The Roman Games: an Ancient Form of Entertainment 

Who started the Roman Games? The Roman Games started in about 105 BCE. In northern Italy, the public held games, which consisted of events like chariot races and gladiator games this was used as a sacrifice to the gods. Then Romans kept on doing this roughly 10 to 12 times a year. This was all funded by the emperor, he started the games to get more followers and he also used this to distract the poor people of Rome in hopes that they would not revolt. Over time the games got better and better because the emperor felt as if he had to do better than the last year's competition. This resulted in the games to occur more often and they also would involve more participants.The last known gladiator fight Rome occurred on January 1, 404 AD this finished gladiator history in Rome.

Lots of the best-preserved buildings from the Roman period are the one that were made for entertainment. Amphitheatres were built across the huge empire. The largest amphitheatre was the Colosseum with a capacity of at least 50,000 people. With so many events on such a large scale lost of people had to get employed from horse trainers to animal trappers, musicians to sand rakers. The tickets were free to most forms of spectacle as organisers, whether city magistrates given the responsibility of providing public civic events, super-rich citizens or the emperors who would later monopolise control of spectacles, were all keen to display their generosity rather than use the events as a source of revenue.

Who were gladiators? The roman gladiator was someone who fought in large arenas that were built all around Rome they use lots of different kinds of weapons, animals were also put into the arena. The arenas were called amphitheatres. As most fights ended up with mostly everyone dying, this led to a shortage for fighters, so they used slaves and prisoners but even though most gladiators were slaves some weren’t and did it for the money and fame. They usually kept the gifts or money they received and as a result gladiators could become rich and get lost of fame.

Also, Chariot racing was a popular sport. The riders raced in two wheeled chariots drawn by two, four, or even six-horse teams. They were one of the main events of the Roman Games one of the most famous arenas is that chariot racing was performed in was the Circus Maximus. Races probably had a maximum of twelve chariots, normally consisting of seven laps around the arena. The racing chariots were light, fragile and easily smashed. In the case of an accident the driver often got killed or seriously injured. The chariot teams were organised into four factions which each had a different colour: red, white, blue, and green. Some successful racers could become millionaires. One of the most famous was Gaius Appuleius Diocles who won 1463 races.

Where did these events take place? These events took place all over the roman empire. The roman empire was the places that the Romans claimed to be there. They built huge places for the events to happen like these ones image of the places They also had smaller versions of the Roman Games in army camps when they were preparing for battle.

All in all, the Roman Games were a huge thing in Rome as they were a great source of entertainment and gave the emperor more fame this lead to the people of Rome liking him more. For that reason they build huge venues like the Colosseum and Circus Maximus some of these events would include exotic animals, gladiator battles, chariot races and even executions It is highly likely that the Roman Games were made an annual event. The games were a single-day festival that put in place to honor the god Jupiter.