GAME MAKERS & BREAKERS

Ten of the most influential Roman rulers in the rise and fall of gladiatorial combat

SCIPIO AFRICANUS 236 BCE – 183 BCE Best known as the military leader who took on and defeated Hannibal and the Carthaginians in the Second Punic War, Scipio also had a hand in the spread of the first kind of gladiatorial games, known as munera. A munera was a ‘gift’ or ‘duty’ usually owed to the dead. Decimus Junius Brutus Pera is credited with bringing the first gladiatorial munera to Rome in 264 BCE, but Scipio’s famous offering came in 206 BCE. As recorded by Livy, he had soldiers volunteer to fight while on campaign in Spain to honour his father and uncle who had passed away five years earlier. Augustus 63 BCE – 14 CE Picking up the baton of his great uncle Julius Caesar, Gaius Octavius rose to…

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All About History (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 149

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