because of the slave revolt he led during the later Roman Republic that took more than a year to put down.

Gladiator contests eventually died out after the Empire finally made Christianity legal and eighty years after that the state religion. Christian values clashed with the ideas of gladiatorial contests.