The Roman Civilization was a true depiction of duality; the populace that was regarded as one of the most civilized in ancient history had a foundation built on blood, savagery, and slavery. The utter fascination of the Roman people with blood, carnage, and the suffering of others led to the immense popularity of gladiatorial games. Gladiatorial games had a profound influence on the Roman Empire for hundreds of years. First made a spectacle by the emperor Julius Caesar, the ruling class soon found that gladiatorial contests could appease the empire's massive population. Entertaining the mob became a top priority for many of Rome's rulers; they found that the Roman people approved of their emperor if they were kept amused. As time progressed there were a number of factors that led to the decline of gladiatorial contests, and their eventual abolition. The adoption of Christianity is at the forefront of these causes; the religion portrayed the bloodshed for entertainment p!

urposes in an extremely negative light. The eventual abolishment of gladiatorial contests is indicative of the evolution of the Roman people, whose lust for the barbaric blood sport had faded.

ing thousands of Roman people would have to be constructed. The idea for the Colosseum was planted and the erection of this amphitheater gave the city of Rome one of its most famous structures.

Watkins, Richard. Gladiator. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.

In some extreme cases an emperor would even take to the arena, among them Caligula and Hadrian. Caligula enjoyed trading blows with professional gladiators in practice sessions, although the fighters themselves must have dreaded the bouts. "It was said that during one such match, Caligula's sparring partner, armed with only a wooden sword, fell down on purpose so that the emperor could claim a win, whereupon Caligula drew a dagger and stabbed him to death" (What Life... 148). Caligula's penchant for dueling with gladiators seemed tame compared to that of Commodus, who reigned toward the end of the second century AD. Before he was assassinated in AD 192 at the age of 31, the emperor reportedly dueled against more than a thousand opponents and won every time, for no one dared to defeat him. He never seriously harmed his opponents in public contests, but in private bouts at his home, Commodus killed or maimed more than a few of his foes (What Life... 149). It seemed as if ever!

y level of Roman society had representatives in the arena, so it is not surprising that women also appeared as gladiators. They were considered a novelty, but a carving found in Halicarnassus in Asia Minor shows a pair fighting with the same equipment and apparently the same intensity as men. Women gladiators succeeded where men failed, however, they managed to offend the Roman people enough that they were banned in A.D. 200 (Watkins 13).

The construction of the Colosseum proved to be one of the most ambitious endeavors carried out in Roman history. Construction commenced in AD 70 by the emperor Vespasian and lasted about 10 years. The structure ranks as one of the finest examples of Roman engineering and architecture (Hennessey 850). Once the Colosseum had been built, it served as the prototype for all later amphitheaters (Wiedemann 21). Titus, the son and heir of Vespasian, ascended to the emperorship in AD 80 and commemorated the opening of the Colosseum wih 100 days of carnage involving more than 10,000 fighting men and hordes of animals, 9,000 of which perished (What Life... 142). The Colosseum was built primarily for the staging of such blood fests. The Colosseum proved to be safer for spectators; incidents of spectators being injured or killed were very infrequent as opposed to the past, where incidents of stampeding elephants were not unheard of. To protect against such occurrences, the lowest seat!

"Who were the Gladiators?" 26 October 2000 http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/7917/who.html

The next sign of the changing sentiments surrounding gladiatorial contests came with the appointment of the emperor Nero. Nero originally wanted to promote legislation banning gladiatorial combat, but ended up failing to do much of anything during his reign. He proved to be an inferior emperor but his intentions were a clear sign of the future of gladiatorial contests (Grant 201). Christianity had started to sweep over the empire, and while at first Christians were persecuted and even slaughtered in the Colosseum, it is ironic because Christianity would be the ultimate undoing of the vicious blood sport.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)