Though the concept of a referee (in the modern sense) is quite wild to imagine, remember that pankration (greek olympic wrestling) pre-dates the roman empire by a day or two, was practiced in a competitive setting with a scoring system. Of course there were rules for most combat sports; people don't want to literally coin toss their lives every single time and i'd imagine there were plenty of career "gladiators" (and similar professions) who had good careers and never actually risked their life
@micshaz Yeah the olympics are widely recognized as the beginning of professional sporting standards. Long Jump, Wrestling, and Pankration have rules carved into older temples. There were even diplomatic incidents between some city states because of disagreements over rules.
"or duelled in the Sacred Grove of Aricia for the crown of the priest-king of Nemi." I had to check this as it really sounded like a line straight out of a fantasy novel. Turns out to be a fascinating bit of history I had never heard of. Thank you for that.
Sounds like the best analogy would be that they were like the adult film stars of their day -- often desired, often famous and even at times rich, but also highly stigmatized!
Thats one of the grand mysteries of the period. JG Frazer wound up writing an eighteen volume encyclopedia of magic and superstition from research he did trying to get to the bottom of the myths surrounding the Rex Nemorensis.
@@CountSpiffula I was trying to find what you were referring to - did you mean The Golden Bough? According to Wikipedia it’s up to 12 volumes in some editions, so not exactly eighteen but still very voluminous. Thanks for the pointer 🙂
It's a really depressing fate. First, you fight and fail to defend your home, losing friends and family and becoming enslaved. Then, you are forced to fight countless battles against other slaves like yourself, possibly even former comrades who were enslaved alongside you. The likelihood of you dying or getting seriously wounded is high if you slip up even once, and if not, you're still doing it to other undeserving slaves. But even if you're really, really good and lucky, you may be released... but now you're at the bottom of the social hierarchy, possibly too crippled to work, poor, and a lot of your few opportunities entail going back into the arena.
Imagine petitioning the Emperor to nerf an armatore class because say the retarius spear is too long for PVP balance and they keep dominating the meta.
Apart from the always interesting and informative content of your channel, I really appreciate that you don't use those cheap AI images like so many other YT channels do: you always use high quality illustrations.
@@crazydave247 No, that's actually Dr. Garrett Ryan's real voice. I think the reason it might come across as AI generated is because of the phrasing he uses, the way he pauses and where he pauses in sentences, and other vocal modulations one learns when one becomes a public speaker (such as politician, professor, news anchor, or other career in which public speaking plays a prominent role).
Buying the farm is a euphemism for dying but getting a farm so you won't need money anymore was a thing until very recently. I'm sure gladiators and ex-slaves would find a small estate with farming land a good place to retire.
@@TheRealForgetfulElephantopinions aren't worth of respect just because they're opinions, it matters what they are. However, I do not agree with the person you responded to either.
@@Frisbieinstein well of course because now he has a video on it. the video did not exist when i made this comment. and even though there are videos about ancient graffiti, i wanted to hear TIS' take on it
Gladiators died in the arena as a result of injury or rarely fight to the dead if they were condemmed . Gladiators did not die on daily basis as they were expensive to train and maintain and were more of an investment.
I'm surprised to learn that even freeborn retired Roman gladiators were infame?! I though they continued to be celebrated like how modern athletes are today!? Why would Roman gladiators be so celebrated while active gladiators then looked down upon once they're retired? Great upload.
The best modern analogy for gladiators I think would be adult film stars. Celebrated and popular, and they can get rich, but their line of work is stigmatized (to the point that many say that they wouldn’t date an adult film star). So stigmatized that they cannot escape from its stigma even when they get into new careers. The fact that it’s scandalous if a teacher is revealed to be an ex adult film star proves this.
The Romans did not have movies, special effects and CGI to depict violence, they only had the real thing. How many movies and video games of today feature people meeting violent death? We are really no different. Question: if a "wild beast" won its match, what happened to it? I'm sure there were some pretty good lions, tigers and bears ("oh my") that survived their matches.
If I was a rich roman, I'd hire a couple gladiators as personal bodyguards. Just the reputation alone of them would be enough to stop most from attacking, and the idea of basically having two champion heavyweight boxers hanging out with me all the time would be icing on the cake!
Thank you toldinstone! Here here! For he is the great scribe and orator! He quenches us lay men that thirst for knowledge from ancient rome. God speed noble man godspeed
There's a very funny example of gladiator training in the movie "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum". One master was showing how to swing a mace (?) and brain the other fighter. Bad result? Next! More slaves were lined up awaiting their turn as target.
There are many excellent paintings used in many different videos depicting Gladiators. A works(book) showing as many of these paintings as possible would be very interesting to myself.Is anybody aware if any author has put a collection of these works of art together??
were any gladiators so good looking they'd be consistently put in low risk matches? or were they too far away from the audiences to be seen in detail (and would have done better if there had been television)
After visiting the arena at Nimes, France, which has a great museum dedicated to the gladiators, the exhibits there state that the gladiatorial contests eventually died out. Was this due to the bloody nature of the events, or perhaps due to the rise of christianity in the west, or the cost of sponsoring these events. I don't know. But, according to the exhibits, gladiatorial combat died out way before the end of the western empire.
Christianity was a major factor, though I'm sure the costs also played a role, in the west especially. Major Christian figures strongly condemned the games for the gratuitous violence and pagan elements. Other spectacles, like chariot races, would continue even under Ostrogothic rule and for much longer in the east.
Definitely Christianity, but it also could've become too expensive to organize. Even though gladiators were from the lowest tiers of the empire, you need housing, food, training and fighting gear and coaches.
I would think that such a video would draw much criticism from the cultures being negatively depicted. My ancestors, for example, were Germanic but not necessarily uncivilized barbarians -- even were they so described/considered by the Romans.
Hi Garrett I really enjoy your content but as others have noted, the A.I image doesn't suit this channel, it may seem like a small thing but it stands out because everything else is so good, the image has many mistakes, The spear doesn't fit his hand The shoulder armor makes no sense the cloak is wrong his index finger is huge and more. it's no where near the quality to represent your channel. I know it makes your job easier but I'd rather see a picture of you with a wig on and red towel around your neck than A.I generated oddities. Thanks for the great work take care
Great content, but don't spoil it with the AI art. Beyond the fact that all those programs are built on the theft of the work of actual artists it just plain hideous. Besides that, quality work as usual.
Oh man I would have loved being a gladiator. I am uniquely skilled in both fighting and looking really good while doing it. I wouldn't want to live to retire. I would want to die for the crowd. Who better to die in front of, and where could be better to die? Alone as a sick old man, or young and good looking, a fine weapon in your hand, hearing 100,000 people screaming your name in excitement?
