Why Are The Roman Games Important To Society

The Roman games were significantly important to the society of Rome and its empire from 100 BCE-200 CE. The Roman games were not just for entertainment but also for various social, political, and cultural functions during that time. The emperors who had power over the empire used the Roma Games to communicate with the people of Rome and to market their role in society. The emperors used the Games to competed with each other to see who could produce the most exciting and popular Games. The Games started as monthly events but towards 110CE they became almost daily events. Emperor Titus held over 100 days of games at the Colosseum in 80 CE during which thousands of gladiators and animals were killed. After Christianity became the main religion

The emperor was trying to distract the poor people from the fact that they were poor in the chance that they would not revolt against him and he would stay in power longer due to the fact that he was keeping the citizens happy. The gladiators competing in the games were usually slaves, criminals, or prisoners of war. Criminals who were sentenced to death were normally thrown into the arena unarmed to serve their sentence. Some people even women volunteered to be gladiators to become famous in society, earn money, for glory and to buy their

The animals would be trained to perform tricks, and at times killed on stage as part of a show. Death of animals and gladiators became the main source of public entertainment at the time of the Roman games.

Spectators at the Roman games used the events for the sake of the experience, to

Integrate themselves into their community, for classifying themselves in a certain social class category, and for interacting and socialising with other people.

The arenas employed thousands of people not just to build the arenas but to run them.

Mainly many slaves were used to build the arenas including the Colosseum. Emperors often spent enormous amounts of money on funding the games and building of arenas as well as importing rare animals. There was also a high cost to the government to provide free food to every citizen attending the games which were often held daily. The Colosseum caused huge financial costs to the Roman economy as it is estimated that it cost one third of the income of Rome to run. Money that could have been used for war or other things was spent on the games causing the government to be nearly bankrupt many times. The Games made such a big contribution to the Roman economy that when the games and gladiator