Why did the Romans organise and attend Gladiatorial Games Essay Example

ought to have seen battles and wounds and steel, and naked men contending against each other, that they might not fear armed men or shrink from wounds and blood' (Maximus et Balbinus, Historia Augusta, 8.

The games were also an exhibition of the spoils of Roman conquest. The Romans, supreme masters of the earth, were able to bring the savages into the arena and have them die for their entertainment. The types of gladiators are especially revealing about this: among them were the Thracian, the Samnite and the Gaul. They were the 'fossilised image of Roman conquests'.

These 'images' also served as a warning to the conquered not to challenge the Romans who replayed their demise for fun.It is significant that the peak of the games' popularity was during the relative peace of Augustus' rule. The Roman citizen had little opportunity to participate in real warfare at that time, so the 'artificial battlefields' of the Colosseum had to do. It was almost as if the Romans, having conquered the world, now recreated war because they valued it so much. War became a game, a drama, where the forces of civilisation battled for the crowds.

And what made the experience more compelling was that the citizen was not merely a passive spectator. At the end he could contribute and decide the fate of the outcasts of his society. The experience at the games was clearly structured and symbolic of the ideal Roman society. The Emperor sat at the front, and the most important people were closest to the killing. The women sat at the back, humbly watching the exhibition of what their men had conquered.