1: As the title states, were Gladiators doomed if they lost? If not, how big was the mortality rate?
2: How hard was it to earn your freedom for a slave gladiator?
3: Could a freeman become a gladiator if he chose to? If so, would he stand a better or worse chance then the slaves?
4: Who supplied the Gladiators their equipment? Was it from the government or someplace else?
5: How common were Coliseums/how big would a town need to be to have one? If so, what types of events would be held there?
6: is "To those who are about to die, I salute you" Something that was actually said? If so, is the context as simple as it seems?
I've been wondering some of this stuff for awhile, and figured (Since I'm new to the thread) it might be a good idea to ask a bunch at once so I'm not taking up space, sorry if some of these are fairly common knowledge around here, I'm still in high school and only know a litle stuff about history.
Okay I know a bit on this topic so I will answer them I will be relatively brief on each one.
No they were not. It was rare to actually die in a fight or to be killed afterwards. To train and house a gladiator was very expensive and you the owner would not want them killed. So you would have a fight that ran for as long as required. There is also some thoughts that fights were more staged then previously thought. Since the way you get Gladiators was to contact a promoter who would give you say forty pairs of them many of them would know each other and would not want to kill each other. As for the actual mortality rate it is hard to say however the best estimate I have read indicated that it was around 1 in 9 died.
Well you had to survive around 20 fights, you would fight around 3-5 fights a year so your career would be around 5 years and by that point you would have enough money to buy your freedom after which like modern sport you would often become a trainer or if especially wealthy you would retire.
Yes you could. Many people did as been a gladiator had some attractions.. The money was very good plus there were many groupies and since you only fought 3 to 5 times a year you had plenty of training and down time. As for he chance of surviving it would be slightly better since as a freeman you would be able to pick your own Gladiator School and avoid the less scrupulous one but once you enter the ring as it were you would be treated the same as everyone else.
It would be supplied by the owner of the school that you were a part of.
Most towns of some size would have one. We have found over 200 Amphitheaters spread across the Empire some of which are very large like in Rome and Thysdrus which could hold over 50,000 people and others that are rather small like in Isca Augusta which could hold around 6,000 people
This phrase comes from one event in 52 CE when a group of prisoners who were about to be forced to take part in a naval battle in the Coliseum they yelled it out to the Emperor basically begging for mercy which was not given. We have no other recorded usage of the saying so it is more likely that it was given that one time and not other times.
If you have any more questions ask away, I am always happy to help.