All language subtitles for Gladiators Warriors s01e06 Flamma and the Death of the Games.eng

NARRATOR: This is the
story of a Syrian soldier

who turns his back
on the Roman Empire

and pays the price.

Captured. Enslaved.

And forced to fight
as a gladiator.

PROF BRENNAN: To be forcibly
sent to a gladiatorial school,

well, that was viewed as
roughly equivalent as being

sent to work in the mines.

NARRATOR: Sent to Sicily,
he is given the name Flamma,

and rises to become one of
the greatest gladiators

the Empire has ever seen.

ALEXANDER: It's clear from
his stance that Flamma

was a champion gladiator.
He was a superstar.

He was born for the arena.

NARRATOR: Over 34
brutal fights,

he earns his reputation,

his scars and the respect
of his brothers in arms.

ALEXANDER: Close
bonds were formed.

GREENFIELD: You may have had a
family outside of the ludus,

but it's also like,
who really understands

who's in the trenches
with you?

NARRATOR: But glory comes
at a cost, and for Flamma,

the ultimate test
will be a deadly duel,

not against an enemy,
but against a friend.

The second century
C.E. In Sicily,

excitement builds as the next
gladiator games approach.

Among the fighters is a legend
preparing for his 34th battle

his name is Flamma.

ALEXANDER: Interesting
thing about Flamma is that

all we have to go by him
is epigraphic evidence.

TONER: Flamma's epitaph
is pretty short.

It's only a couple of lines,
but it gives us a lot

of information about him.

It tells us where he's
from, that he's from Syria,

the other side of the world,
and yet he'd ended up

in Sicily fighting.

So his name is Flamma, but
that's not his real name.

It's a stage name.

CARTER: Most gladiators
we know took a stage name,

sort of a nom de guerre
that they would fight

under in the arena.

RADFORD: Your stage name would
tell the audience something

about you and the quality
that you bring to the arena.

TONER: Flamma means
the flame,

perhaps because he danced
around so lightly,

or perhaps because he
burned with a real passion.

He has fought 33 times.

He's won 21 of those fights.

Nine of them have been
draws, and three times

he's been reprieved,
even though he lost.

When you look at most
gladiator tombstones,

they fought 3, 4, 5 times.

So 33 times is a
lot for a gladiator.

NARRATOR: Nothing remains
of Flamma's story

beyond his tombstone.

Even the exact years
he lived are uncertain.

He may have lived at any
point in the 2nd century.

Yet these bare details
allow a surprising level

of insight into the life
he could have led.

From these a story
begins to take shape.

It is possible he fought
under the rule

of the emperor
Septimius Severus.

On the evening before
his 34th fight,

Flamma shares a pre-fight meal
with his familia gladiatoria.

COLEMAN:The familia gladiatoria
would be the household

or the community that was
overseen by the owner,

trainer, by the lanista.

ALEXANDER: When you
lived within the ludus,

you lived in a confined space.

You trained with these
people every day.

You ate with these people.

You lived your life
with these people.

Close bonds were formed and
they are like brothers in arms.

They put money to
the side in a pool

that in case something
happens to one of them,

that not only will their
families be taken care of,

but also that they will
receive a gravestone

to ensure that you are
thus remembered.

NARRATOR: Flamma and his fellow
gladiators share their meal.

But they aren't alone.

TONER: The public were able to
come and watch gladiators have

kind of like the last
meal of a condemned man.

GREENFIELD: This is your
chance to see the gladiators

before the big event.

What could be
better than this?

ALEXANDER: It kind of
humanizes them a little bit.

You don't see them with their
big helmets, their weapons,

you see the athlete behind it.

But also, if you're
a betting man,

it's good to go see
what shape are they in?

Does he have a good appetite?
Is he eating?

He looks a bit sluggish.

Should I make that
bet on him tomorrow?

It's also a way for the
fans to meet their heroes,

and that was important because
it got the excitement flowing

for what was coming
the following morning.

PROF BRENNAN: At the dinner,
Flamma rises and toasts

his fellow gladiator,
Delicatus. They had been

comrades in the arena,

probably for many
years at this point.

WEBB: They both know that each
other are very competent,

many, many combats
under their belt.

As Flamma and Delicatus
eat together,

the crowd watches on,
hoping that there will be

a great fight tomorrow.

NARRATOR: Although Flamma and
his troupe try to enjoy

their meal, they know that
tomorrow they will face

each other in the arena.

ALEXANDER: This is a
regular occurrence.

After all, these are the same
guys that you're training with,

the guys that
you're living with,

the lanista and the trainers
know who to pair up

for a good fight.

TONER: Imagine you've
fought with these people,

you've trained
with these people,

and now you've actually got
to put all of that aside

and treat them as an enemy.

PROF BRENNAN: No matter how
much wine was being consumed,

it wasn't going to wash away
the feeling of apprehension

of what was going to happen
the next day.

GREENFIELD: For a gladiator
going into any fight,

you'd have to be nervous.
You'd be crazy not to be.

There is always the
chance that you will lose,

that something will go
wrong for you in the arena,

and the decision will be
made that you have to die.

It doesn't happen every
time, but this is a moment

where you could potentially
lose your life.

So if you didn't have
some feelings about that,

I'd be extremely worried,
although that probably

would make you a
great gladiator.

TONER: So when we
think of games,

we think of the Colosseum,
but here in Sicily,

we're talking much more
provincial, small-scale fights.

Gladiatorial fighting has
spread all across the Empire

at this point, the person
putting on the games

is probably a local
magistrate, someone who wants

to benefit citizens who have
elected him to office.

We're probably talking a
few thousand spectators,

a few dozen pairs of
gladiators, perhaps.

So it's nothing like the kind
of huge imperial spectacles

that you find in Rome.

NARRATOR: But these games
are no ordinary spectacle.

Emperors travelled widely
across the empire

and are invited to
local games,

so it's possible a very
special guest is expected.

CARTER: The Emperor
will be in attendance,

since the games are being
thrown in his honor.

When you have the most
important person

in the whole Roman
Empire visiting,

you would want to put
on a good show.

NARRATOR: The time has come.

Flamma steps out for
his 34th contest.

The exact accounts of
Flamma's fights are lost.

But we can only imagine
the drama that unfolded

in the arena that day.

ALEXANDER: Flamma steps into
the arena, his helmet gleaming.

ADBI: He's pushing almost
30, practically ancient

by the standards
of gladiators.

He's fought in many
battles, and he wears

the scars of his combats.

GREENFIELD: When we think about
how people live in the ancient

world, it's not great in
terms of life expectancy.

If you get through childhood,
which is incredibly hard,

you have a good chance
of getting through

a full adult life.

But there's lots of things
that could get in your way.

Being a gladiator, not ideal.

You could get injured and
not come back from it.

ALEXANDER: Look at boxers
today, MMA fighters,

they tend to retire in
their 30s because the body

just gets through
that much punishment.

Imagine taking a
shield to the helmet.

I mean, that really
would have given you

a bad concussion,
maybe fracture.

It's the kind of injuries
you're not going

to recover from.

TONER: On average, gladiators
probably lived for 3 or 4 years

and probably start fighting
at the age of 18 or 19.

So to make it to 30,
you are pretty old

by gladiator standards.

Flamma was a secutor,

a pursuer, so he fights
with a sword

and a shield, and they are
usually paired up

with a net fighter,
a retiarius.

CARTER: His opponent steps out,
a retiarius, he's Delicatus.

ALEXANDER: Trident in one
hand, net in the other.

TONER: They're
paired together

because they're very
contrasting styles.

People like that. They like
their gladiators to be

sort of clearly
distinct brands,

different personality
types in a way.

It's very hard to us to
understand what it must

have meant to have to fight
one of your family.

They were really close,

comrades in arms who
had trained together.

ALEXANDER: When the
Emperor gives the signal,

gladiators will
then begin to fight.

TONER: Flamma, the
secutor is more advancing,

sort of thrusting,
trying to sort of

catch you with his
heavy sword,

whereas Delicatus
is dancing around,

trying to sort of snare
you with his net

and then finish you off
with his trident.

ALEXANDER: The trident
was a formidable weapon.

First of all, it gave you
a huge advantage because

of the distance you could
keep your opponent at bay,

and that was part
of the tactics,

you kept striking with it.

If you're fighting against
someone like a secutor

with that heavy shield,

they're going to get
tired very quickly.

NARRATOR: Delicatus
lands a decisive blow.

His trident pierces Flamma,
who is unable to carry on.

It is now the decision
of the Emperor

whether he should live or die.

NARRATOR: Flamma's life
hangs in the balance.

But how did this veteran
of the arena end up here,

wounded and waiting
for judgement

in a Sicilian amphitheater?

PROF BRENNAN: Flamma may have
grown up his entire childhood

around gladiators and
gladiatorial fighting

in his native Syria.

TONER: Gladiators have
become a global phenomenon

for everyone in the
Roman Empire,

it was a language they
could understand.

ADBI: We tend to see
amphitheaters turning up

in Manchester, for example,
in northern England,

in modern day Morocco,
stretching all the way across

Germanic territories,

Bulgaria.

And of course, there were
amphitheaters in Syria.

PROF BRENNAN: Gladiatorial
fighting in Syria would have

been a bit different
than in Rome or in Italy,

the venue was often makeshift
or using Greek style theatres,

as opposed to purpose
built amphitheaters.

ALEXANDER: What we find is that
the games in the provinces

tended to be more
heavy on the animals.

The simple reason is
that animals were easier

to source than gladiators were.

CARTER: In the morning, camel
races could possibly have

dominated entertainment
for the people of Syria.

COLEMAN: There are camels
in that part of the world,

and so you use
the local product.

PROF BRENNAN: In the
afternoon, the locals cheer on

as the men battle each
other in combat.

However though, the
quality of the fighting

was not the same as
the fighting in Rome.

The closer that one got
to Rome, the higher

the level of expertise.

These games were brutal,
but for Flamma looking on,

these would have been the finest
athletes one could imagine.

NARRATOR: Flamma lightly grows
up in the shadow of the arena,

perhaps watching games
staged under the reign

of Emperor Commodus.

When Commodus is
assassinated,

power shifts to a new emperor,
Septimius Severus.

GREENFIELD: Septimius Severus

is an incredible figure
in Roman history,

and is often overlooked
to people's detriment,

because he is the
first Roman emperor

who comes from North Africa,

and this means that the
Roman Empire has changed.

ADBI: He's from Leptis
Magna, and this, of course,

is not unusual.

During this time, plenty of
wealthy upper-class individuals

from the North African
provinces begin entering

into the senatorial order.

WEBB: Severus' reign is an
indication of how diverse

the Roman Empire has become.
A real indication that Rome

and its empire went through
amazing transformations

over time and
incorporated all sorts

of people at the highest
levels of society.

TONER: He establishes a new
dynasty, the Severan dynasty,

that carries on until 235.

MALIK: The Severan
dynasty mark the end

of the second century C.E.

and go into the
third century C.E.

And they're really marked
out by the fact that we get

an emperor who's from North
Africa, but also his wife,

who is from Syria.

And then they establish
a dynasty that comes

from primarily Syria,

after Septimius
Severus and his children,

Caracalla and Geta.

TONER: One thing that
Septimius does is

he rehabilitates Commodus.

PROF BRENNAN: Commodus was
the first individual in Rome

to try to combine the role
of Emperor with professional

gladiator, and that
brought in spectators

from all over the empire.

TONER: For Septimius, it was
just sheer hypocrisy that the

Senate were kind of all uppity
about Commodus and Commodus

being a gladiator,
and yet, you know,

they themselves were just
as obsessed with gladiators

as everyone else.

PROF BRENNAN: Septimius
confronted the Senate,

and he said, did none of
you fight in the arena

as a gladiator?

Did none of you buy up
Commodus' equipment,

his shield?

NARRATOR: After
chastising the senate,

Septimius Severus stages
grand spectacles of his own.

But how might someone like
Flamma go from watching

in the stands as a young man,

to fighting for his
life as a gladiator?

MALIK: One of the things that
characterizes the period

of Septimius Severus is a huge
amount of military operations.

All the way through
the Roman period,

there's been another empire
on the border in the east,

the Parthian Empire, and
this was an empire

in what's now modern-day Iran
and the surrounding areas,

and it was ruled by a
succession of the kings.

PROF BRENNAN: This was a
people that, for centuries,

posed a existential threat to
Roman control of the East.

NARRATOR: To defend
against the Parthians,

forts are built across Syria
to strengthen Roman Empire's

easternmost border.

ADBI: The ancient province of
Syria would these days refer

to the modern nations of
Jordan, Lebanon, Israel,

Palestine and parts
of modern-day Syria.

TONER: Syria had been under
Roman control for over

200 years at this point.

ADBI: The Syrian province at
this time is very wealthy,

very cosmopolitan,
very diverse.

It's a key engine for
driving economic wealth

for the Empire during
this region.

WEBB: It was a hub for all sorts
of activity and connections.

It had key cities including
Antioch and Palmyra.

MALIK: There were major trade
routes and people coming

in and out from trade
perspectives.

ADBI: It was vitally strategic,
important place for the Roman

region. It's not just for
the trade routes,

but also because it acts
as the bulwark against

the Parthian Empire
on the east.

NARRATOR: To secure
the frontier,

forts are filled with highly
trained Syrian archers,

known for their unmatched
skill with a bow and arrow.

ALEXANDER: One of the great
successes of the Roman army

was to use soldiers from
local parts of the empire

who were excessively good
at one particular skill.

Syrian archers were renowned
for their precision.

The bow was a weapon that they
had long had a history with,

and certainly it was one that
the Romans relied on heavily.

ADBI: One of the things the
Romans liked to do in the areas

where they conquered was take
the specific groups of people

and put them into
specific auxiliary units.

You might have had also
an auxiliary of archers.

NARRATOR: Men like Flamma
are often conscripted into

the Roman military
and stationed forts

on the Syrian border.

PROF BRENNAN: Service
in the army in Syria

would have been tough.

ADBI: These forts would
have housed somewhere

between 60 to 100 soldiers.

NARRATOR: As a young man,
Flamma may have grown

disillusioned with army
life, attempting to flee

and vanish into the desert.

Desertion is a grave crime
punishable by death,

or in some cases, enslavement.

ALEXANDER: There was a
massive slave market

at that period of
Roman history.

So there was a huge network
of supply of slaves

from all parts of the empire.

COLEMAN: If one bought up a lot
of prisoners of war and then

sold them into slavery,
one could categorize them

as you know this person
is a very good reader,

or this person is
highly literate,

or that person has just the
physique that you would

want for hard labor.

Very often, these enslaved
persons were highly skilled,

and they were often performers
or theatrical entertainers.

ADBI: To feed the desire
for gladiatorial combats,

there was a network of gladiator
scouts who would go across

the Empire looking for
potential new recruits

that they could train up

into the amphitheaters
to fight as gladiators.

PROF BRENNAN: The enslavers
would look for a combination

of, obviously strength
and the spirit to fight,

but also a certain
theatricality and good looks.

NARRATOR: Flamma may have been
spotted at a slave market

and forced to join a
gladiator school in Sicily.

ADBI: Flamma would have
been put on a slave boat

with other enslaved people.

ALEXANDER: And there would
have been trade routes in

which these slaves would
have been travelled along.

Clearly, travelling the Empire
was a very difficult option.

Sometimes it took three
months to get from one side

of the other, so it's a very
arduous and long journey.

WEBB: What we know about
Southern Italy, and Sicily,

from earlier periods, is
that these were places

that had heavy levels of
exploitation of the enslaved,

and also really quite
interesting gladiator

training grounds.

NARRATOR: Flamma, now enslaved,
will begin the grueling

regime to become a gladiator.

He may have enjoyed watching
the games as a child

in Syria, but now he will
learn how to fight,

and possibly die in
front of a crowd.

PROF BRENNAN: Flamma is
now a gladiator in Sicily,

and he's put to
training in the ludus.

NARRATOR: The harsh training
inside the ludus didn't

just create fighters, it
forged a brotherhood,

and someone like Flamma
would form deep bonds

with his fellow gladiators.

WEBB: We know that he was very
close with another gladiator,

Delicatus.

Now Delicatus' name means
tender one or effeminate one or

charming one, and can have
sexual or queer connotations.

So we could speculate
that Delicatus might be

more than just a comrade at
arms for Flamma.

NARRATOR: The two gladiators
likely train together,

learning how to
survive in the arena.

The new recruit is finally
given his stage name, Flamma.

It is the identity he
will carry for the rest

of his career.

ALEXANDER: For a gladiator,
like Flamma, to start with,

you're given your basic
armor by the ludus.

The ludus owns a
certain amount of armor,

we find examples in Pompeii
that are stamped with the name

of the school, or
sometimes they're stamped

by the person who
rents them out.

It was a big business.

CARTER: His initial combat would
have been with used helmets,

used shields, used swords
that would have been quite

a heavy and hot piece of
kit to wear.

It's almost a workout just
to carry and fight

with the material.

It's certainly more
elaborate than what

most Roman soldiers wear.

NARRATOR: Flamma steps into
the arena for the first time,

possibly as part of a group
battle of novice fighters.

ALEXANDER: The gregarious
was the sort of one for all.

I suppose a modern term for the
gregarious would be the Royal

Rumble, a free for all, where
wrestlers are just jumping in

the ring, they're jumping out,
they're coming into fight,

gladiators are coming
backwards and forwards.

It's exciting because it
is really organized chaos.

This is done with not so
much champion gladiators,

but maybe gladiators who
aren't quite as famous.

CARTER: They seem to
be junior gladiators.

Maybe their first
gladiatorial combat might

be in one of these
group fights.

ALEXANDER: It just made the
games a little bit more

different from the other
games that people had seen,

and maybe a little bit more
exciting visually, at least.

CARTER: Flamma stood out from
the rest of the gladiators.

He showed himself to be
the superior fighter.

He's a man to watch,
he's a man on the rise.

ALEXANDER: What we can assume
by him is that he was

someone that really knew
how to win the crowd.

To give a good show.

People didn't care to
see an average fight.

We talk about a period of
history where people were

very familiar with violence.

It was present in
everyday life,

wars were constantly
going on.

The amphitheater had
to be that extra.

It had to give you something you
didn't see in the battlefield.

So what we can surmise is that
Flamma was able to give

them that something, that
lightning in a bottle.

ADBI: We see
Flamma's fame grow.

He wins fight after
fight, after fight.

NARRATOR: With each victory,
Flamma's reputation grows.

The years roll by.

After more than 30
fights, he is one

of the most successful
gladiators in all of Sicily.

TONER: He's something
of a veteran,

he'd been fighting
for probably 10 years.

I'm sure he will have acquired a
real sort of loyal following

of supporters who really
cheered him on.

And I think one of the reasons
why he is spared by the giver

of the game four times,
even though he loses,

is that the crowd were
very much on his side.

PROF BRENNAN: So
the question is,

why did a gladiator
like Flamma,

who had such a
distinguished career,

never finally
achieve his freedom?

A gladiator had a wooden
sword known as a rudis,

associated with them twice in
their professional lifetimes.

One is when entering the arena
and first learning how to fight.

The second is when being
acquitted from having to

fight after a long and in
fact, distinguished career.

CARTER: To be offered the
rudis by the person putting

on the show, the editor, means
essentially that he and the

people gathered, probably
cheering for this or chanting

for this, have decided that
they're going to essentially

purchase your freedom.

ALEXANDER: So it's clearly a
symbol that's very important

to the gladiator.

It's a symbol of
beginning their training.

It's the name of the referee,
and it's, of course,

the symbol of their freedom that
can be giving them access to

the Roman world, once again,
outside of the amphitheater.

TONER: We might imagine that
gladiators would be desperate

to escape from the arena,
but for some of them,

it was their life.

It was of the
thrill of the crowd,

of the possibility
of getting rich,

just showing what a
good fighter you were.

And for some gladiators,
it was just all they knew.

It's like a kind of prize
fight boxer, you know,

who's kind of so addicted to
the thrills, the glamour,

the glory, the popularity,
that they can't give it up.

NARRATOR: It is conceivable
that Flamma is offered

the wooden rudis but
refuses it, and with it,

his chance for freedom,

unable to abandon the
thrill of being a gladiator.

CARTER: Flamma is
in his late 20s now,

and that's having survived
probably years as a gladiator.

That's a remarkable
thing in itself.

Every time he steps
into the arena,

whether the weapons are sharp,
whether they're not sharp,

they're all probably dirty,
any cut has a chance

of being infected.

Death is always a
very real possibility,

even if it's accidental.

So the fact that he survived
until his late 20s,

is itself remarkable.

PROF BRENNAN: But still
the greatest fight

of his life awaits him.

CARTER: Septimius Severus
travelled all over the empire.

He docked in Sicily on
his way to North Africa.

He would have stayed
for a time in town,

and when in town,

they would have put on
spectacles, entertainments.

PROF BRENNAN: Finally,
after a long career,

Flamma will fight in front of
the emperor Septimius himself.

NARRATOR: It is a rare honor
for a gladiator far from

the city of Rome to fight
in front of the emperor.

Now Flamma must prove
why he's still standing

when so many others
have fallen.

PROF BRENNAN: In Sicily the
officials of the island province

are putting on a celebration
to honor Septimius' presence.

An imperial visit is
something special,

and so they're certainly going
to throw a celebration in his

honor and this is going to
involve gladiatorial games.

They put on the finest
and fittest gladiators

that they can find
for the occasion.

NARRATOR: Over the years
Flamma has proved himself

a formidable gladiator.

A man with his record would
likely be chosen to display

his skills in front of
a visiting emperor.

But in this fight the
stakes are especially high

it's against someone he
knows all too well.

PROF BRENNAN: Flamma has shown
himself a very hard man to beat,

but he's pitted against
his best friend, Delicatus.

CARTER: Quite often, part of
the gladiatorial show was

to win over the people,
to win over the crowd.

I think, not necessarily
to murder or to kill their

opponent, but you want
to put on a good show.

A cut to the arm or a cut to
the leg that can be patched up,

but it would provide
a lot of bloodshed,

something for the
people to see.

There's a skill in gladiators
fighting not to kill

but to defeat an opponent.

NARRATOR: Delicatus
lands the winning blow.

Now Flamma's fate
hangs in the balance.

TONER: Septimius didn't want to
make that decision on his own.

He wanted to see what
the crowd thought.

ALEXANDER: The crowd cheers
him on, the crowd loves him.

TONER: People would
shout out let him go.

RADFORD: It would have
been a chaotic scene.

You would have had so
much noise around you,

but the Emperor would have
had the final decision

about whether Flamma
lived or died.

NARRATOR: Although we have no
record of what truly happened

at Flamma's final fight,

it is possible that
in this moment,

the mighty gladiator
met his end.

TONER: But it's quite
possible that Flamma

doesn't die in the arena.

His epitaph doesn't
mention it.

CARTER: Certainly possible
that a gladiator could receive

mission at the end of a
fight but still go and die

from his wounds afterwards.

Swords could be sharp, the
swords could be filthy,

an infection can set in.

GREENFIELD: There could be
any number of ailments that

presumably could take somebody
out in the ancient world,

and I feel sorry for them,
because they don't

have things like antibiotics.

So anything could happen.

NARRATOR: However Flamma
died, he lived longer

than most men in his
brutal profession.

GREENFIELD: Flamma living
to the age of 30

is actually really
impressive.

Chances are that Flamma has
been a gladiator

since his late teens, if
he's been captured and taken

into slavery from a young age.

Then he's been fighting
almost half of his life.

TONER: It's the end of summer,
and his comrades in arms

have gathered together
to commemorate him.

ALEXANDER: His body would
have been laid in state.

It would have been
put on show,

which would have
given his fans

a chance to come and say
goodbye to him, generally,

he would have been surrounded
by burning pine cones

to mask the smell.

TONER: They'll probably
then put the ashes in some

kind of urn and bury it,
and above that,

set up a tombstone to
his memory.

GREENFIELD: We know that
gladiators formed formal

sort of guilds,

essentially to look after
each other so that when it

came time, they were able to
purchase an epitaph for you.

So you could have a tombstone,
so you could be remembered.

And that is kind of the
great dream of Rome as well,

this idea of being
remembered after your death.

So your colleagues mean
everything in this sense.

You may have had a family
outside of the ludus,

but it's also like,
who really understands,

who's in the
trenches with you?

TONER: And perhaps really
the final indication

of how strongly they feel

for him is that
final line on the epitaph.

ALEXANDER: The last line of
Flamma's grave reads, Delicatus,

a gladiator made this for
deserving comrade in arms.

That really speaks to the
bond that these men held,

at the end of the day they
lived their lives together.

They lived the highs and the
lows, grueling training,

the euphoria of the fights,
the wins, the losses,

that this was someone who
really had a very close

relationship to Flamma.

So much so that he wanted
it to go along with Flamma

to the other world.

NARRATOR: But
Flamma isn't alone.

Archaeologists have uncovered
many more gladiator tombstones,

each opens a new window
into this violent chapter

of Roman history.

NARRATOR: In the 2000's a
remarkable historic site

was uncovered, a cemetery
in Ephesus, Turkey.

COLEMAN: The cemetery was
full of skeletal remains that

showed wounds that were so
severe that they left marks

on the bone and so at first,

it looked as though this
was a military cemetery.

CARTER: Archaeologists and
osteologists have done research

on these bones and
have identified what almost

certainly are gladiatorial
weapons that were used

to kill the gladiators.

COLEMAN: The wounds
that they suffered are,

in majority of
cases, blade wounds,

but there are a couple of
instances where there's been

evident use of a trident,
because you can see the holes.

Which made it evident that
what we were dealing

with was a gladiatorial
cemetery.

GREENFIELD: We see
wounds to the head,

which suggests that they had
technically died in the arena

and then had been finished
off in a ceremonial way

with a blow to the head.

There was a whole
person, Charun,

whose job it was to come
out and to make sure that

they were dead by hitting them
with a really solid object.

ALEXANDER: The other
interesting thing

is the imagery we see
of the gravestones.

CARTER: The ones from the Greek
world often are quite detailed.

They provide a lot
of information.

There's one for a
gladiator named Diodorus,

who is shown on the tombstone
standing victorious

over his defeated opponent,

who lies on the ground
with his finger up,

begging for mercy.

It's clear that he's
the victor.

But in the inscription, it
tells us that Diodorus is dead.

He describes that
during the combat,

he says he defeated
his opponent,

but then he says that
treacherous summa rudis made

us fight again, and was
the cause of his death.

GREENFIELD: The epitaphs of
gladiators is one of the few

pieces of evidence that
we have for gladiators

that is coming from them.

WEBB: They often give the
name of the gladiator,

they give the career statistics.

They also may give
family members, friends,

comrades at arms,
and also fans.

CARTER: They would give us a lot
of information about the spread

of the combats, about the
nature of the combats,

about the rules of the
combats, about what actually

goes on in the day to day
life of a gladiator.

ADBI: To be dedicated would be

a demonstration not only of
the success of the gladiator

but also the importance
of the individual

who made that
funerary dedication as well.

The vast majority of gladiators
would not have had funerary

dedications made to them,
only the most infamous.

COLEMAN: Gladiator's epitaphs
tell us explicitly that they

spent a career as a gladiator.

They tell us which style they
fought in, they sometimes,

as with Flamma, tell us their
track record as a gladiator.

There's nothing that they
feel ashamed of about

having been a gladiator.

They're proud of it.

NARRATOR: Following
Flamma's death,

the gladiator games
began a slow decline

as the Roman Empire
entered a period of change

and uncertainty.

MALIK: In 211 C.E.

Septimius Severus is
in York in Britain,

and contracts an
illness and dies.

And after that, he's succeeded
by both of his sons,

Caracalla and Geta.

Now, Geta and Caracalla
don't get on very well,

so quite quickly into their
reign, Caracalla kills Geta,

and then Caracalla reigns
for about a decade or so.

ALEXANDER: But at this stage,
the golden age of gladiatorial

combat had long passed.

CARTER: Gladiatorial combats
start to wind down

during the chaotic period of
the third century C.E.

the Roman Empire, in fact,
almost collapses during the

third century.

GREENFIELD: As Rome gets bigger
and bigger and we get further

into the imperial period,
what we tend to see is a

fragmentation of the political
structures that keep Rome

functioning well.

That fracturing means that
we've got a dispersal

of wealth, we've got problems
on our frontiers,

there's all sorts of things
going on that for the Romans

themselves, it's a problem.

Having spectacles is now
not your highest priority.

If you can't get the people
that you need to be able

to train up to be gladiators,
to bring into slavery,

to put into the ludus,

to then maybe kill
some of them off.

Well, it's going to be a tricky
time to keep this running.

CARTER: Then during
the fourth century,

the Empire converts
to Christianity.

TONER: We now have an emperor
who does not like death

as entertainment.

He sees value in
all human beings,

even if they're gladiators.

When you don't have the
kind of imperial backing,

when you don't have the huge
flow of resource into providing

these hugely expensive
entertainments

then it just withered
on the vine.

CARTER: Around the beginning
of the fifth century,

we just stopped hearing
about gladiatorial combats

happening at all.

RADFORD: It's really easy to
judge the Romans for enjoying

things like gladiatorial combat,
beast hunts and beast fights.

But what we have
to remember

is that we watch
violent movies,

we still watch violent sport,
and we play violent video games,

and so there is still
potentially that side of us

as human beings where
violence as a spectacle

has some sort of appeal.

ALEXANDER: Often when we
look back at the decisions

they made and think,
what would I do,

the chances are we make
the same decisions.

If I was poor but I was
physically imposing,

would I join the amphitheater?

Yes.

If games were on where people
beat each other up

for entertainment, would I
go and eat and drink?

Yes, we do.

At the end of the day, the
history of Rome is our history.

We are Romans.

CARTER: Over the course
of more than 500 years,

thousands and thousands of young
men, sometimes young women,

fought in the arena.

ADBI: For a great many of them,
you don't know who they were,

where they came from, their
names, who their families were,

what they wanted from
life, whether they chose

willingly or not, to enter
into these combats.

CARTER: These were real people.

They fought to exhibit the
kind of the qualities,

the bravery, the discipline,

the courage
that was expected of Romans,

and they presented the Roman
spectators with the kind

of values that they
idealized in themselves.

They're a remarkable
group of people, I think.

NARRATOR: We will never know
how many gladiators fought

over the centuries, perhaps
tens of thousands.

Only a handful will ever have
their stories told but each

had a name, a life and
dreams of their own.

Together they form a group
that continues to capture our

imagination more than
2,000 years later,

the gladiators.

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