Gladiatorial Contest In Rome

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that the contest was part of the Roman funeral process. A Christian critic named Tertullian at the end of the second century wrote, “Once upon a time, men believed that the souls of the dead were propitiated by human blood, and so at the funerals they sacrificed prisoners of war of slaves of poor quality bought for the purpose.”
In 246 B.C., two nobles in honor of their deceased father, held the first recorded gladiatorial event with only six gladiators. But over the next two hundred years, the contests started to become common and gain popularity resulting in the increase of gladiatorial shows. An example of a gladiatorial show was in 46 B.C. when Julius Caesar dedicated the games to his dead daughter and the victory over Gaul and Egypt. Caesar didn’t have only the traditional individual fights, but also he had fights between whole detachments of an infantry and between squadrons of cavalry who were mounted on horses and elephants. The games consisted of professional ...

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