From the time of Caesar[152]
as many as 320 pairs of gladiators were fought at once; Augustus in
his whole life fought 10,000 of them, Trajan the same number in four
months. The vanquished was slain on the field unless the people wished
to show him grace.
Sometimes the condemned were compelled to fight, but more often slaves
and prisoners of war. Each victory thus brought to the amphitheatre
bands of barbarians who exterminated one another for the delight of the
spectators.[153] Gladiators were furnished by all countries--Gauls,
Germans, Thracians, and sometimes negroes. These peoples fought with
various weapons, usually with their national arms. The Romans loved to
behold these battles in miniature.
There were also, among these contestants in the circus, some who
fought from their own choice, free men who from a taste for danger
submitted to the terrible discipline of the gladiator, and swore to
their chief "to allow themselves to be beaten with rods, be burned
with hot iron, and even be killed." Many senators enrolled themselves
in these bands of slaves and adventurers, and even an emperor,
Commodus, descended into the arena.
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