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[[File: Gladiators_from_the_Zilten_mosaic.jpg|300px|thumbnail|left|Mosaic Depicting Gladiators Fighting and a Referee]]__NOTOC__
The gladiatorial games of ancient Rome are well-known today due to the numerous films produced over the last few decades where they play a role. The gladiators' fictional accounts do show a lot of many truthful elements of the games but often mix different events from various periods of Roman history.
The reality is that the gladiatorial games played a major role in Roman culture from the early days of the Republic and the days of decline in the Empire. Archaeological, art historical, and textual evidence have allowed modern scholars to trace the evolution of the gladiatorial games from small private occasions that were associated with religion and rituals to the major events most people think of, which were for the most part designed to keep the people content and to eliminate enemies of the state.
As Rome’s political, social, and economic problems continued to increase, succeeding emperors increased the games' number and frequency. For example, under Emperor Marcus Aurelius (ruled AD 161-180), often thought of as one of the most enlightened emperors, state-funded games comprised 135 days of the 230-day festival schedule. <ref> Kyle, p. 301</ref> The games became so big that even some emperors, Caligula and Commodus, for example, personally took part. Although those two are among the least popular, corrupt, and ineffective of Rome’s emperors, their involvement demonstrates the increasing cultural importance of blood sports. And as the games became more popular, they also became more complex in some ways.
Construction on the Colosseum first began under the Emperor Vespasian rule (reigned AD 69-79) and was completed in AD 80 by his successor and son, Titus (ruled AD 79-81). The famous stadium was a state of the art facility, with the capacity to hold 50,000 fans. It had seventy-six entrances and 160 passages to make movement easier, and on hot and sunny days, there was an adjustable canvass awning that covered the stands. <ref> Scarre, Chris. <i>The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Rome.</i> (London: Penguin, 1995), p. 83</ref>