Gladiatorial contests.

Attending the games was one of the practices that went with being a Roman. The Etruscans, who introduced this type of contest in the sixth century BCE, are credited with its development but it's the Romans who made it famous. A surviving feature of the Roman games was when a gladiator fell he was hauled out of the arena by a slave dressed as the Etruscan death-demon Charun. The slave would carry a hammer which …showed first 75 words of 3248 total…

…showed last 75 words of 3248 total…Gladiators. New York: Macmillan, 1947. 9. Scullard, H., Festival and Ceremonies of the Roman Empire. New York: Cornell University Press. 1981 10. Whyte-Mellville, G., A Tale of Rome and Judea: The Gladiators. New York: Longmans Green, 1989. 11. Mattingly, H., Roman Imperial Civilization. London: Edward Arnold Publication. 1959 12. Weirdmann, T., Emperors and Gladiators. London: Routledge Press, 1992 13. Yonah, M., Illustrated Enclylopedia of the Classical World. New York: Harper and Roe Pub, 1975. 14. Wilkonson, L., The Roman Experience, Anchor Press, 1975. 15. Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia., Softkey Multimedia, 2002.