Some peoples job is to live from the Arena, and some, TO DIE! His new job? T'is the latter, cuz there can only 1 victor! ----> Jonnicus Maximus! (crowd cheers, ovation)

Actually I was reading the roman gladiator stuff on history channel. Apparently there were gladiators that fought over 100 fights and often it was not to the death as often as one would think. It also mentioned gladiators were often spared their lives by the crowd. I think it probably eventually evolved from a punishment for criminals (death), to become a sport where gladiators were trained to put on a good show/fight for entertainment like boxing but with swords. It was said eventually half the gladiators were free men who wanted to fight in the arena for fame/fortune. I could also see the motivation for Roman Lanistas, business men and even politians would be to maximize their profits or fame. It doesn't pay to train a gladiator only to have them die all the time or after 2-3 matches. Even boxing today, you want undefeated boxers with awesome records to draw the big pay matches.

Whew.... it was a lot of reading too! That was just the cliff notes.

Anyway, Rude, are you going to a game group this Saturday? I'm thinking about going this weekend. Let me know, give me a call if you want to go and maybe we can meet up. It's lots of Ham mans and Ham womans!