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Roman Gladiators Research Paper

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In the modern day, entertainment plays a large role in our daily lives. From phones, to movie theaters, to reading, we as humans demand to be entertained. Although the amount of entertainment available to the general public has increased dramatically in the last 100 years, entertainment has been a necessary part of society for the past few millennia. One major source of entertainment for Ancient Romans was gladiatorial battles (Nardo). Gladiators influenced the Romans to glorify death, and to encourage the death of criminals and other gladiators. It also desensitized the general population to any excessive violence.
Gladiators would wage gruesome, bloody battles with one another on a day-to-day basis. These battles were attended by much of the population, and people would travel long distances to see the event. They viewed the death of other humans as entertainment, and in addition, they were eager to watch people die torturous deaths. (Nagle) This shows that the Romans glorified death for the purpose of entertainment. This is what made Rome’s armies so powerful; the soldiers were …show more content…

As Ausonius once wrote,“...when sated with dining and drink, they called in the gladiators. No sooner did one have his throat cut than the masters applauded with delight at this fight.” (Bates College) This quote shows the joy that Romans felt when gladiators were ruthlessly killed. In the modern day, we would think of this as an absolutely barbaric thing to do. In some ways, they would be right; innocent people were killed simply for entertainment. However, much of what we see and do online is no better; many video games involve killing other players mercilessly, and many movies involve the same themes. So, in reality, many of the cruel and inhumane practices of Roman gladiators are still daily activities of this day and age. Although no one actually dies in a game, the idea is the same.

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