... arena the lowest individuals, the outcasts of society, were faced with impossible odds. And yet they could kill and they could die. And even some of them overcame death. Metaphorically this was also true. The gladiators were socially dead - they were infamis under Roman law. And yet even they could fight well and win their freedom, effectively transcending death, providing an example for the Roman people. This idea of an example is very important. The elite, the emperor often, those who put on the games, were paying to show the people this especial Roman value. This worked both on a moral level and on a practical one: 'I accept as more than truthful the tradition that Romans about to go to war ought to have seen battles and wounds and steel, and naked men contending against each other, that they might not fear armed men or shrink from wounds ...

See this essay or coursework document in full right now