city. They rejoiced at the sight of Thracians, with their strange bucklers, floors, and Negroes. Even these grew scarce in time; and then Caligula and Nero, to meet the demand for victims, ordered all those guilty of minor offences, such as fraud, peculation, etc., to take their chances in the arena. Men of birth and fortune, for pure love of fighting, sometimes fought as gladiators; and one emperor, Commodus, actually appeared in person in the arena.
Professional gladiators were trained in schools, owned either by the State or private citizens. It was a legitimate enterprise to own gladiators and hire them out.
Sometimes a gladiator of great prowess became famous; and then his fortune was made. The great poets praised him, and money and honors were showered on him; but the horrible trade was detestable to brave men, and yet there were thousands of brave men condemned to it for life. "We cannot forget," says Gibbon, "the desperate courage of about fourscore gladiators, reserved, with near six hundred others, for the inhuman sports of the amphitheatre. Disdaining to shed their blood for the amusement of the populace, they killed their keepers, broke from their place of confinement, and filled Rome with blood and confusion. After an obstinate resistance, they
