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The gladiatorial games were originally established by the Etruscans, but were later adopted by the Romans as a means of entertainment. The Etruscans believed that when an important man died, his spirit needed a blood sacrifice to survive in the after life (Nardo, Games of 21).
The first recorded gladiatorial combats took place in Rome in 264 BC, at the start of the First Punic War against Carthage. Decimus Junius Brutus Scaeva staged it in honour of his dead father. It was held between three pairs of slaves, and held in the Forum Boarium. The ceremony was called a munus or “duty paid to a dead ancestor by his descendants, with the intention of keeping alive his memory” (Baker, Gladiator 10). These were held for notable people and were repeated every one to five years after the person’s death.
Conspicuously, the Forum Boarium dates unambiguously to the earliest, Etruscan layers of Roman architecture. That is, the resurgence of Etruscan gladiatorial combats in 264 BCE occurred in an ancient Etruscan building. | |
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