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Gladiators in ancient Anatolia lived to entertain the masses

How gladiators in ancient Anatolia lived to entertain the masses

“It’s possible to read the inscription as evidence that, as an incentive to stand for office, potential candidates were permitted to contribute to the construction of an aqueduct instead of the staging of a gladiatorial show, thereby replacing fleeting entertainment with a lasting improvement to the civic infrastructure,” says classicist Kathleen Coleman of Harvard University. Despite the hefty financial outlay, gladiatorial games attracted a great deal of public interest and were a boon for tourism, with spectators traveling from across the region to watch, purchasing figurines or oil lamps depicting their favorite fighter, and dining and staying in the city. He was thrice asiarch of the temples in Ephesus, who held a munus (“ games ”) in his fatherland with thirty-nine pairs [of gladiators] fighting sharply for thirteen days, and who killed Libyan beasts, and who was favored by the emperors and wore at the front of the procession the golden crown as well as the purple robe.

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