Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 34 to 40. Roman gladiators are intriguing figures in history. We get "gladiator" from the Latin word gladius, which means sword. Gladiators were professional combatants who originally performed, to the death, at Etruscan funerals. The losers became armed attendants in the next world to the person whose funeral was being held. In Rome, these ...

Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 34 to 40.

Roman gladiators are intriguing figures in history. We get "gladiator" from the Latin word gladius, which means sword. Gladiators were professional combatants who originally performed, to the death, at Etruscan funerals. The losers became armed attendants in the next world to the person whose funeral was being held.

In Rome, these exhibitions became very popular and increased in size from 3 pairs at the first known exhibition in 264 B.C. to 300 pairs in the middle of the first century B.C. These spectacles increased to as many as 100 pairs under the emperor Titus, while the emperor Trajan in 107 A.D. had 5,000 pairs of gladiators for his triumph.

There were various classes of gladiators, distinguished by their arms or modes of fighting. The Samnites fought with the national weapons - a large oblong shield, a visor, a plumed helmet, and a short sword. Thracians had a small round shield, called a buckler. And a dagger curved like a scythe. They usually fought the Mirmillones, who were armed in the Gallic fashion with helmet, sword and shield. Similarly, a Retiarius or net man, was often matched with a Secutor, or pursuer. The net man wore nothing but a short tunic or apron and tried to entangle the fully armed pursuer with the cast net he carried in his right hand. If successful, the net man dispatched the pursuer with a large, three pronged weapon called a trident, which the net man carried in his left. Others fought on horseback, and some carried a short sword in each hand. There were also gladiators who fought from chariots and others who tried to lasso their antagonists.

Gladiators came from a variety of social classes. Though they were usually slaves and criminals, a ruined man of high social position might hire himself out as a gladiator. Emperor Domitian had unusual gladiators, dwarfs and women, and the half-mad emperor Commodus fought in the arena, where he won his bouts with the aid of his Praetorian Guard.

To a victorious gladiator was given branches of palm and sometimes money. If they survived a number of combats, they were often freed from gladiatorial service. However, many gladiators reentered after discharge. Some became politically important bodyguards to controversial politicians.

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