--- title: "This is what made ancient Roman gladiators so fierce" date: "2019-01-28" modified: "2020-10-22" authors: - name: "Tim Kirkpatrick" link: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/authors/tkirkpatrick.md" url: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-history/this-is-what-made-ancient-roman-gladiators-so-fierce/" categories: - "History" --- # This is what made ancient Roman gladiators so fierce ![]() /pp.go90mob{display: none;}br /@media only screen and (min-device-width:32px) and (max-device-width: 559px) {br /.go90video{display: none;}br /.go90mob{display: block;}br /}br / --- The sport of gladiator fighting in the arenas of ancient Rome was just as popular as boxing and MMA are today. Gladiator combat was slightly more gangsta, though, seeing as how those warriors fought to the death during brutal tournaments. Some historians believe the gladiator games started as ceremonial offerings for the funerals of wealthy aristocrats. At the height of the sport, the fighters were mostly made up of prisoners of war, slaves, and sentenced criminals, but they could even be pitted against animals like tigers or crocodiles. The Coliseum in Rome was even home to aquatic battles, when the arena was flooded and fighters attacked from boats. They lived in privately-owned schools that doubled as their training and prison grounds. Reportedly, after Spartacus led an uprising in 73 B.C., the empire began to regulate the gladiator schools to prevent further rebellions. ![]() *Gladiators from the Zliten mosaic.* During the games, each gladiator fought with various weapons and levels of armor. A "Secutor" was a heavily armored fighter who competed using a short sword. A "Retiarius" battled his foes wearing light armor, a trident, and occasionally a weighted net. The "Vremea" wore a helmet with a stylized fish on the crest. The gladiators ate a high energy diet consisting of barley, beans, oatmeal, dry fruit, and ash, which was believed to fortify the body. Very few of them fought in more than 10 battles or made it past the age of 30 before getting killed. The Roman empire housed more than 400-arenas and displayed over 8,000 gladiator deaths per year. [Learn more about their fighting in the video at the top](). ### Watch More Elite Forces: ### [This is how piracy became totally legal during wartime]() ### [This is how Rome's Praetorian Guard held so much power]() ### [This is why Cossacks are Russia's legendary fighting force]() ### [These are the slave soldiers that defeated the Mongols]() ### [This is the legend of the Knights of the Round Table]() ## Author Tim Kirkpatrick entered the Navy in 2007 as a Hospital Corpsman and deployed to Sangin, Afghanistan with 3rd Battalion 5th Marines in the fall of 2010. Tim now has degrees in both Film Production and Screenwriting. tim.kirkpatrick@wearethemighty.com ## More - [Here’s what you didn’t know about the Queen’s Guards]() - [These 4 Gurkha stories will make you want to forge your own kukri knife]() - [Roman gladiators fought lions for sport and there’s finally proof]() - [These were the most famous female gladiators to step into the Colosseum]() - [Why gladiators of Rome didn’t die as often as you thought]() - [This is how gladiators fought using the net and trident as weapons]() - [Why ancient Romans built statues of their greatest enemy]() - [How foreign auxiliary troops became Roman citizens]()