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🗓️ 19 August 2023
⏱️ 15 minutes
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0:00.0 | You've probably seen a movie or TV show that took place in ancient Rome where Gladiators fought in the Coliseum or in an amphitheatre. |
0:06.5 | At the end of the fight, the Emperor or some other official would extend their thumb to see if the defeated Gladiator would live or die. |
0:13.0 | But how accurate is that depiction of gladiatorial contests? |
0:16.0 | Did Gladiators always die in the arena? |
0:19.0 | Did the Emperor determine their fate? |
0:21.0 | And how exactly did the entire system work and perhaps most importantly why in the |
0:25.3 | world do they do this in the first place. Learn more about gladiators and |
0:29.2 | gladiatorial contests what was fact and what was fiction on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Gladiatorial contests were a very popular form of public entertainment in ancient Rome. |
0:54.4 | As I mentioned in previous episodes, they probably weren't the most popular form of entertainment, |
0:59.1 | as that distinction was held by Cherry Racing. |
1:01.4 | Gladiatorial games were something that was pretty unique to Roman culture. |
1:06.0 | Other cultures did have blood sports where competitors could be injured and possibly killed, |
1:10.0 | although not usually on purpose. |
1:12.0 | The Mayans and the Aztecs also had competitions where the losers could be killed, but they weren't necessarily engaged in combat. They were usually engaging in some sort of violent ballgame. |
1:22.0 | So why did the Romans engage in this uniquely brutal form of |
1:26.1 | entertainment? The origin of gladiatorial games is shrouded in the midst of |
1:30.2 | ancient history. The Greek historian Nicholas of Damascus believed that they were |
1:34.2 | actually adopted from earlier Atruscan funeral rights. The Atrusans were a people |
1:38.7 | who inhabited the Italian peninsula before the Romans and from whom many Roman traditions originated. |
1:44.6 | They supposedly fought in honor of a deceased person, but it wasn't necessarily to the death. |
1:50.6 | Another theory is that the tradition came from the companions, who were another Italian tribe. |
1:55.0 | The Roman historian Livy actually gave a very specific origin and said that gladiatorial games were first held in 310 BC |
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