Jean-Léon Gérôme's "Les Gladiateurs", Best of Europe, 2007

The origin of the gladiatorial games is not known for certain. There are two theories: that the Romans adopted gladiatorial fights from the Etruscans, and that the games came from Campania and Lucania. The evidence for the theory of Etruscan origin is a passage by the Greek writer Nicolaus of Damascus in the second half of the first century BCE describing the origins as Etruscan, an account by Isidore of Seville during the 600s relating the Latin word for gladiator manager, lanista, to the Etruscan word for "executioner", and also likeness of the Roman god of the afterworld, Charon, who accompanied the executed bodies as they exited the arena[clarification needed], to the Etruscan god of death, also named Charon. The theory that the games developed from a Campanian and Lucanian tradition is supported by frescoes dating to the fourth century BCE depicting funeral games in which pair of gladiators fought to the death to commemorate the death of an important individual. However, the Campanians could also have adapted this tradition from the Greeks who could have introduced funeral games with human sacrifices to the area in the eighth century BCE. Regardless of the origin, the Romans adopted the tradition of funeral games to display important people's status and power.

 
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