-Gladiatorial+Games

Gladiatorial games began as "funeral games", warriors would fight to the death at other people's funerals. The earliest known funeral game occurred at the funeral of Junius Brutus. The gladiatorial games were fought in large, open spaces like chariot races. As time went on and the event became more and more popular, the stadiums became too packed full of people, so they decided they needed to build new stadiums, or amphitheaters. Originally, amphitheaters were made of wood. However, the people came to find that stone amphitheaters were much more durable, so they decided to build more of them with stone. The oldest stone amphitheater can still be found in Pompeii because it has been very well preserved. In the arenas, there would often be many vendors and merchants trying to make business. Spectators who were getting hungry or thirsty could simply buy a drink or buy food right there in the amphitheater. As you very well may know, the Colosseum was, and still is today, the largest amphitheater built. Unfortunately, the Colosseum's floor has not lasted, but we can now see the holding areas for prisoners and animals that were underneath the wooden floor and sand that was once there. To keep the gladiatorial games in order and interesting, there were eight different types of gladiators who battled in the amphitheaters. These types of gladiators ranged from a small mobile person having no armor with only a net in order to entangle their enemies, to large somewhat slow men who carried heavy weapons in order to cause great damage to their opponents. One type of gladiator that was never as famous as the others was the Bestiarius, who were specially trained to fight all types of animals. Between battles, the emperor would sentence criminals to death and they would be executed, often by being thrown into the pit with the wild animals (tigers, lions, etc.). Probably the most famous type of battle was the individual games where it would be a one-on-one match that had gladiators with different skills. Once one of the gladiators won, the emperor would determine his fate by either giving a thumbs up (spare) or a thumbs down (kill). His decision was also influenced by the spectators. After the fallen gladiator appeared dead, a large man with a large hammer would come in and smash the fallen gladiator's head just to make sure he was dead. A slave then carried the body out.