Roman Gladiator Research Paper

3009 Words13 Pages
Gladiators: The Great Entertainers of Ancient Rome From their inception until their disappearance following the reign of the Christian Emperor Constantine in 337 AD, the Roman gladiatorial games were a huge component of the Roman world. The content of entertainment that a society produces can be a huge influence on how that society lives and how its individuals perform their functions. The great Roman historian Tacitus alludes to the great affect the gladiator games played upon the Roman political and public life, saying, “The great Roman historian offers a profound pretext for the emergence of the Roman Gladiators in the beginning of his Annales, saying, “the laws [which] were agitated by violence, intrigue, and money.” (Annales. I) With this statement, Tacitus shows that the gladiatorial games were influencing not only the plebeian class who reveled in the sight of the barbaric games; but also, the patrician class was also stooping to the level of base entertainment and regularly enjoying the brutal spectacle of the gladiatorial games. This influence on the individuals of the Roman Empire, in turn, shaped how that society is structured as a…show more content…
Moreover, he saw that this tendency for unnecessary violence was diametrically opposed to the ascetic life which the new Christian leaders in the Roman Empire sought to espouse. Theodoret even recognized a demonic influence in the great attraction of the gladiatorial games and sought to turn the public's attention away from them. Theodoret chronicled the tragic death of the monk Telemachus at the hands of the mob in order to demonstrate the evil of gladiatorial games in the Roman Empire and illustrate the similarities between the gladiatorial fights and pure barbarism which had begun to invade

More about Roman Gladiator Research Paper

Open Document