in antiquity, persons who fought, generally. Gladiators generally in the arena at Rome, for the entertainment of the people.

The gladiators were usually slaves, and fought out of necessity; though sometimes freemen made profession thereof, like our prize-fighters, for a livelihood.

The Romans borrowed this cruel diversion from the Asiatics: some suppose that there was policy in the practice, the frequent combats of gladiators tending to accustom the people to despise dangers and death.

The origin of such combats seems to be as follows. From the earliest times with which we have any acquaintance in profane history, it had been the custom to sacrifice captives, or prisoners of war, to the manes of the great men who had died in the engagement: thus Achilles, in the Iliad, lib. xxiii. sacrifices twelve young Trojans to the manes of Patroclus; and in Virgil, lib. xi. ver. 81. Æneas sends captives to Evander, to be sacrificed at the funeral of his son Pallas.

In course of time they came also to sacrifice slaves at the funerals of all persons of condition: this was even esteemed a necessary part of the ceremony; but as it would have appeared barbarous to have massacred them like beasts, they were appointed to fight with each other, and endeavour to save their own lives by killing their adversary. This seemed somewhat less inhuman, because there was a possibility of avoiding death, by an exertion of skill and courage.

This occasioned the profession of gladiator to become an art: hence arose matters of the art, and men learned to fight and exercise it. These masters, whom the Latins called lanistas, bought them slaves to be trained up to this cruel trade, whom they afterwards sold to such as had occasion to present the people with so horrible a show.

These exhibitions were at first performed near the sepulchre of the deceased, or about the funeral pile; but were afterwards removed to the circus and amphitheatres, and became ordinary amusements.

The first show of gladiators, called munus gladiatorum, was exhibited at Rome, according to Valerius Maximus, by M. and D. Brutus, upon the death of their father, in the year of the city 490. On this occasion there were probably only three pair of gladiators. In 537, the three sons of M. Æmilius Lepidus the augur, who had been three times consul, entertained the people with the cruel pleasure of seeing 22 gladiators fight in the forum. In 547, the first Africanus diverted his army at New Carthage with a show of gladiators, which he exhibited in honour of his father and uncle, who had begun the reduction of Spain. In process of time, the Romans became fond of these bloody entertainments, that not only the heir of any great and rich citizen lately deceased, but all the principal magistrates, presented the people with shows of this nature, to procure their affection. The aediles, praetors, consuls, and, above all, the candidates for offices, made their court to the people, by entertaining them frequently with these fights: and the priests were sometimes the exhibitors of the barbarous shows; for we meet with the ludi pontificales in Suetonius, August. cap. 44, and with the ludi sacerdotales, in Pliny, Epist. lib. vii. As for the emperors, it was so much their interest to ingratiate themselves with the populace, that they obliged them with combats of gladiators almost upon all occasions; and as these increased, the number of combatants increased likewise. Accordingly, Julius Caesar, in his Gladiators' adulation, diverted the people with 320 couples. Titus exhibited a show of gladiators, wild beasts, and representations of sea-fights, which lasted 100 days; and Trajan continued a solemnity of this nature for 123 days; during which time he brought out 1000 pair of gladiators. Before this time, under the republic, the number of gladiators was so great, that when the conspiracy of Catiline broke out, the senate ordered them to be dispersed into the garrison and secured, lest they should have joined the disaffected party. See GLADIATOR'S WOR.

These sports were become so common, and their consequences in a variety of respects so dangerous, that Cicero preferred a law that no person should exhibit a show of gladiators within two years before he appeared candidate for any office. Julius Caesar ordered, that only a certain number of men of this profession should be in Rome at a time; Augustus decreed, that only two shows of gladiators should be presented in a year, and never above sixty couple of combatants in a show; and Tiberius provided by an order of senate, that no person should have the privilege of gratifying the people with such a solemnity unless he was worth 400,000 sesterces. They were also considerably regulated by Nerva.

The emperor Claudius restrained them to certain occasions: but he soon afterwards annulled what he decreed, and private persons began to exhibit them at pleasure as usual; and some carried the brutal satisfaction so far as to have them at their ordinary feasts. And not slaves only, but other persons, would hire themselves to this infamous office.

The master of the gladiators made them all first swear that they would fight to death; and if they failed, they were put to death either by fire or swords, clubs, whips, or the like.

It was a crime for the wretches to complain when they were wounded, or to ask for death or seek to avoid it when overcome; but it was usual for the emperor or the people to grant them life when they gave no signs of fear, but waited the fatal stroke with courage and intrepidity: Augustus even decreed that it should always be granted them.

From slaves and freedmen, the inhuman sport at length spread to people of rank and condition; so that Augustus was obliged to issue a public edict that none of the senatorian order should become gladiators; and soon after he laid the same restraint on the knights: nevertheless Nero is related to have brought upwards of 400 hundred senators and 600 Roman knights upon the arena; though Lepidus takes both these numbers to be falsified, and not without reason reduces them to 40 senators and 60 knights: yet Domitian, that other monster of cruelty, refined upon Nero, exhibiting combats of women in the night-time.

Constantine the Great is said to have first prohibited the combats of gladiators in the East. At least he forbade those who were condemned to death for their crimes to be employed; there being an order still extant to the prefectus praetorii rather to send them to work in the mines in lieu thereof: it is dated at Berytus in Phoenicia the 1st of October 325.

The emperor Honorius forbade them at Rome on occasion of the death of Telemachus, who coming out of of the East into Rome at the time of one of these spectacles, went down into the arena, and used all his endeavours to prevent the gladiators from continuing the sport; upon which the spectators of that carnage, fired with anger, stoned him to death. It must be observed, however, that the practice was not entirely abolished in the West before Theodoric king of the Ostrogoths. Honorius, on the occasion first mentioned, had prohibited them; but the prohibition does not seem to have been executed. Theodoric, in the year 500, abolished them finally.

Some time before the day of combat, the person who presented the people with the shows gave them notice thereof by programmas or bills, containing the names of the gladiators, and the marks whereby they were to be distinguished: for each had his several badge; which was most commonly a peacock's feather, as appears from the scholiast on Juvenal on the 158th verse of the third satire, and Turnebus Advers. lib. ii. cap. 8. They also gave notice how long the shows would last, and how many couples of gladiators there were; and it even appears, from the 52d verse of the seventh satire of the second book of Horace, that they sometimes made representations of these things in painting, as is practised among us by those who have anything to show at fairs.

The day being come, they began the entertainment by bringing two kinds of weapons; the first were slaves or wooden files, called rudis; and the second were effective weapons, as swords, poniards, &c. The first were called arma lusoria, or exercitoria; the second decretria, as being given by decree or sentence of the praetor, or of him at whose expense the spectacle was exhibited. They began to fence or skirmish with the first, which was to be the prelude to the battle; and from these, when well warmed, they advanced to the second at the sound of the trumpets, with which they fought naked. Then they were said vertere arma. The terms of striking were petere & repete; of avoiding a blow, exire; and when one of the combatants received a remarkable wound, his adversary or the people cried out, Habet, or Hoc habet. The first part of the engagement was called ventilare, pretulere; and the second, clinicare ad certum, or veritis armis pugnare: and some authors think, with much probability, that it is to these two kinds of combat that St Paul alludes in the passage 1 Cor. ix. 26, 27. "I fight, not as one that beateth the air; but I keep my body, and bring it into subjection."

If the vanquished surrendered his arms, it was not in the victor's power to grant him life: it was the people during the time of the republic, and the prince or people during the time of the empire, that were alone empowered to grant the boon. The reward of the conqueror was a branch of palm-tree, and a sum of money, probably collected among the spectators: sometimes they gave him his congé, or dismissed him by putting one of the wooden files or rudis in his hand; and sometimes they even gave him his freedom, putting the pileus on his head. The sign or indication, whereby the spectators showed that they granted the favour, was premere pollicem, which M. Dacier takes to be a clenching of the fingers of both hands between one another, and so holding the two thumbs upright close together; and, when they would have the combat finished and the vanquished slain, verterunt pollicem, they bent back the thumb; which we learn from Juvenal, Sat. iii. ver. 36. The gladiators challenged or defied each other, by showing the little finger; and, by extending this, or some other, during the combat, they owned themselves vanquished, and begged mercy from the people: Vidi oleniam digiti veniam a populo postulabant, says the old scholiast on Persius.

There were various kinds of gladiators, distinguished by their weapons, manner, and time of fighting &c., as, The andabatae, mentioned under ANDABATAE. The catervarii, who always fought in troops or companies, number against number; or, according to others, who fought promiscuously, without any certain order. The dimache, who fought armed with two poniards or swords, or with sword and dagger. The gladiator, who fought in cars. The gladiarii, or Caesariani, who belonged to the emperor's company; and who, being more robust and dexterous than the rest, were frequently called for; and therefore named also populatitii. Several other kinds are mentioned in the ancient authors.

GLADIATORS War (bellum Gladiatorium or Sparta- cum), called also the servile war, was a war which the Romans sustained about the year of their city 680. Spartacus, Crinus, and Ocnomaus, having escaped, with other gladiators to the number of seventy four, out of the place where they had been kept at Capua, gathered together a body of slaves, put themselves at their head, rendered themselves masters of all Campania, and gained several victories over the Roman praetors. At length they were defeated in the year 682, at the extremity of Italy; having, in vain, attempted to pass over into Sicily.

This war proved very formidable to the Romans. Crassus was not able to finish it: the great Pompey was forced to be sent as general.

The Dying GLADIATOR, a most valuable monument of ancient sculpture, which is now preserved in the palace of Chigi. This man, when he had received the mortal stroke, is particularly careful ut procumbat bene, that he might fall honourably. He is seated in a reclining posture on the ground, and has just strength sufficient to support himself on his right arm: and in his expiring moments it is plainly seen, that he does not abandon himself to grief and dejection; but is solicitous to maintain that firmness of aspect which the gladiators valued themselves on preserving in this season of distress, and that attitude which they had learnt of the masters of defence. He fears not death, nor seems to betray any tokens of fear by his countenance, nor to shed one tear: quis mediocris gladiator ingenuit, quis vultum mutavit unquam, quis non modo flebit, verum etiam decubuit turpiter, says Cicero, in that part of his Tusculan where he is describing the astonishing firmness of those persons. We see, in this instance, notwithstanding his remaining strength, that he has but a moment to live; and we view him with attention, that we may see him expire and fall: thus the ancients knew how to animate marble, and to give it almost every expression of life.