The Hunger Games vs. Gladiatorial Games

The Huger Games The Hunger Games is a game, that occurs annually and it is set up by the ruling Capitol to show the other 12 districts of Panem that the Capitol owns them and that they are in-charge and it also serves as a merciless reminder to the price of rebellion against the Capitol. The hunger games consist of twenty-four teenagers, a male and a female from each twelve districts and they range in ages of twelve to eighteen. They are put in an arena, that differs every year and they have to battle each other in a gruesome combat until there is one sole survivor that will be declared as victors.
The film surrounds the sixteen year old protagonist, Katniss Everdeen. The story goes on as she volunteered to be a tribute on behalf of her little sister. Once in the game her and Peeta Mellark played a role of star crossed lovers to woe and get sponsors for the games. And at the end they were held victors of the 74th Hunger games. The Roman Gladiators The Roman Gladiator games is held multiple times throughout a year at festivals, funerals etc… in 80 AD, Titus the emperor at that time opened the Coliseum with a hundred days of games and one of those days 3000 gladiators fought and on the other 9000 animals were killed.
The games in fact served a number of purposes in roman society, including the education of roman values and virtues and even as a means of social control. Since Rome was a highly militaristic society, its citizens valued the art of killing in a way we would simply would find hard to understand. These public executions were a gruesome reminder to non-combatants, fellow citizens or subjects, that vengeance would be exacted if they betrayed their country, rebelled or were convicted of serious crimes.

So in some sense the games helped preserve order within the city. Influence of Roman gladiators to the film/novel the Hunger games The chief manner in which ancient Roman leaders won the favour of the public was by doling out “bread and circuses” (Latin “panem et circenses”) a phrase coined by the satirist Juvenal, to describe a practice that began in the late years of the Roman republic and that eventually symbolized the decline of Roman civic virtue. Even the country of Panem’s name has its roots from the thematically significant Latin phrase.
The “bread and circuses” consisted of huge handouts of grain to the public and the staging of massive, costly games that could last for weeks and slaughter thousands of animals (human gladiators were more rarely killed than is popularly imagined). In other words, give the people nourishment and entertainment and they’ll overlook a little harmless oppression. As with the tributes in The Hunger Games, the Roman gladiators who fought in the arena generally had no choice as to whether or not they fought, since they were often slaves or prisoners of war (though there were volunteers who would fight for fame and fortune).
Also, just as the gamemakers in The Hunger Games introduce animals into the “arena” through teleportation technology, so in ancient Rome animals were brought into the arena through trap doors or raised up on platforms from the basement below the arena floor. Similarly, Katniss and Peeta’s efforts to win over the crowd in order to stay alive are a reminder of the crowd’s power in ancient Rome to signal life or death for a gladiator. Spartacus and the Hunger games Spartacus was born a Thracian, who trained in the roman army.
During a war, he ran away and later captured by the Romans, as a punishment he was forced to be a slave and He was sold, in 73 B. C. , into the service of Lentulus Batiates, a man who taught at a ludus for gladiators in Capua, 20 miles from Mt. Vesuvius, in Campania. Then Spartacus sparked a rebellion by escaping from the school where he was being trained in Capua. Spartacus and the 70ish men who escaped with him began raiding the lavish country estates of the Roman elite and the slaves belonging to these estates joined in, creating an army of thousands of slaves.
In Hunger games, Katniss and Peeta sparked a rebellion when they defied the Capitol of its rules, buy threatining to eat the poisonous berries that would result with no victors for the games. The story of Spartacus rebellion relates a lot to Katniss’s rebellion, this is because when Katniss and Peeta defied the Capitol they made one district after another join the rebellion and through-out the rebellion they managed to defeat the oppressing Capitol. Tributes are Modern Day Gladiators Gladiators were prisoners of war.
The reason that The Hunger Games was created and is still taking place is to remind the people of Panem of the rebellion and just how much control, the capitol has over all the districts. The Hunger Games is basically a war. If the children are reaped they have to go into the arena. They are prisoners of war because once they are reaped or volunteered they cannot go back. They are trapped in the clutches of the capitol. Or slaves bought for the purpose of gladiatorial combat. The tributes aren’t exactly bought for The Hunger Games, but they are reaped just so they can fight in the games.
They’re slaves because they are in control of the Capitol and have to do whatever they are told once in the control of the Capitol. Professional gladiators were free men who volunteered to participate in the games. Katniss volunteered to go into the games when her sister got reaped. If they’re not reaped the children from districts 1 and 2 usually volunteer to become tributes. Whilst they’re not free from the Capitol they are free in their choice. The entertainment took the form of combat, and people called gladiators fought each other to the death.
In the Capitol the main entertainment is The Hunger Games. The tributes fight each other to the death until there is one left. The tributes are the gladiators who fought to the death In the Ancient Gladiatorial Games people would fight each other to the death for the entertainment of the public or for money. Before they fought to the death, they would parade themselves around, as if they were celebrities. After that the fighting began. Many of the people came from criminal backgrounds and were forced to fight under order from the emperor.
The comparison between Katniss and the olden day Gladiators first comes in play when people volunteer’s themselves. People in the Districts of Panem can put their names more then once into the reaping bowel and in return get some rations. Gladiators who had financial trouble could receive money for just signing up. Katniss, like some of the gladiators volunteered themselves up. Katniss was forced to fight against other citizens of the nations in the attempt to become famous, exactly like the gladiators would. But Katniss isn’t the only gladiator in the Games. Career Tributes (from districts 1 and ) are also a prime example. Like some Romans they had been trained in an Academy for most of their lives in hope that they would win and get the fame they believe they believe they rightly deserve. The gladiators had to entertain the audience to get them to like them so they could get a higher respect value to get more supporters (like a rugby team getting for fans). This also happened in the hunger games as Katniss has to get the people of the capitol to like her so she can get sponsors to give her things to help her survive in the fight to death in the arena.
In conclusion, the similarities and differences between Panem and the Ancient Roman Gladiatorial Games are quite plentiful. The connections that Suzanne Collins wrote in her book show interesting results when they are compared to the Gladiator Games. Throughout The Hunger Games, there are countless similarities and differences when you compare Panem and the games, such as Roman names, the purpose of the games and the outcome from these games.