The inaugural fight at the Coliseum was celebrated by a contest to the death between two gladiators that were longtime friends for twenty years and did NOT know they would be fighting each other. They each considered "giving" or "throwing" the match to their opponent but instead fought heroically and ferociously. They were very evenly matched and the contest lasted a long time. Finally, the emperor declared the contest a tie and they both were allowed to live. This is also almost the ONLY fight that was ever documented in the entire history of the arena.
Apparently the word "arena" means sand in Latin.
The pipe organ was invented for the gladiatorial games in 150 B.C. and the bellows were powered by the same running water that supplies the fountains of Rome. The pipe organ was only introduced into cathedrals in 700 A.D. or later in order to attract crowds. Those Church Organs used human power, or serfs, to power the bellows. Prior to that time it was a sin to play a musical instrument in a church and only acapella, or choral, singing was allowed.
The movie "Gladiator" is a very historically accurate depiction of the types of contests that were typically held, but the story.
There is a book called Arena that is just on the history of the Colosseum and gladiatorial games.
copyright(c) 2019
William Schaeffer
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