The gladiatorial contests began at the reign of their first emperor Augustus to pay tribute to their warrior traditions. The Romans built artificial battlefields within amphitheaters in cities and towns for public entertainment. It is very obvious that gladiatorial contest were important because of the enormous size of the amphitheaters.

In A.D. 80, the Colosseum, which seated fifty thousand people, was used to accompany a hundred days of games. On one of the days three thousand men fought and on another day nine thousand animals were killed. The public killings of men and animals were a Roman rite believing that this was a religious sacrifice.

Everyone in Rome was not entertained by these barbaric acts. The philosophers and Christians lobbied against such events. To little effect the gladiatorial games continued until the early fifth century A.D. and wild-beast killings went on until the sixth century.

After the popularity of the gladiatorial games, the religious value still remained. Those who attended the games were dressed up as gods. The slaves were dressed up as the god of Mercury. The people who dragged away the dead bodies were dressed as Pluto, the god of the underworld. When Christians were persecuted, the were sometimes led around the arena in a procession dressed up as priests and priestesses of pagan cults, before the were thrown to wild beast naked. All of these events performed presented human sacrifice for religious purposes and in the memory of the dead.

Sports today are on a much milder basis than gladiatorial games in ancient Rome. Today those type of games would be considered insane, but for Rome this was part of their religion and probably the most entertaining shows they had. Boxing and hunting presents violence similar to the gladiatorial games, but I don't think it is as barbaric. For instance, boxers don't fight to the death, only 12 rounds, and hunters can only kill plentiful animals, such as, deer and ducks during certain times of the year. Between these two different society, violence is proved to be the number one entertainment source in the two cultures.

In 42 B.C., gladiatorial fights were substituted for chariot races in official games for the first time. It was then when officers of the state started producing the gladiatorial shows on a regular basis as a part of their job. Em

Some common words found in the essay are:
Egypt Caesar, Rome Romans, Emperor Trajan, Achillia Sports, Emperor Augustus, Rome Rome, gladiatorial games, Julius Caesar, gladiatorial contest, emperor augustus, animals killed, women fought, thousand animals, prisoners war, ancient rome,
Approximate Word count = 967
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)