15,697
edits
Changes
no edit summary
[[File: Gladiators_from_the_Zilten_mosaic.jpg|300px250px|thumbnail|left|Mosaic Depicting Gladiators Fighting and a Referee]]__NOTOC__
The gladiatorial games of ancient Rome are well-known today due to the numerous films produced over the last few decades where they play a role. The gladiators' fictional accounts show many truthful elements of the games but often mix different events from various periods of Roman history.
====Gladiatorial Games Defined====
[[File: Fighting_gladiator.jpg|300px250px|thumbnail|left|Mosaic of a Beast Hunt or <i>Venatio</i>]]
When one thinks of gladiatorial events today, images of men fighting each other with nets and tridents often first come to mind. Still, for many, images of men fighting ferocious big cats and other animals are also evoked. Actually, gladiatorial games and beast hunts were two different events, but they were both known as <i>munera</i>, which translated from Latin means “blood sports.”
