Gladiator

A Gladiator (Latin: gladiator, "swordsman", from gladius, "sword") was a slave, criminal or professional fighter in ancient Rome. Gladiators fought other gladiators, wild animals and condemned criminals, sometimes to the death, for the entertainment of spectators in cities and towns of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, from the 3rd century BCE to the 5th century CE. At their peak, from the 1st century BCE to the 2nd century CE, they were an essential feature of Roman culture and could achieve the status of popular heroes.