Attending the games was one of the practices that went with being a Roman. The Etruscans, who introduced this type of contest in the sixth century BCE, are credited with its development but it's the Romans who made it famous. A surviving feature of the Roman games was when a gladiator fell he was hauled out of the arena by a slave dressed as the Etruscan death-demon Charun. The slave would carry a hammer which was the demon's attribute. Moreover, the Latin term for a trainer-manager of gladiators (lanista), was believed to be an Etruscan word (4:50). Gladiators of Ancient Rome lived their lives to the absolute fullest.
Gladiatorial duels had originated from funeral games given in order to satisfy the dead man's need for blood, and for centuries their principle occasions were funerals. …
