11 Details About The Lives Of Gladiators That Don’t Tell In The Movies

Gladiator films have the power to transport us to Ancient Rome and make us witness this particular event of action and emotion. But, at the end of the day, it is still fiction based on historical facts that are not always faithful to what really happened or that were modified to suit the script.

Of course, these fighters existed, but they weren’t necessarily portrayed faithfully. Therefore, in awesome.club, we wanted to know how they lived and developed this work in real life and we found some curiosities that are not shown on the big screen.

Films often show that these battles had a tragic outcome for some of the combatants, but in fact, this was not always the case. Keeping a gladiator was expensive, so his trainers didn’t want to lose him in combat. Death only occurred if the defeated were badly injured, as a way to give them a more dignified end, without letting them suffer in the arena.

The adrenaline and emotion generated in the population by the fights were enough for some to want to participate voluntarily. In reality, fighters were not just slaves forced to give their lives for the entertainment of others, simple citizens of Ancient Rome also volunteered to fight.

These volunteers were mostly ex-soldiers or men desperate for money and glory, although there were also upper-class knights and even senators who wanted to demonstrate their skills as warriors. Even Emperor Commodus himself participated as one more gladiator, since he was a faithful fan of this show.

The hand-to-hand battles we see in Hollywood productions weren’t actually spontaneous combat, but more like a stage play, as they were choreographed to last longer and be more fun. Their armor, in addition to being their clothing, still protected them from getting hurt quickly.

The difference is that the play did not end with the curtain and applause, but with its protagonists leaving with great physical damage.

The battles also had their aquatic version, invented by Julius Caesar. They were called naumachia or naval battle and consisted of a prisoner fight aboard naval ships. The first was held in an artificial lake near Campo de Marte and people gathered to watch it.

Those in charge of putting on this show were not all the same, there were different types of gladiators, whose performances and weapons were also different.

Among the most popular were the Andabatae, who had helmets that blocked vision and fought blindly for comic reasons; the Catervarii who fought in groups; the Equites, who used a horse; the Hoplomachi, who were the strongest, armored and armed; the Mirmillones, who fought against the Retiarii or Thraces gladiators, among many others.

Watching the gladiators was not just a show of a few minutes, but also events that lasted all day and different attractions were shown. In the morning, there was the fight of men called Venators with wild animals. At noon there was the public execution of criminals, and finally the stars of the journey, the gladiators, made their appearance in the afternoon.

The battles were big events and brought together a lot of people, because, with the horse races, they constituted the main entertainment show, as it happens today with the cinema and the theater. Despite this, they were only performed on special occasions, in which the richest and most powerful spectators attended, as it was very expensive to put gladiators to fight.

Therefore, most fights took place on a smaller scale and were matches between fighters and in an empty arena.

There is nothing written about the likes, but fans at that time also used to do strange things for their favorite artists and personalities, just like in our days. Since gladiators were the celebrities of the day, wealthy women would pay to clean up the fighters’ sweat and grime after battle to make moisturizing tonics.

The image of a man in armor fighting hand to hand with a wild animal is an image engraved in people’s imagination about what a gladiator did, but in reality, this did not happen.

Gladiators only fought among themselves and, although animals were present in the arena, they were reserved for the Venatores or for the Damnatio ad Bestias spectacle, a type of exemplary punishment ordered by the Roman emperors.

The fighters had a rigorous training in the schools, where they not only prepared for the fight, but also lived and were property of their lords. Upon joining, they signed a contract that specified the type of fighter they would become and how many times they would fight over the course of a year.
Their masters also had control over their lives and even their love relationships.

In addition, anyone who for any reason disobeyed the rules was punished and could be sentenced to death.

The protagonists of these struggles were not only men, but women also had their space. As the fighters were usually men, women’s fights were seen as something different, although for some it was considered undignified. Whatever the opinion, it was a perfectly acceptable form of fighting, as well as a well-paid job that allowed them to survive independently.

What are your favorite historical films? How do you think it was to live at that time?