who was the most famous gladiator in rome

His triumph gained the attention of Rome’s then- emperor Nero.

In a stunning upset, Spiculus beat-then killed-Aptonetus. In his first amphitheater match, he squared off against Aptonetus, a veteran gladiator and free Roman who had won 16 fights. Spiculus attended gladiator school in the Italian city of Capua, where he must have shown immense promise. While Attilius was likely not widely known across the Roman Empire-one scholar suggests his fame was only regional at best-his renown in Pompeii came at a convenient historical moment: In 79 A.D., just a few decades after Attilius’s fights, Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried the city-and its graffiti-preserving his legacy for centuries. The back-to-back upsets prompted Pompeiian graffiti artists of the time to memorialize his achievement. In a stunning performance, the young Marcus Attilius not only fought Hilarus to a surrender, but in his next battle, defeated another 12-time-winning gladiator. But when Marcus Attilius first stepped into an amphitheater in Pompeii, as a “tiro”-a term for a new gladiator-he faced Hilarus, a veteran fighter who had won 12 out of 14 matches in his career, equal to several years of experience as a gladiator. To make matches as equal as possible, Roman overseers generally assigned gladiators to compete against people of roughly similar experience level: novices against novices, experts against experts. Here are five gladiators still remembered centuries later: Marcus AttiliusĪ free-born Roman, Attilius enrolled in gladiator school seemingly of his own volition-making him part of a small but elite pool of gladiators who volunteered to fight. But some, owing to their extravagant personalities, personal backgrounds or memorable performances, gained lasting renown via ancient artists or historians. Each warrior fought only two to three times per year, usually in events featuring 10 to 13 gladiator fights, according to Murray-with each individual match lasting about 10 to 15 minutes.

It wasn’t easy for gladiators to stand out. All told, only between 10 and 20 percent of gladiators died during matches-a reflection, in part, of their high financial value to investors. Instead, fighting progressed until one of them surrendered, usually by holding up a single finger.

Before they could enter combat, gladiators trained for months in specialized schools managed by wealthy investors who profited from their fighters’ success.Ĭontrary to popular perception, gladiators didn’t necessarily battle to the death. But a small contingent were free-born citizens who volunteered in hopes of earning money and fame. Most gladiators were enslaved people forced to fight.

Who was the most famous gladiator in rome