Gladiators and Their Positive Effects on Ancient Roman Society When you think of ancient Roman civilization, many things come to mind. One of the most important aspects of their society was the gladiatorial games. While the name might imply fun competition, they were very different from what we would consider games in our modern times. These battles between men were considered entertainment for the masses in the Roman world, similar to how we watch sports like football or basketball. Essentially, gladiators were made up of slaves, criminals and volunteers. They would be trained in hand-to-hand combat and weapons combat. They would then be forced into an arena, called the Colosseum, to fight each other or fight. Around the year 70 BC, a prominent gladiator named Spartacus escaped and rallied the other gladiators in a rebellion. While the Roman legions fought in the Third Mithridatic War, Spartacus and his fellow gladiators, also slaves, rose up and began their rebellion, killing many of Rome's remaining troops. The Senate appointed a man named Crassus to deal with the revolt (Köhne). Crassus managed to successfully defeat Spartacus and his men in 71 BC. Although it may seem that the destruction of the slave revolt was a bad thing for the Roman common, it was actually beneficial in terms of the development of the state. For the defeat of Spartacus, Crassus obtained a shared consulate position. The consulate is a position in the government of the Roman republic of which he was the highest elected official (Barton). Many credit Crassus with a key component in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. If it were not for the gladiator Spartacus and his rebellions, we may not have seen the transformation of the republic until much later. The Roman Empire was much better for the people of Rome because, although it consolidated power to a single person, it eliminated the legislative power of the senatorial class and the oppression that came with it.