Gladiators habitually fought in stand-alone pairs, though mass fights are on record.
#WHAT WERE THE POLES USED TO FIGHT IN CHARIOT RACES CALLED PROFESSIONAL#
1 They are thus to be distinguished from the professional huntsmen ( venatores) and beast-handlers ( bestiarii) who performed in the morning shows, and the executioners ( carnifices) whose activities filled the lunch-time break. Gladiators were trained, professional fighters who engaged in single combats in the Roman arena. Modern scholars theorize a variety of reasons for the popularity of gladiatorial shows among the Romans and the role gladiators played in Roman culture. Roman sources date the first gladiatorial performances in the city to 264 bce, and gladiators continued to perform into the 5th century ce, when financial and pragmatic concerns (rather than moral ones) brought the shows to an end. Despite their popularity, gladiators were officially regarded as infames (people of bad reputation) and ranked alongside or below actors, prostitutes, pimps, and bankrupts as social and moral outcasts. Evidence from gladiatorial graveyards and gravestones confirms the violent, often lethal nature of the contests, though a win could be achieved without a kill and the fighters clearly took pride in their skills and status with their peers and their fans. Thus the net-man ( retiarius) was largely unprotected but carried a net and a trident with a long reach, whereas his opponent ( secutor) carried a short sword but was more heavily armored and had a large shield. There were different styles of armaments, carefully considered to pitch advantage against disadvantage. Freeborn or freed gladiators were volunteers who fought under contract to a manager (such fighters were termed auctorati). Slave gladiators were usually trained professionals based in a training school ( ludus) run by a manager ( lanista). They could be slaves, freeborn, or freedmen (ex-slaves).
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Gladiators were armed combatants who performed in the arena during Roman games called munera.