Game of Thrones brought the great games back to Meereen.
But who were the gladiators that inspired them?
The Breaker of Chains might also slit the throats of all the masters, but she hasnt quite decided.
Still, the games were on if temporarily.
So, who are these gladiators and what were the gladiator games?
Were they all slaves or did some free men fight in the trenches?
They cant all be Spartacus…. Gladiators were the star athletes of the time.
Roman children had clay gladiator action figures.
Gladiators made celebrity endorsements.
Successful gladiators could be awarded rudis (freedom) if they won enough games.
But he opted instead to continue fighting.
He was offered rudis four times in total, but kept on fighting.
Flamma died at 30.
Free men voluntarily signed contracts with gladiator schools to get in on the gladiator goodies.
But some were from the upper classes, adventurers and speculators caught by the spectacle.
However, not all the gladiator games were a fight to the death.
Only about one in 10 bouts left one of the gladiators dead.
The referees most often stopped the fight when of the fighters was seriously wounded.
Some matches ended in a draw.
If the competition was particularly exciting, both warriors could walk out of the arena with honor.
Gladiators were owned by a Lanista, who also ran the gladiator schools.
They were trained, schooled, fed, and given room and board.
Trainers taught fighters to wound.
Thats not to say that gladiators died of old age.
Most of them only lived to their mid-20s.
Some historians think a thumbs up sign meant death.
If you ever saw how Titus Pullo killed Cicero on HBOsRome, thats pretty much what it looks like.
The gladiators were unionized.
The gladiators saw themselves as a brotherhood.
The Thraeces and murmillones fought with sword and shield.
The Equites fought on horseback.
The Essedarii entered the arena in chariots.
The Dimachaerus were two-fisted swordsmen.
The most popular gladiator class was retiarius, who fought with a trident and a net.
The Venatores and Bestiarii fought animals, but these were special classes of warrior and it was rare.
The Bestiarius class had very short-lived careers.
Some animals did tricks.
Others were used as a form of execution.
The best of the Bestiarii class was Carpophorus.
The gladiators schtick was to fight a bunch of animals at the same time.
He beat a bear, leopard and lion in the opening battle of the Flavian Amphitheatre.
Carpophores also famously slaughtered a rhinoceros with a spear.
Fans and fellow gladiators compared Carpophorus to Hercules.
But he was no Spartacus.
Tetraites fought with only a sword, shield, and simple armor.
They had a two-hour battle in the first century A.D. in the Flavian Amphitheatre.
There were female gladiators.
Sometimes they fought dwarves, but occasionally they were involved in more serious bouts.
Mevia, one of the female gladiators, fought wild animals with a spear while topless.
She inspired todays nude mud wrestling.
The fight ended in an honorable draw.
Emperor Septimius Severus banned women from taking part in the games sometime later in that century.
Some emperors, like Claudius, fought unfair matches in the gladiatorial ring.
Emperor Commodus would kill bears and panthers with a spear.
Commodus believed he was Hercules reincarnated.
A renowned narcissist, he was never invited to appear in the arena.
He fought opponents armed with wooden swords or slew disabled Roman citizens for a giggle.
Commodus was assassinated by unamused gladiators in 192 A.D. Commodus was played by Joaquin Phoenix in the 2000 filmGladiator.
The gladiator Spiculus was good buddies with Nero, who lavished him with wealth, palaces and slaves.
Nero threw himself on his own sword.
Spiculus was no Spartacus.
Marcus Attilius was a Roman citizen who enrolled at gladiator school to pay off his debts.
He went on to break a 12-bout winning streak from the gladiator Raecius Felix.
But he was not Spartacus.
Crixus was a Gallic gladiator.
He was the original rebel.
He rebelled against his Lanista.
He rebelled against his gladiator school.
He rebelled against the Roman Senate.
Roman legions took out Crixuss group, but he bought time for Spartacus.
Spartacus is the most famous gladiator.
He was a captured soldier from Thrace.
He was sold into slavery and snatched up by Lentulus Batiatus of Capua.
Spartacus led a slave revolt with 70 other gladiators, including Crixus in 73 B.C.
The freed slaves spent the winter of 72 B.C.
training for what we now call the Third Serville War.
Whole legions were sent to kill Spartacus, but beaten time and time again by the arena-hardened gladiators.
Marcus Licinius Crassus defeated Spartacus in Southern Italy in 71 B.C.
Crassus crucified 6,000 of the rebel slaves along the road from Capua to Rome.
It turns out the historic Spartacus was no Spartacus in the end either.