[Duman]

O değil de Romalılar Arena'da gladyatör olarak savaşıyorlar mıydı, özellikle de ekipmansız? Arena modunda arenaya köle kıvamında bir Romalı olarak çıkıyorsunuz, İmparator ve hatta barbarlar sizden Romalı olarak bahsediyor, tüm seyirciler feryat figan alkışlıyor falan? Bu biraz garip geldi. Bilgisi olan var mı?

Free men also volunteered to be gladiators (auctorati) and, by the end of the Republic, comprised half the number who fought. Often, they were social outcasts, freed slaves, discharged soldiers, or former gladiators who had been liberated on retirement but chose to return for a period of service. They signed on for a fee and swore a fearful oath of absolute submission to the lanista to be burned, flogged, beaten, or killed if so ordered (Petronius, Satyricon, CXVII; Seneca, Moral Epistles, XXXVII.1). In spite of the opprobrium, Roman citizens, even nobility, sometimes assumed the career of a gladiator—as did women (Amazones). Often, they were compelled but sometimes prompted , as "a number of Italian towns vied with one another in holding out financial inducements to undesirables among the younger generation" (Tacitus, Histories, II.62). To celebrate his triumphal return to Rome in AD 46, Caesar sponsored gladiatorial games in which a former senator fought to the death (Suetonius, XXXIX.1). Another senator had wanted to fight in full armor but was denied permission (Dio, XLIII.23.5). When a member of the Gracchi fought as a retiarius, the scandal was all the greater because his face could be seen. Indeed, writes Tacitus, the year AD 63 of Nero's reign "witnessed gladiatorial displays on a no less magnificent scale than before, but exceeding all precedent in the number of distinguished women and senators disgracing themselves in the arena" (Annals, XV.32).