Animoto

=Animoto Assignments=

Ancient Civilizations
Write a blog post on the ancient Roman Gladiators. Your blog should explain the practice and history of gladiator fights. You should present an opinion as to the importance of gladiators in ancient Roman history. Begin with a thesis statement (main idea) which presents your opinion on some of aspect of the gladiator fights in ancient Rome. Support your opinion with at least 5 facts from the lesson, podcast, or your own research. Include a list (or hyperlink to) the resources where you got your facts. Create a short video on gladiators to be posted with your blog. Use can use [|animoto]to create your video.

Student Projects
media type="custom" key="734127" Gladiators were a rather brutal form of entertainment in ancient Roman culture. The first recorded gladatorial game took place around 264 BC to honor a man’s dead father. The games slowly transformed into public performances. A day at the arena began with animal hunts called venationes and animal on animal fights. Over lunch, criminals were executed in the arena. Many people of the nobility would leave and come back later because they considered it bad taste to watch these executions. After lunch, the gladiators would do combat. The popularity of the games began to decline as Christianity became the major religion of the Romans. The last known game took place in 404 AD on January first. The gladatorial games impacted Roman culture rather negatively because it caused them to view violence as entertainment.

media type="custom" key="734151" Gladiator fights were very important in ancient Rome. The first gladiator fight in ancient Rome was in 264 BC. The battles were given as gifts at funerals to honor the dead. After several years gladiatorial battles began to evolve. The gladiators were trained to fight in a certain way. They had their own armor, weapons, and techniques. Most of the time the gladiators fought criminals who were sent to the arena as a punishment. The criminals had no armor, weapons, or training. They didn’t stand a chance. Occasionally the gladiators would fight a wild animal such as a lion or tiger, but for the most part it was criminals. Romans had different feelings about the gladiators. Some thought that the gladiators were slaves and less human than themselves. Others loved and admired them and always cheered for them. Gladiators even had to do with the ruler of the time. In ancient Rome the more gladiator shows a ruler put on the more popular he became. Rulers such as Julius Caesar prove this. When he just became emperor he wasn’t very popular. Then, after he scheduled more pairs of gladiators to fight he became extremely popular. Without gladiators ancient Rome would be completely different. The modern world might even be different to. I think that taking away gladiatorial battles from ancient Rome would be like taking sports away from the U.S. What would we do without sports? What would ancient Rome do without gladiators? Basically the same question. In my opinion, gladiatorial battles played a key role in ancient Rome and in influencing the modern world.