Gladiator Rome

The gladiators (from the Latin gladiatores, of gladius, glaive, meaning "sword fighters", or "swordsmen") were, in ancient Rome, professional fighters who fought in well defined pairs, each of the two adversaries belonging to a category called armatura, with a range and specific combat techniques.

The origin of gladiatorial combat can be found in southern Italy, where the armed combat between members of the same family was intended to honor the memory of a dead man. The oldest representations of ritual battles in Italy were found in Campania in Lucanian tombs in Paestum, dated between 380 and 320 BC. AD