Gladiatorial Games

Paper Summary:

In this paper, the author explores the ancient gladiatorial games that took place in Rome. He looks at how the gladiatorial games served Roman society and culture in a variety of ways and the important function they had in the Roman civilization. The paper explains the order of the gladiatorial games and describes the people that took part. The author also examines how Roman society seemed to demand these extreme exhibitions as evidence of their power over chaos, enemies and nature. He mentions how critics of the games did not find fault with the nature of the cruelty to humans, but instead only complained about certain perimeters of the games. In conclusion, the author states that the gladiatorial games were central to politics, religion and culture in Roman civilization, and were a reflection of how Roman society perceived themselves and their world.

From the Paper:

"Many of the gladiatorial games were religious celebrations, some of them were called votive games designated to please Roman deities. Religious ceremonies are all distinct and controversial, when perceived from outside of a religion, so it is understandable that many would find this kind of religious ceremony to be nothing more than savagery. Sacrificing humans on the tombs of warriors seems barbarous, but sacrificing animals was a common practice in religions of the time. The Christian religion's central figure of Jesus also demonstrated that sacrificing life was needed to save the world. These examples illustrate the sharp contrast of how people's perception changes through time and what is seen today as savagery was not seen so in times past. Other early writers agreed that the gladiatorial battles did replace the human sacrifice to the spirits of the dead. From this point of view, the gladiatorial games were considerably more humane than just sacrificing human life."

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