Vladd

Does anyone know of any other civilisation that had the equivalent of Gladiators? Was it just Rome?

Caracalla

The Romans pinched it from the Etruscans, but other than that I don't know.

Isoroku295

I'd imagine others did

Salah

The Mexica ("Aztecs") had gladiatorial combats that appear to have been similar to those of the Romans, only more ritualistic - and fatal.

histobuffkg70

However, the scale between the Roman and Aztec gladiatorial contests were vastly different. When the Aztecs would capture warriors who were considered especially skilled, they would subject them to seven (???) individual one-on-one combats in a row. The contestant was given an obsidian sword, but one of his legs was tied to the stage. His Aztec opponents were given a shield and a sword and were not tethered. If one survived the contest, he would be given his freedom. The Romans organized games that lasted for days involving scores (hundreds???) of combatants in contests too numerous to imagine. In this respect, Rome is indeed unique (as far as I know).

pixi666

Indeed, gladiatorial games evolved from Etruscan funeral games (ludi funebres). These involved fights to the death. Of course, the tradition of funeral games extends far further back than the Etruscans, for example the funeral games of Patroclus described in the Iliad.

Nego

Someone mentioned Aztecs, I think it was them who played some team-sport and the team that lost got sacrificed to the gods.

The ancient kurgans tossed unwanted individuals into pits to be ripped by killer dogs, not sure if it counts as gladiatorial though.

Toltec

Only sometimes would they give the one and obsidian sword, all accounts I've read they took the blades out and left him with just he wood. Also they human sacrificed them after, if they won.

There was a famous Tlaxcallan general who had beaten Aztec armies on several occaisions, who was captured by the Aztecs. He defeated seven opponents with a bladeless sword and was waiting to be sacrficed instead. However recognising his talents the Aztecs gave him a stay of execution if he lead an Aztec army against the Tlaxcallans. He lead them to victory when returned to Tenochtitlan was told he could go free for his victory, however he refused the offer and demanded his sacrifice go ahead.

unclefred

The Moche of Peru (100-800 AD), had a system of ritual combat that was practiced by those of the nobility, it is believed. The combatants conducted these combats throughout there lives until they lost and were ritually killed. http://www.historum.com/ancient-hist...on-ritual.html

sylla1

Please be aware that there was a long, long way (and complex evolution) from the funerary games of the Etruscan times to the peculiar mixture of commercial spectacle, criminal execution and extreme sport that the Roman imperial gladiatorial games were; the former were seemingly analogous to a great extent to the Hellenic practices described by Homer (e.g. after the death of Patroklos).

AFAIK, the bona fide gladiatorial games were indeed a quite peculiar (virtually exclusive) Roman institution.