Did Roman gladiators really fight to the death or is that a historical exaggeration?

Question

It would seem that fighting to the death or until someone is severely wounded would deplete your pool of fighters.

Answer 1

Actually there was a lot of death in the sport. True professionals usually didn't die except in special events. That was expensive, what made it cheap was making enslaved german tribesman, celts, gauls, and greeks fight each other after some training.

BTW, since I just rememberedthat my people were slaves to the Romans, when is the Italian government going to send me my reparations check? I haven't seen it yet!

Answer 2

Not normally, they were professionals, i guess like modern day boxers, they did fight but not to the death, unless an accident happened (and they did regularly) but that was a risk they paid, there were also special events that had battles to the death, but rarely. They did however hold public murders in the coliseums, of Christians, thieves, murders, women and other people. Also the gladiators often became very famous, and when released from slavery, lived lives of luxury and fame, actually so roman soldiers or citizens decided to become gladiators on their own free will, because they wanted the money and fame, sound familiar.

Answer 3

Initially, gladitorial fights to the deatyh were part of Estrucan funeral rites, and prisoners were used as combatants. Often even the winner would be executed as well.
Later, actual gladiators were trained over a fairly long period for the arena, and the lanista(trainer) wouldn't be overly keen to see his gladiators killing each other, as they represent a considerable investment of time, money and garlic(which the Romans believed made you stronger).
It did deplete the pool, but the Roman habit of enslaving large numbers of 'barbarians' was a handy counter to this.

Answer 4

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Answer 5

They did fight to the death occassionally. Many gladiators became famous as great fighters. Most gladiators however were slaves, so there was plenty of fighters to be had form the many places they conquered.

Answer 6

You are right. Gladiators did not always fight to the death.

The important thing was to fight well and often a defeated gladiator who had fought well would be allowed to live.

Gladiators were an expensive commodity and their owners had to strike a "happy" medium between protecting their investment but not being seen to be stingy by not allowing enough gladiators to die.

Answer 7

Yes have you ever been to the Colosseum in Rome. They don't admit it as well with everything else that went on there but why bring it up to make it a point of saying it's not true. At least that's what our tour guide did. In those days it was the same as our boxers and cage fighters except more bloody and brutal.