Games

Panem et circenses, bread and circus games, were the essential elements which kept the Roman plebe quiet. Bread was sought by the poor people but everybody liked the circus games. If a Roman protested, it was more for a question of good taste rather than morality.
Circus games were of different types: the two-wheeled chariot races, loved by ladies;
The hunts (Venetians) where armed men faced beasts such as tigers, lions, bears or bulls; the executions of criminals, where the convict people were thrown to wild beasts or left to die with the pretext of a revocation of a myth or a historical event. But the gladiators games were the favorite ones: the fight man to man.

The gladiators, were trained become fighting machines, they competed one against the other with the same or different arms, trying to wound and kill each other. In case of defeat, the destiny of the loser depended on the public mood: if everybody waved the handkerchiefs, he had his life saved, if they turned the thumb down, he had to die in the arena.
The athletes of these games were slaves, usually heroes of the masses; one of the gladiators revolts, that of Sparticus (73-71 b.C.) was one of the most terrible for Rome.