Post #1

Salve, amici. The year is 33 BC, and I’m going to tell you what happened to me to become a gladiator.

I was born in 47 BC, so my country, Gaul, had been conquered by Rome by the time I was born. My parents had four children before me, three girls and one boy (who was always sickly). Before I was born, a Roman commander promised that they would not burn down my family’s farm if they gave a monthly tax of food produced on the farm and their fifth child as a slave the age of 10. I never knew this until the Roman soldiers came to take me away. My parents feared that I would try to escape and their property would be burnt down. So they never told me, but they had me do hard farm work that built up my strength for when I was taken away. I was taken forcefully, because I tried to put up a fight, but then I was knocked unconscious.

Once we got to Rome, I was used as a slave by the commander for about 3 years. Then, being pretty much obsessed with gladiator games, he decided to make his own gladiator school and become a lanista (the person in charge of the gladiator school). I got to be the first gladiator there. Lucky me. Within a few weeks, we had more gladiators come. Some were bought from other schools, some were volunteers, and some were criminals or P.O.W.s (like me). The doctores (trainers) decided which kind of gladiator we were going to be. I was chosen to be a Secutor (chaser), while others were chosen to be Thraex (Thracian), Retiarius (net-man), Equites (horseman), Murmillo (fishman), Bestiarius (beast-fighter). I’ve been training for about a year so far, and I’ve learned two things: one, the lanista  we have is cruel, and two, training is very, very, tough.

We train all day, and since I’m still a newbie gladiator, I haven’t had any breaks to tell you about this before. My first gladiator fight is coming soon, so come and watch me in the games!