Essays | Book Reviews | | Equipment Reviews | | Essays |

Condemnations Courtesy of: Professor Brian K. Harvey Notes: The following describes the legal distinction between condemnations to the sword in which a person was to be executed in public and some one condemned to a gladiatorial school which was often not a complete death sentence. There is a difference between those who are condemned to death by the sword and those condemned to a gladiatorial school: for those condemned to the sword are immediately put to death, or at least ought to be put to death within a year, since this is included in the imperial directives. On the other hand, those condemned to a gladiatorial school are not inevitably put to death but can even gain freedom and receive their discharge after and interval of time: freedom after a five-year period is permitted, discharge from the school after a three-year period. Immediate Interest: It is likely that from these condemned criminals that a lot of the harenarii and gladiators would have been gained.