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Comment by qwerta | Hacker News Reader

> You don't waste expensive food on people who are about to die stabbing each other to death for your entertainment.

you have no idea. Gladiators were something like sport celebrities.

Elite gladiators vs. the newly arrived cannon-fodder... I would imagine they had very different qualities of life. After all the elite attended social functions with high society and were pimped out...

While this is true, it was a blood-sport. When a soccer player loses a match, he/she can go on to win later. If you lose a duel to the death, you're dead.

Not true, very small percentage of the fights ended with death.

And most of those were convicts getting executed. Get the people warmed up by killing some nameless criminals, and then send in the stars.

Duels to the death were rather rare[1] during the Imperial Era.

1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladiator#Combat

Throughly trained gladiators were expected to last several years because the training was expensive. Blood from being wounded was usually enough, as soon as a gladiator was wounded he would have to plead for mercy because his chances against a skilled opponent were now nil.

There was also a referee. On occasion a gladiator would be killed or not receive mercy from the crowd. Most gladiators showed healed wounds on their bones.

Untrained people were thrown in the arena with the expectation of death. It was a favored form of execution.

Most of them were slaves. A minority became celebrities, that is, slave celebrities.

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