The Punic Wars of the late 3rd century BCE – in particular the near-catastrophic defeat of Roman arms at Cannae – had long lasting effects on the Republic, its citizen armies, and the development of the gladiatorial munera.

Throughout the Roman world, ceramics, lamps, gems and jewellery, mosaics, reliefs, wall paintings and statuary offer evidence, sometimes the best evidence, of the clothing, props, equipment, names, events, prevalence and rules of gladiatorial combat.

It was for centuries the center of Roman public life: the site of triumphal processions and elections, venue for public speeches, criminal trials, and gladiatorial matches, and nucleus of commercial affairs.

In the early stages of the First Punic War ( 264 BC ) the first known Roman gladiatorial munus was held, described as a funeral blood-rite to the manes of a Roman military aristocrat.

The character was obviously inspired by the mightily-muscled Roman slave Ursus ( ironically played by Buddy Baer ) who slays a bull with his bare hards in a Roman gladiatorial arena in the 1951 Hollywood classic Quo Vadis ?.

Other notable cues include those for The Roman Forum, composed to accompany Commodus's triumphal return to Rome as the newly-installed Emperor ; a percussive scherzo for a barbarian attack by Ballomar's army ; the Tarantella danced by the Roman mob on the evening presaging the gladiatorial combat between Livius and Commodus ( which seems to be modelled on the Tarantella movement from the Piano Concerto of Tiomkin's teacher Ferruccio Busoni ).

During the first half of the first season, the show's set resembled that of an ancient Roman gladiatorial arena, with the stands raised high above the ground.

Overview: Captain Kirk and his companions are forced to fight in gladiatorial games on a planet resembling the Roman Empire, that possesses mid-20th century Earth technology.

The Enterprise soon picks up an old-style television broadcast, with black and white video footage of what appears to be a Roman gladiatorial fight in an arena.

As Kirk pages through a gladiatorial magazine, he is astounded to find the cultural development of 892 IV, called " Magna Roma " by the inhabitants, is so similar to that of the ancient Roman Empire back in Earth's history, but mixed with mid 20th Century technology.

The title – as the reference to " dust and sweat and blood " – echoes Spanish bullfighting and Roman gladiatorial combat.

Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Batiatus ( or, possibly, Vatia ) was the Roman owner of a gladiatorial school in Capua ( near Mount Vesuvius ), in southern Italy.

Exotic wild beasts from the far reaches of the Roman Empire were brought to Rome and hunts were held in the morning prior to the afternoon main event of gladiatorial duels.

Caestūs were frequently used in Roman gladiatorial bouts, where otherwise unarmed combatants – mostly slaves – fought to the death.

Mark Vesley, a Roman social historian speculates that as gladiatorial schools were not fit places for women, they may have studied under private tutors in the collegia iuvenum.

* 1896 – In Athens, the opening of the first modern Olympic Games is celebrated, 1, 500 years after the original games are banned by Roman Emperor Theodosius I.

Originally intended as assistants to the tribunes, they exercised certain police functions, were empowered to inflict fines and managed the plebeian and Roman games.

42 ), after the passing of the Licinian rogations in 367 BC, an extra day was added to the Roman games ; the aediles refused to bear the additional expense, whereupon the patricians offered to undertake it, on condition that they were admitted to the aedileship.

Bocce ( sometimes anglicized as bocci or boccie ) is a ball sport belonging to the boules sport family, closely related to bowls and pétanque with a common ancestry from ancient games played in the Roman Empire.

The Christian author Tertullian, commenting on ludi meridiani in Roman Carthage during the peak era of the games, describes a more humiliating method of removal.

Pliny the Elder, an imperial Roman polymath, states that the games at Lykaion were the first to introduce gymnastic competition.

" However, accurate dating of this graffiti seems to be unavailable, and what designs have been found by modern scholars generally resemble games common to the Roman world, rather than anything like Mancala.

Roman drama, specifically Plautine comedy, was acted out on stage during the ludi or festival games.

In his discussion of the importance of the ludi Megalenses in early Roman theater, John Arthur Hanson says that this particular festival “ provided more days for dramatic representations than any of the other regular festivals, and it is in connection with these ludi that the most definite and secure literary evidence for the site of scenic games has come down to us ”.

This wealth was shown by the many monuments that were particularly imposing considering the relatively small size of the urban area: the forum, laid out in two terraces on both sides of the main road, was constructed in several phases between the reigns of Claudius and Antoninus Pius, and the theatre was enlarged and expanded in order to hold Roman games.

He also founded the Roman games.

The Circus was Rome's largest venue for ludi, public games connected to Roman religious festivals.

While most Roman festivals were calendar fixtures, the tradition and law that reserved a triumph to extraordinary victory ensured that its celebration, procession and attendant feasting and public games promoted the status, achievements and person of the triumphator.

* The Roman playwright Terence's Andria ( The Girl from Andros ) is first performed at the Megalesian games.

His sudden death at the games in Cæsarea, 44, must be considered as a stroke of Roman politics.

Although the ancient Roman holiday of " Floralia ", celebrated by the set of games and theatrical presentations known as the " Ludi Florales ," began in April, it was really an ancient May Day celebration.

The Greek hippodrome was similar to the Roman Circus, except that in the latter only four chariots ran at a time, whereas ten or more contended in the Greek games, so that the width was far greater, being about., the course being 600 to.

The hippodrome was not a " Roman amphitheatre " which was used for spectator sports, games and displays, or a Greek or Roman semi-circular theater used for theatrical performances.

Children playing ball games, Roman artwork, 2nd century AD

Mark Messier retired only 11 NHL games behind Howe at 1, 756 ( and counting minor league action and playoffs, 2, 048 total professional games ), but this is over five seasons away from 2, 478 total professional games ( including minor league action ), almost a thousand games ahead of the active career leader at the end of 2012 ( Roman Hamrlik ).

in fact, a contrast is often drawn in this regard with the `` impersonal '' Roman Catholic parish.

Harris dates studies of both to Classical Greece and Classical Rome, specifically, to Herodotus, often called the " father of history " and the Roman historian, Tacitus, who wrote many of our only surviving contemporary accounts of several ancient Celtic and Germanic peoples.

As a quintessentially Greek god, Apollo had no direct Roman equivalent, although later Roman poets often referred to him as Phoebus.

The modern history of Abensberg, which is often incorrectly compared with that of the 3rd century Roman castra ( military outpost ) of Abusina, begins with Gebhard, who was the first to mention Abensberg as a town, in the middle of the 12th century.

In a famous passage that is often considered the first specimen of alternative history, Livy speculates on what would have been the outcome of a military showdown between Alexander the Great and the Roman Republic.

The epithet Amathusia in Roman poetry often means little more than " Cypriote ," attesting to the fame of the city.

Under the Empire, Roman colonies and cities often had officials with powers similar to those of the republican aediles, although their powers widely varied.

From the 4th century Christianization of the Roman Empire onwards such shrines, or the framework enclosing them, are often called by the Biblical term tabernacle, which becomes extended to any elaborated framework for a niche, window or picture.

It often is represented on the statues of Roman emperors, heroes, and warriors as well as on cameos and vases.

It is often represented on the statues of Roman emperors, heroes, and warriors, and on cameos and vases.

* traditional values, being often close to the position of the Roman Catholic Church, despite some social liberal and secular attitudes ;

Quite possibly it was a survival of a Roman concept of " Britain ": it is significant that, while the hyperbolic inscriptions on coins and titles in charters often included the title rex Britanniae, when England was unified the title used was rex Angulsaxonum, (' king of the Anglo-Saxons '.

Roman bricks are often stamped with the mark of the legion that supervised their production.

The impact Roman law had decreased sharply after the age of Bracton, but the Roman divisions of actions into in rem ( typically, actions against a thing or property for the purpose of gaining title to that property ; must be filed in a court where the property is located ) and in personam ( typically, actions directed against a person ; these can affect a person's rights and, since a person often owns things, his property too ) used by Bracton had a lasting effect and laid the groundwork for a return of Roman law structural concepts in the 18th and 19th centuries.

First, its mix consistency is fluid and homogeneous, allowing it to be poured into forms rather than requiring hand-layering together with the placement of aggregate, which, in Roman practice, often consisted of rubble.

These colonies were often made out of existing communities, especially those with elites who could rally the populace to the Roman cause.

Cerberus featured in many works of ancient Greek and Roman literature and in works of both ancient and modern art and architecture, although the depiction and background surrounding Cerberus often differed across various works by different authors of the era.

Numerous references to Cerberus have appeared in ancient Greek and Roman art, found in archaeological ruins and often including in statues and architecture, inspired by the mythology of the creature.

In Roman political culture, insanity and sexual perversity were often presented hand-in-hand with poor government.

The result was that, more often than not, bishops, abbots of monasteries, and even the pope were not independent, but resembled lackeys or sycophants of the crown of the Holy Roman Empire.

235 ) (), often seen as just Aelian, born at Praeneste, was a Roman author and teacher of rhetoric who flourished under Septimius Severus and probably outlived Elagabalus, who died in 222.