How were Roman gladiators similar to modern sportsmen?
Gladiators were slaves – usually prisoners of war from the conquests although some were citizen men who had fallen into debt and had to sell their freedom to pay off creditors (very shameful for a Roman). There were no benefits of being a gladiator that in any way outweighed the fact that you were owned by someone whose only interest in you was as a financial resource. They did not win money and they had no status. If they were ever pardoned (which did happen) they would still be ex-slaves and so not entitled to full citizen rights anywhere in the Empire and would always be rather despised by free men. They were bought and sold so had a monetary value (rather like footballers in the transfer system now). There was a certain degree of celebrity status for the really successful ones – abut more like that attached to a good racehorse than a sportsman now. They had absolutely no freedom to enjoy their fame. They lived in barracks more like soldiers than sportsmen. Women did sometimes find
