Gladiators Battle to the Death | Cities of the Underworld (S3, E8) | Full Episode | History

they were the ultimate fighters of ancient rome  but these fights weren't for show the stakes here   were life or death never throughout the  history of the world was there a sport as   violent or as bloody as gladiator games if  i'm a gladiator down here is where i live   up there is where i die but the underworld is  where ordinary men became legendary warriors   our swat kit from a tunnel beneath the  ultimate gladiator boot camp seen for   the first time on american tv we might find  that tunnel used by the gladiators to move   the coliseum to a buried crypt that  reveals the gladiator's mysterious   origins oh look at this we're peeling back  the layers of time on cities of the underworld gladiators bloodsport i'm don wildman and this is the coliseum in  rome italy after 2 000 years perhaps still   the greatest sports arena ever for 400 years  the coliseum hosted every event imaginable   from massive reenactments of naval battles  where they would flood the whole place with   water to wild beast hunts with exotic animals  from every part of the known world to public   executions and of course the highlight of it all  gladiator gladiators were celebrities of their day   legends even but their lives were far from  glamorous most of what we know about gladiators   happened up here in the arena but there's a hidden  world of gladiators few have seen their origins   their daily lives their stories have been lost  over thousands of years buried in the underground at its height ancient rome covered  over two million square miles   and there were gladiatorial contests in every  corner of the empire from great britain to   turkey for the often unwilling warriors  the games meant life or a violent death   the chance to fight their way to freedom or  remain shackled in slavery but nowhere were   the stakes higher or the gains bigger than in  the coliseum the heart of rome's ancient capital   the coliseum right here behind me was the arena  where gladiators became stars where the romans   watched them fight to their bloody deaths but  the gory spectacle inside there was actually   the end of a long road for most of these guys in  fact right here under this street beneath my feet   is a buried tunnel that transported gladiators  to the great arena from over here a training   ground an elite gladiator school the largest  in the roman world where they learned the fine   craft of killing and of dying in 1937 during  construction on the villa labacana workers ran   into the remains of the ludus magnus the largest  and most famous gladiator training school in rome   it was the ultimate boot camp for the toughest  and most skilled gladiators in the world   how you doing good to see you too  i'm good i met with gladiator expert   hendrick day who got special access to  the off-limits ruins of the ludus magnus   lunas magnus what does this mean the great  gladiatorial school so we're really in the major   leagues of gladiator sport very much so and it was  also very convenient to have the schools near the   coliseum because the gladiators could go directly  from their barracks to the coliseum for almost 2   000 years this site was buried and lost beneath  centuries of dirt and debris but in 1937 road   construction unearthed the ludus magnus this is  great after you thank you where archaeologists   had to excavate roughly 800 000 cubic feet of  soil at the heart of europe's sixth largest city all right so how much of this is the  actual school all of it we're talking   about a structure that's more than 100 yards  long on the long sides and a bit less on   the short side how many people lived in here  and worked in here hundreds if not thousands the ludus magnus was built somewhere between 81  and 96 a.d during the reign of emperor domitian   it was a scale model of the coliseum just under  half that stadium size it was three stories high   the east-west walls of ludus were about 300 feet  long and the north to south walls were just a bit   smaller the entire thing was covered in gleaming  marble the compound included barracks for hundreds   of gladiators kitchens medical facilities and an  on-site weapons factory with hundreds of the best   trained warrior slaves in the empire packed into  the ludus access in or out was strictly guarded after the fall of the roman empire  the entire city of rome was abandoned   buildings like the ludus magnus were  looted for their stone and marble   and filled with debris over centuries the  ancient city was buried by 20 feet of rubble   when the ruins of the ludus magnus were unearthed  many of the structures had collapsed but some key   substructures of rome's greatest gladiator school  remain so i was fighting rome taken prisoner   i suddenly become part of an enormous system  here i'm sent to rome what happens to me from   then on you might be stripped of all your arms and  armor and sent into the coliseum to be executed by   another gladiator for public entertainment if  you were lucky and if you were a particularly   skilled warrior you might be allowed  to become a professional gladiator   gladiators came from all walks of life in fact  several senators fought as gladiators in order   to win people's respect and to gain popularity  most famously emperor commodus trained to be   a gladiator here in the ludus magnus but was  murdered the night before his first scheduled   match but most gladiators like the legendary  spartacus were slaves and prisoners of war choice   entertainment for bloodthirsty spectators so it's  a grim deal you're stuck here until you either die   or you've fought your way back to freedom there  was a chance of gaining fame and ultimately   popularity and fortune and if they were slaves  they would leave with their freedom as well   oh yeah gladiators were trained and armed  with different weapons helmets and shields   that mimicked the particular weapons of the  foreign armies rome defeated over the centuries   in most cases these cumbersome  helmets and heavy metal shields   were designed to handicap the  gladiators not protect them   there was no sense in the roman world of matching  heavy weights against heavyweights would be much   more interesting to have three very small  people fighting against one very large person   some matches were advertised as cena missione  without release in other words to the death   emperor claudius was infamous for rarely sparing  the life of gladiators who fought without helmets   because he liked to watch their faces as they died   but if a gladiator was killed his manager  would have to be compensated as much as   100 times the gladiator's value so  more often than not they were spared these are the original steps these are original  steps that will take us down to the arena floor   okay i see the circular design the shape right  here so this continues around under the street   i'm in the middle of the training floor basically  we're watching a miniature version of what's to   happen over there in the coliseum in the arena  the gladiators practiced intensive weapons   strength and endurance training and while nothing  could prepare them for the chaos of the coliseum   the training they received in the ludus  magnus was their best chance of survival   gladiators were more or less prisoners of  these schools from the blood-soaked floor   of the coliseum through the dark tunnel that  would have led gladiators to their tiny barracks   and the grueling regiment at the ludus this  was the world of rome's greatest athletes   it was sort of combination between boot camp  and a prison even free citizens who elected   to be gladiators would still sign on for a  fixed term of years and before that period   expired there were only there was only one  way out of here really and that was dead   the ludus magnus and the tunnel that is  still buried beneath the street above   were institutions in rome for hundreds of years  but an even more ancient part of rome's history   was buried beneath them see you can go down here  i believe you can it's a part of rome few have   seen and our crew was the first to go down since  its original excavation ended this is so wild   in the shadow of the greatest sports arena  in history and beneath the floor of the ludus   magnus the ultimate gladiator boot camp we were  given extremely rare access to the remains of   a neighborhood buried beneath the gladiator  school by gaining access into the sewers of   that neighborhood we may find the entrance  to the long lost tunnel of the gladiators so you can go down here i believe you  can this relatively unexplored area was   the ground level of an ancient neighborhood  built over 100 years before the ludus magnus   have you ever been down here i have never been  down here for a while and it may give us a clue to   the location of the lost tunnel that once brought  gladiators from the ludus magnus into the coliseum look at this it's rome what what age is this so  what we have here is the floor level of a house   from the first century bc we're talking before  the amphitheater we are 200 years before the   amphitheater that's been built above our heads  according to roman records the fire of 64 a.d   reportedly set by emperor nero destroyed  all the houses in this neighborhood   check it out this goes down there is in fact yet  another level beneath where we're standing now   hendrick says this tunnel was most likely an  ancient sewer connected with the house above   the sewer was eight feet beneath the ancient  house which sat ten feet beneath the floor of   the ludus magnus it's possible that the entrance  to the lost tunnel leading to the coliseum   could be found somewhere inside this sewer  times like this one needs to roll up one sleeve this is ancient history this  tunnel and it's filled with water and muck yikes all right that's gross yep and the water  is going in my feet say this is built between   200 bc and about 50 bc while this tunnel  is still able to hold up the street above   a collapse blocked us from going farther  and though it was too dangerous to dig out our swat kit we were able to peek into this little  known part of rome and possibly get a glimpse at   the lost tunnel between here and the coliseum so  look at this thing so all these little lights are   infrared lights so this can see in total darkness  they actually use these things for for swat teams yeah see what i'm going for yeah there  you go focus that is freaking cool that's   a whole nother path directly beneath the  road above and facing the direction of the   coliseum was an entrance to another tunnel but the  collapsed debris stopped us from going any deeper   this makes me crazy because frustrating as  this is the fact of the matter is i think   any archaeologist would tell me that  i'd be stupid if i went through here   and fouled this up and i mean we talk about the  ancient world how well-built it was how it never   collapses well it actually does collapse you know  if we could dig out this way we might find that   tunnel that was used by the gladiators to move  just in that direction right across the street   to the coliseum one of the most famous sites  in the world but i can't get back there   so that will have to remain mystery mysteries  about the lives of rome's ultimate fighters   are buried throughout rome's underworld  especially under the great arenas which   were engineered to turn this bloodsport  into an awesome and bizarre spectacle that is olympicco stadium where the soccer team  roma plays it's just before game time and things   are getting a little crazy italian soccer fans are  notoriously rally it's a tradition that goes back   2 000 years but in ancient rome these  fans here wouldn't be cheering for a goal   they'd be cheering for a massacre as the  raucous crowd up above was enjoying the show   the scene beneath the amphitheater  was very different involving a small   army of technicians and  stagehands all working around   gladiators condemned criminals and wild beasts  waiting out their final moments before death 150 miles southeast of rome and 30  miles west of pompeii is the town of   patswali it has one of the best preserved  subterranean structures of any amphitheater   in the roman world i met with katie parla  an expert on the potts wally amphitheater as gladiator fights grew in popularity the show  around them became more and more spectacular   and bizarre beneath this massive arena is  evidence of how the spectacle of gladiator   games was engineered the complex and sophisticated  mechanisms used to create the ultimate fighting   experience of ancient rome so right away a vast  structure but half of what it was oh definitely   i mean we're looking at just a fraction of the  original height which would have been nearly   150 feet now so compared to the coliseum in rome  how big is this uh well the colosseum's capacity   was between 50 and 60 000. the capacity here was  between 30 and 40 000. like other major arenas in   ancient rome potzoli was designed and built with  gladiator games in mind in fact the word arena   comes from the latin word for the sand which was  poured on the floor to soak up gladiator's blood   okay so we're entering into the amphitheater  just as the gladiators would exactly this is   one of the monumental entrances we're at one end  of the long axis of this elliptical arena it's now   we're on stage level it's a huge amphitheater wow  these holes that you see here now covered in iron   grates actually would have been wooden platforms  these would have been trapdoors that communicated   with the amphitheater's substructure so down below  there's a whole world of of backstage essentially   it's complex it's two stories high and hundreds  of people would have been at work gladiators the   rest of them down there the wild beasts and all  the rest and so up here you have cheering people   the cheering masses having a great time at the  show down there people are getting ready to die   gladiators from small towns around the  roman world would have been brought   below this arena then forced to fight  for their lives on this surreal stage yeah how how deep is this right here about 20  feet two roman stories the arena is up here this   is the main conduit for all the major stage work  that's going on that's right all the stage scenery   would have been sort of hoisted up or jacked  up onto the stage floor like the coliseum in   rome and other major arenas throughout the empire  this arena was built with a massive substructure   it was two stories high and designed around two  intersecting axes the main axis would have been   used to hoist up large props and full-scale stage  scenery for the wild beast hunts and more than 20   trapdoors would have been used to introduce  gladiators or animals into the show above   hundreds of backstage workers would have been  operating these mechanisms amid the roar of lions if i'm a gladiator this is most of my existence  i wait down here in the madness in the dark   hearing the screaming crowd waiting for me to  pop up there down here is where i live up there   is where i die many of the chambers beneath the  stands would have held gladiator weapons weapons   were only handed to the gladiators immediately  before the fight it was a practice that started   after perhaps the most famous gladiator of  all started a revolt that shook the empire   spartacus was a thoracion slave who was forced  into the gladiator school in kapwa he's actually   sold in a market in rome where the owners of  gladiator schools would go and look for the best   specimens starting with a band of 80 like-minded  warriors spartacus escaped from gladiator school   in nearby capua by seizing knives from the  school's kitchen and a wagon full of weapons   eventually he raised an army of more than 120 000  men mostly slaves for two years they slaughtered   everything the romans threw at them until they  were finally outnumbered by the roman legions   and spartacus himself was killed to punish them  the emperor had the rebels impaled on stakes along   the via appia after that emperors handled their  trained killing machines a little differently   the owners of the gladiator schools had to be much  more careful about how they caged their gladiators   how they trained them they had to give them their  weaponry just before they went on stage rather   than giving it to them when they were in their  barracks you would have thought that that would   have just put an end to gladiator sport absolutely  not it's like canceling all soccer matches   for eternity in italy i mean that would cause  riots a huge revolt worse than the spartacus one in the bowels of the patswali arena are the unseen  apparatus that engineered the awesome and bizarre   spectacle of gladiator games from trapdoors  where gladiators or wild beasts would surprise   their enemies to elaborate stage scenery  that was hoisted up out of the arena floor   these underground staging areas had turned  gladiator games into the greatest and bloodiest   show on earth you know we're in the bottom  most part of the structure here and they   would have to be lifting enormous objects people  animals everything into this arena above them   so to do that you needed a pulley system and  they're all over the place that's how complex   this is that's how hard it is to put on this show  the links they've gone to for a twisted experience a day at potswali usually followed  a predictable schedule of mayhem   and gore in the morning animal hunts then after  lunch and some wine were public executions   and the main event gladiator  battles often fought to the death   for the men who were forced into this life  the spectacle was awesome and terrifying   but as elaborate as the scenery was  the show came down to a bloody battle   there were usually a few dozen pairs of  gladiators matched up against each other   but for major events like the celebration of a  military victory emperors would gather as many as   five thousand pairs of gladiators who would fight  over four months the game organizers or editors   added more and more extravagant shows to accompany  the gladiator fights in fact many experts believe   like the coliseum kotswali amphitheater was  flooded to recreate naval battles and a clue   to support this theory lies in an off-limits  dark tunnel at the end of the short axis this is supposedly the water tunnel   that would have filled up the amphitheater with  water for the naval reenactments well this is neat   so we're probably like 30 feet below where the  public would have sat to watch the gladiator games   and we're going out out of the stadium under the  streets of patswali look at this down that way   the whole thing just tease off and down  that way let's see what happens down here   we're inside of an underground aqueduct   designed to bring great volumes of water  into an amphitheater that's at 30 000 people   it gives you a clue as to how sophisticated the  roman empire really is this time they are not   only operating an empire of vast proportions but  they are vastly entertaining their own citizens even though the games that took place  here in portswolly included naval battles   wild beast hunts and executions the  gladiators were always the fan favorite   and the biggest money makers they often made their  owners and managers extremely wealthy so when the   gladiators needed to let off a little steam they  were given special permission to go across town   to putzwali's hidden red light district i met  up with a patswali local auntie mo dinamenico   who has walked these cobblestone streets since he  was a little boy potswali or as it was called in   ancient rome putioli is located in the flagrayan  fields a seismically active area including mount   vesuvius the volcano that devoured pompeii and  sits literally in the shadow of the sofitara   volcano because of the constantly shifting  ground here the hillside has begun to crumble   but the seismic destruction also revealed  a large section of the buried city   including jutioli's ancient red light district  accessible through the old city hall are the   remains of the first century potsoli we go  in here yes this way and a buried brothel   where evidence shows gladiators found momentary  reprieve from their bloody fate in the arena so we entered this whole building upstairs yes  and walked on a roman street upstairs yes right   now we're underneath that street yes  and these are each individual structures   they match probably in 1995 percent  there's been considered an area where   you know gladiators and even others they could  come and enjoy to have sex with you know women   that they were disposed to sell their bodies so  we're in the red light district that's right good   work the ruins of rioni terra are actually  several layers of history spanning 500 years   the first layer is made of an ancient roman  neighborhood including streets shops and homes   that neighborhood was built on top of an  ancient cistern from the greek times when   the romans occupied this area they turned these  cisterns into basements including the brothel   the brothel is about the size of a city block  with about a dozen rooms after rome collapsed   and several centuries of rebuilding the modern  city was built on top burying the ancient one so this was where the gladiators would come to uh  yes the gladiators of course would also come here   because they were always in danger that they could  have died in during that day or the next day so   at least they could have embraced the woman  that they liked in this area before saying   goodbye to this life we're talking about a  buried bravo it wasn't necessarily something   you they would want out into the into the  general public yes hidden by other eyes that   you know could have known who was going there  well it was a it was a good business practice   prostitution in ancient rome was legal and  prostitutes were registered with the state   even taxed most of them were slaves and conditions  in the brothels were usually extremely unsanitary   many died living in places  like this because of disease   but that didn't keep roman men from all walks of  life from frequenting these underground dens even   though gladiators were themselves slaves they  were also incredibly valuable to their managers   and were given special  freedoms to fulfill their urges on each door at the entrance yeah there could have  been a particular position that the woman was able   to offer a position a position a love position a  sexual position sexual position this would have   been advertised advertising on the wall if you  come i also like to do that okay so you could   choose here instead of going over there they used  to consider this area the las vegas so nowadays   yeah so what happens in poutioli stays in poutioli but this wasn't the only  brothel in ancient rome in fact   similar drawings of sexual positions  were found in the ruins of nearby pompeii another room in the corner of the brothel still  contains graffiti that antimo says was likely   drawn here by a prostitute thousands of years ago  an advertisement to her customers that gladiators   were among her most satisfied clients so this is i  can see it's very vague but there is a gladiator's   helmet rendered right here and sure enough  to the right of that another one right here   i mean you can imagine i guess that all along this  wall would have been essentially an advertisement   that's right yes i have gladiators as my  customers congratulations you're in the same place   so if i was just some some joe schmoe walking  around and i was thinking about what prostitute   to go to and i saw that she has gladiators  in here i'm thinking this one was pretty good yeah this is circus maximus famous for its chariot  races and even though it wasn't built for   them it also hosted gladiator games see at a  time when mass revolt was an everyday threat   keeping the everyday roman happy with  bloodsport was a form of self-preservation   a way to hold on to power there's an old  trick the empire pulled on its own people   and recent excavation in the heart of rome  has revealed one way they did it and how   common romans used underground spaces below as a  place to worship in an ancient militaristic cult in the heart of modern rome  i met patricia flagotti   she's an archaeologist who has spent 10 years  excavating a massive ruin called the krypto balbi   an ancient roman neighborhood surrounding  a massive theater with thousands of seats   it's a well-preserved slice of roman life  and a clue to why the bloody gladiatorial   games were rome's favorite pastime so we're  talking about this building and this building   and this is an embassy today right yes brazilian  embassy to the holy see to the vatican i see okay the theater was built in 13 bc by lucius  cornelius balbus an aide to julius caesar to   celebrate a great roman victory it was the third  largest theater in rome but after 2 000 years of   constant building and rebuilding ancient rome's  version of broadway was buried by the modern city let's go in so this is the the current digging is being  done in this part yes this is an incredible   opportunity when you think about it we're dropping  down in the middle of an active archaeological   dig and they have basically cut away a  cross-section of the history of rome renaissance   medieval ancient rome go too far out there you  can catch a bus in modern rome it's all right here the crypto balbi and surrounding neighborhood were  discovered in the courtyard of a medieval villa   when archaeologists including patrizia began to  dig here in 1983 they unearthed a huge portion of   the ancient city in ancient rome this area would  have been filled with massive civic buildings   including a wheat distribution center where the  citizens of rome could get free wheat once a month   it was all part of the empire's plan to keep  its people under total control fat and happy   the romans had a very interesting uh  expression panem it chirchances which means   bread and circuses basically fed the people  and entertained them as the roman world grew   more violent with constant wars and revolts food  distribution and theaters like this one would no   longer keep the people happy so the empire had  to amp up their entertainment with unbridled   violence and gladiator games were the perfect  way to satisfy the public's bloodlust they   were financed by senators emperors and wealthy  romans looking to curry favor with the public   emperor caesar owned so many gladiators that the  senate had to limit the amount of money any one   person could spend on games fearing such a large  well-equipped private army could cause a revolt   it's said that emperor nero was especially savage   combining classical theater with bloodsport  he held performances where the character   in a greek tragedy would be played by a  condemned criminal when it came time in   the play for the character to die a real-life  executioner would kill the criminal on stage but while some romans went to the coliseum  to get their daily dose of violence   others look to a religious cult further in the dig  in the shadow of the ancient theater was evidence   of this secret society in the southeast corner of  the crypto balbi site across the street from the   ancient theater was the sanctuary of a mysterious  cult made up of members from rome's warrior class   what is this space here this was a sanctuary to  god mithra mithra so during the third century a.d   this space behind the crypto balbi was  turned into a sanctuary uh dedicated to   this persian god and here they would kill the bull  which was one oh okay so there was a ritualistic   sacrifice being done a ritual sacrifice and they  think that that hole in the ground could be the   so-called fossa sanguinis black hall where they  collected the blood of the killed bull like many   exotic religions in ancient rome mithraism arrived  with the return of soldiers fighting in the east   the main reason is that mithra  was seen as an invincible   god so that idea married you know the idea  of the invincible roman soldier warrior   because of the devotion it read among soldiers the  cult began to trickle up the social ladder in rome   eventually becoming popular with senators even  emperors the notorious emperors nero and commodus   who desperately wanted to be a gladiator  were said to have participated in mithraism   because it was so accepted among  all levels of society in rome   when the emperor constantine converted  to christianity in the fourth century   it said he merged many mithraic  symbols and rituals with christianity   including making december 25th the birthday  of mithras the celebrated birthday of jesus this is a actually a sacrificial area  inside of this temple which basically   would would have been these flat surfaces  here upon which the worshipers would have   reclined in the midst of their their ritual  the god mithras bestowed upon his worshipers   a sense of invincibility so you  can imagine that this would be   very appealing to gladiators whose whole  existence was a matter of life and death the exact origins of gladiator games remain  mysterious buried beneath thousands of years   of history but we do know in rome the first  recorded gladiatorial contest took place   2300 years ago right on this spot in what  is today a parking lot in those days an old   cattle market now this wasn't a major sporting  event but a small funerary ceremony honoring   one man who died by having two other guys  fight to their deaths so how did such a   small ceremony grow to grand spectacle and what  made everyday romans so thirsty for bloodsport to uncover the origins of gladiator games i  met with saskia stevens an expert on roman   funerary rights on the via appia the largest  and most important road in the ancient world   the via appia was the same road where the  roman army displayed the slain gladiators   of the revolt led by spartacus so this  is the one of the original roads of rome   yes it's one of the main routes one of the  main arteries leaving rome towards the south   in ancient rome the via apia or appian way was  located past the pomerium the legal and spiritual   boundary that separated the city of living and  the land of the dead with constant revolts wars   and plagues the average roman confronted death  every day and nothing symbolized that struggle   between life and death more than gladiator  combat jeff tombs basically on either side   of the road this structure here is a  tomb yes so all along via appia hundreds   of thousands of people are buried yes yeah saskia  had arranged a glimpse inside the columbarium   or burial vault of a freed roman slave turned  prominent citizen a man named pomponius hylus   today the entrance to the burial chamber is  in a city park and few realize it's there   above ground you don't see anything this  is modern house to preserve it but if we go   down it's just an amazing tomb so all over this  place outside the city walls you find tombs and   sepulchers and everything many of them are above  ground this one you got to go down into oh yeah   bleed on okay careful with the steps  okay never been used for a while oh it's really deep what time period are we  talking about here uh early first century a.d   so this is 2 000 years down we're going  down into the graves of ancient romans   what does this say sasuke it tells us uh  about possible owners of the colombardi   and we have gneis pomponis hylis and his wife  pomponia uh vitilanis oh this is so amazing   the tomb was dug out 40 feet below the surface out  of the soft volcanic tufa stone that makes up the   roman underground it was built as a communal tomb  the owners would dig out a new niche when a family   would buy a plot for their loved one creating the  honeycombed crypt wow look at this there's just   dozens and dozens of little niches with what  are the ashes inside there are ashes in there   this is what a roman cremation would look  like you can still see a lot of bone fragments   romans usually cremated their dead but  before placing the body on the funeral pyre   they conducted extravagant rights to honor their  deceased and it's these rights according to saskia   that gave gladiator games their start there were  um a funerary games were called specifically if it   was an important person so the bigger the games  you know the bigger person exactly and by these   games we're talking about gladiatorial combat  yeah the interesting thing about military combat   is it's about life and death so it's a crossover  from the land of the living to the land of the   dead that's tempting you know almost tempting  death to come and get you but you have to fight   for your life in order to survive so you think it  sort of uh captures how aware this culture was of   their own mortality yeah and therefore needing  to see this practiced in front of them yeah it   could be even as a game gladiators as well were  buried according to their status the funerals   of higher ranking gladiators were paid for by a  kind of gladiator union many of them belonged to   others were simply dumped into the river  or a mass grave with other gladiators this is what happens to you if you're upper middle  class you know if you have social standing money   respectability you end up in here this  is good but if you are a roman senator   or an emperor imagine your funeral then you've  got orations celebrations parades eventually   gladiator games for romans whose average life  expectancy was about 25 years death was everywhere   so it's no surprise that the violent  and deadly gladiator games were born   out of simple roman funerary rites to eventually  become the roman empire's greatest show on earth   in 404 a.d the final recorded gladiatorial battle  took place but for over 600 years gladiator games   were the greatest spectacle throughout all of the  roman empire whether they were heroes or outcasts   senators or slaves they were among the most  celebrated athletes in the history of the world   and while they gained their fame fortune  and freedom in the great arenas in rome   their private lives their real stories have been  buried by history hidden deep in the underground you

Channel: HISTORY

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Keywords: history, history channel, history shows, history channel shows, cities of the underworld, history cities of the underworld, cities of the underworld show, cities of the underworld full episodes, cities of the underworld clips, history clips, Cities of the Underworld Hunters s3 e8, Cities of the Underworld Hunters se3, Cities of the Underworld Hunters season 3 episode 8, Cities of the Underworld Hunters se3 ep8, Cities of the Underworld Hunters 3X8, Gladiators Battle to the Death

Id: ssp2xV9lFVk

Length: 43min 42sec (2622 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 09 2020