A Study of Why Gladiatorial Contests Took Place in Ancient Rome

After the Carthage in 201 BC, the Roman Empire embarked through a dangerous time period where all gladiatorial fights were all the hype. The article “Murderous Games: Gladiatorial Contests in Ancient Rome” by Keith Hopkins, discusses the fights and how they were used for entertainment purpose; where war was considered “fun”. And at the time, Roman Empire consisted of 50 to 60 million people, which was one-fifth/one-sixth of the world’s population. The Roman Empire was a warrior state where animals and people were sacrificed. People of all backgrounds were sacrificed for funerals and for entertainment purposes. In this analysis, I will discuss their purpose, the animals involved, and Rome’s present ever since that time period.

The purpose behind the gladiatorial fight was for pure entertainment. Rome was a cruel place where people were used for dangerous malpractices. At the time, Gladiatorial fights were acceptable in their eyes, but in today’s society, it is considered unethical.

People worshipped the gladiators like they were pop-stars. They were famous and considered the greatest people in Rome; they were considered heroes to public.

People also supported the gladiatorial fights due to fear, and if they objected against it, they were soon faced with the same dilemma as the gladiators, death. And when people went to the arena as the audience, and one time there was not enough criminals to be condemned to death, so instead they killed a crowd of people to the wild animals. The emperor was the one person that made the decisions. He made that decision because, sometimes, things did not go the way he would have liked them to. In many occasions, the audience would object and ask for favors, such as lowering their taxes, food, or an execution of a different person. But sometimes the people who were shouting were going to the consequences. During this time period, the emperor made the decisions and the people’s lives where in the hands of the emperor.

Animals were also involved in this cruel activity that was a sport. A large amount of animals were used as entertainment and later put to die. Some of the many animals involved included elephants, ostriches, lions, and much more. Criminals, animals, and slaves, and other people were put inside the arenas to fight, and many of them did not survive; no one actually comes out alive. On a day there were 3,000 people who fought (included men and woman) and 5,000 animals that were killed in the arena. That shows how big the arena was, which also included more room for 50,000 people to watch.

One of the biggest shows was the show made by the Emperor Trajan to celebrate his defeat against Dacia. The fight lasted throughout 123 days; with 9,138 gladiators fighting and 11,000 animals killed. The emperor then later started to introduce more animals; animals like crocodiles, rhinoceros, giraffes, and tigers. At one point, the amount of hippopotamuses started to decrease more and more until one was brought from Europe through a steamship from London. Wild animals seemed to have been decreasing over that time period due to the tremendous amount of fights.

Rome has changed ever since those time periods, making it an important part of history. People of all backgrounds were killed- who were criminals, slaves, Christians, and even people from the crowds- and for the emperor’s entertainment. Rome was a cruel society where cruelty was a way of life. People died for the public’s selfish needs of entertainment. There were no laws against those actions that brought brutality into the lives of the Romans. Many people looked up to the people that did not show them the true meaning of being hero, and instead they looked up to gladiators who harmed others where many of them were innocent.