From N.S. Gill,
Your Guide to Ancient / Classical History.
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Dateline: 04/15/00

"Any fan of American football knows that one of the sport’s primary attractions is its similarity to warfare. Its brutal violence is reflected in the martial language used to describe this game: aerial and ground attacks, blitzes, bombs, etc. Thanks to film, those of us so inclined are able to satisfy this all-too-human appetite by watching pretend violence in movies, which today abound with bloody murders, explosions and car crashes."
(depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/classics/gladiatr/culture1.htm) Cultural Meaning of Gladiatorial Combat

In May 2000 when Gladiator opens in movie theaters, Maximus Decimus Meridius (Russell Crowe), successful general from the Battle of the Danube under Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris), will be condemned to the gladiatorial arena by Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), son of Marcus Aurelius.

Commodus won't merely send to an uncertain death the general he perceives as a threat to his throne, but he himself will enter the arena to ensure Meridius' permanent end. If the plot seems a bit far-fetched, it's not -- at least in the most obvious way, for Commodus and probably another half dozen emperors did indeed set foot in the arena.

Why would an emperor or any other free Roman have entered such deadly combat? There are many reasons, but adulation of the crowds has to be among the most compelling reasons to become a gladiator.

At first, gladiators were slaves, criminals condemned to death, and war prisoners. In time, free men volunteered to become gladiators. (depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/classics/gladiatr/gladiatr.htm) Brooklyn College's Roger Dunkle says it has been estimated that by the end of the Republic, half the gladiators were volunteers. There were even women gladiators. That Emperor Septimius Severus banned female gladiators suggests that by the beginning of the third century A.D., there was a sizable number of such "Amazons." Two of the mad emperors, Caligula and Commodus (the subject of the new movie), appeared as gladiators in the arena.

(depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/classics/gladiatr/gladiatr.htm) Seven other emperors who weren't demented, including Titus and Hadrian, either trained as gladiators or fought in the arena, as well.

Anyone who became a gladiator was, by definition, infamis (whence: infamy), not respectable, and beneath the law. Barbara F. McManus says about gladiators who had to swear an oath (sacramentum gladiatorium): “I will endure to be burned, to be bound, to be beaten, and to be killed by the sword” (uri, vinciri, verberari, ferroque necari, Petronius Satyricon 117) which consigned the gladiator to possible death, but also conferred honor much like that of a soldier.

Not only was there honor for a gladiator, but there were adoring crowds, and, sometimes there was wealth (victors were [www.ualberta.ca/~csmackay/CLASS_378/Gladiators.html] paid with a laurel, monetary payment and donations from the crowd) and a life of leisure. Some gladiators may have fought no more than two or three times a year and may have won their freedom within a very few years. Because of the financial incentive, free men and even aristocrats who, having squandered their inheritance had no other comfortable means of support, would voluntarily become gladiators.

At the end of his service, a freed gladiator (as token, he received a wooden sword or rudis), could teach other gladiators or a he could become a freelance bodyguard. The plot is familiar. In today's movies, the ex-boxer, having survived dozens of bloody KO's with only a few disfigurements, becomes a manager or trainer at a boxing school.

Editor

An editor is a person who gives something forth into the public, like a public game. In the Republic, the Editores were politicians who, wishing to curry public favor, would put on fights between gladiators and animal shows.
From (www.ualberta.ca/~csmackay/CLASS_378/Gladiators.html) Blood Sport

Arena

Onto the floor of the amphitheater sand was poured to absorb the blood. The word for sand in Latin is harena, from which our word 'arena' comes.

GLADIATORS - Weapons and types of gladiators.

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The following sources reveal senators, equites, and women who voluntarily joined the ranks.
Dio Cass. li.22; lvi.25
Suet. Jul. 39; Aug. 43; Ner. 12
Tacit. Ann. xv.32
Suet. Dom. 4
Juv. vi.250
Stat. Silv. I.vi.53
Dio Cass. lxxv.16
Citations from William Smith on Gladiatores