(Latin; swordsman)
Professional combatant in ancient Rome who engaged in fights to the death as sport.
Gladiators originally performed at Etruscan funerals, the intent being to give the dead man armed attendants in the next world. At Rome gladiator matches were wildly popular from 264 BC. By the time of Julius Caesar , 300 pairs would fight at a single show; by the time of Trajan , 5,000 combatants of various classes would fight. In the late Domitian delighted in using dwarfs and women as gladiators. With the coming of Christianity the games began to fall into disfavour, but they may have continued into the 6th century. See also Spartacus .