Are gladiator contests ethical?

[Ned]

Inspired by the thread, "Is pornography ethical," I would like to propose the question on whether gladiator contest are ethical under circumstances where all participants are consenting adults. By this I mean that the gladiators themselves are consenting adults and the viewers of them contests are consenting adults.

Is the issue of consent the only issue involved in the determination of whether gladiator contests are ethical or not?

[MichaeltheGreat]

If all parties are truly "consenting," then it's no problem. Rome always found itself a bit short of auctorati, but even then, most of them were debtors to loansharks who used their signing bonuses as an auctoratus to pay off family debts.

[Shi Huangdi]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
If all parties are truly "consenting," then it's no problem.

I'm very interested in how you reconcile this belief with your Catholicism.

[Mr. President]

I'd watch gladiator contests.

[Ned]

MTG, then let the games begin!

"We who are about to die salute you!"

However, Michael, I am sure you are wrong. Why did Honorius ban gladiator contests in 407?

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Shi Huangdi


I'm very interested in how you reconcile this belief with your Catholicism.

I don't believe I have the right to use force to impose my ethical standards on others. Catholics and a lot of other people wouldn't participate or watch, obviously. Since Ned posed it as a general question of ethics, I didn't decide to answer it for everyone on the planet in a Christian framework.

[Shi Huangdi]

The question was are gladiator contests ethical, not whether they should be legal or not.

[Kuciwalker]

of course!

they could be fun to watch

[Dis]

those are to the death aren't they?

how can that be ethical in modern society?

[The Mad Monk]

Given the presentation:

Ethical? Yes.

Moral? No.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Ned
MTG, then let the games begin!

"We who are about to die salute you!"

Actually, gladiators never said that. The only time it was recorded as being said was a mock naval battle involving condemned prisoners. Although both gladiators and convicts were deemed outside of Roman civil law and had no "rights," gladiators were actually several rungs above convicts in Rome's rather odd social hierarchy, so what a bunch of convicts said prior to their first and last swimming lesson can't be considered applicable to what gladiators would have said in totally different sorts of entertainments, especially because so much else about gladiatorial contests is very well documented.

However, Michael, I am sure you are wrong. Why did Honorius ban gladiator contests in 407?

If a Roman emperor or other official ever did anything that appeared to be for "ethical" reasons, then it was surely coincidence.

Gladiatorial games were extremely expensive to host, and due to their popularity with the cretinous, bloodthirsty masses that were the average free Roman citizen (thus voter), they became the primary medium of running for civil office in Roman and provicial government. You got a lot of wealthy men bankrupted, lowlife barbarian lanistae scum able to buy Roman citizenship and have enough wealth left over to become members of the equites, and general social instability that outweighed the benefits to keeping the masses distracted from how the empire was going to hell in a bucket.

That probably had a lot more (in reality) to do with banning the games than any notion of ethics and morality.

[Ned]

Originally posted by Mr. President
I'd watch gladiator contests.

Really?

I must say I have a very hard time watching bullfights, cockfights or dogfights when they appear in movies. Only animals are involved here, but it really disturbs me.

[Mr. President]

To each his own.

I also watched the Ultimate Fighting Contest, when it was still on Fox 8.

[ixnay]

I see nothing wrong if all participants are participating completely willingly.

With that said, I'd expect to see this on FOX within a year.

[Sava]

If it's consenting... then there is nothing wrong with it.