Do you mean Semitic child-sacrificing Carthaginians and those related to them? Those that somehow needed official laws to figure out that it was wrong to sacrifice children? The Semitic child-sacrificing Carthaginians that the Pagan, pre-Christian Romans found so horrifyingly evil that they decided to lay Carthage completely to waste? "Carthago delenda est"?
The later Roman empire was very, very different from the earlier Roman republic, including in regards to infiltration. As far as I know, the original "fights" in arenas and the like did not feature any fights to the death, but instead genuine LARPing to showcase previous battles and both entertain and educate, without people actually dying.
As far as I know, the later time span of the Roman republic, and most of the time span of the Roman empire, did very much have fights to the death to various degrees, including for entertainment, especially the Roman empire. But the infiltration had become more and more and more thorough by those periods of time. That said, a number of gladiator fights were indeed bloodless, and a number only involved blunted weapons or wooden swords.
I am not certain, but it seems that in many of the cases of the fights to the death, the people involved were criminals or enemy captured soldiers condemned to death, and instead of executing them, they gave them a chance to fight for their lives in the arenas, which as far as I can tell mostly gave them false hope and was an overall wretched, cruel and evil way (including for entertainment purposes the later you go in the life of the Roman state) of executing them. And then letting some of them go afterwards if they succeed... if you have a criminal that did something extremely evil and heinous, then letting them go if they happen to succeed as a gladiator... and if you think a foreign soldier can be let go after succeeding in the arena, shouldn't you let him go in the first place (possibly after holding him ransom, work, or similar)?
What seems very much curious is that for some of the gladiator fights, including some of the fights to the death, it involved volunteers. And for gladiators that fought well, possibly whatever their background, they got rewards and in later times wealth and fame.
Do you mean Semitic child-sacrificing Carthaginians and those related to them? Those that somehow needed official laws to figure out that it was wrong to sacrifice children? The Semitic child-sacrificing Carthaginians that the Pagan, pre-Christian Romans found so horrifyingly evil that they decided to lay Carthage completely to waste? "Carthago delenda est"?
Loved reading chesterton describe the pagan romans killing the carthaginians as the wests first great holy war
This is why Romans fed christians to the lions. The first "christian" refugees, that came to rome were just semetic tribes who rebranded.
The later Roman empire was very, very different from the earlier Roman republic, including in regards to infiltration. As far as I know, the original "fights" in arenas and the like did not feature any fights to the death, but instead genuine LARPing to showcase previous battles and both entertain and educate, without people actually dying.
We still enjoy the LARPs to this very day, the arena just moved to 4chan
Yup. Gladiators were basically glorified Wrestling matches. Still had the arenas used for public executions and such however.
As far as I know, the later time span of the Roman republic, and most of the time span of the Roman empire, did very much have fights to the death to various degrees, including for entertainment, especially the Roman empire. But the infiltration had become more and more and more thorough by those periods of time. That said, a number of gladiator fights were indeed bloodless, and a number only involved blunted weapons or wooden swords.
I am not certain, but it seems that in many of the cases of the fights to the death, the people involved were criminals or enemy captured soldiers condemned to death, and instead of executing them, they gave them a chance to fight for their lives in the arenas, which as far as I can tell mostly gave them false hope and was an overall wretched, cruel and evil way (including for entertainment purposes the later you go in the life of the Roman state) of executing them. And then letting some of them go afterwards if they succeed... if you have a criminal that did something extremely evil and heinous, then letting them go if they happen to succeed as a gladiator... and if you think a foreign soldier can be let go after succeeding in the arena, shouldn't you let him go in the first place (possibly after holding him ransom, work, or similar)?
What seems very much curious is that for some of the gladiator fights, including some of the fights to the death, it involved volunteers. And for gladiators that fought well, possibly whatever their background, they got rewards and in later times wealth and fame.