Gladiator 角斗士
（重定向自Lanista）
![Part of the Zliten mosaic from Libya (Leptis Magna), about 2nd century CE. It shows (left to right) a thraex fighting a murmillo, a hoplomachus standing with another murmillo (who is signaling his defeat to the referee), and one of a matched pair.](/Images/godic/202501/23/Gladiators_from_the_Zliten_mosaic_30242.JPG")
0242.jpg")
![A 5th-century mosaic in the Great Palace of Constantinople depicts two venatores fighting a tiger.](/Images/godic/202501/23/Mosaic_museum_Istanbul_2007_0110243.jpg")
![Pollice Verso (](/Images/godic/202501/23/Jean-Leon_Gerome_Pollice_Verso0243.jpg")
A gladiator (Latin:gladiator, "swordsman", from gladius, "sword") was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their lives and their legal and social standing by appearing in the arena. Most were despised as slaves, schooled under harsh conditions, socially marginalized, and segregated even in death.