By 216 BC the number of fights given on a single occasion had risen to twenty two.(Wilkinson p.16) In 105 BC the two consuls of the year made gladiatorial games official. ... Criminals sentenced to forced labor were often obliged to serve as gladiators, and were sentenced to three years of combat and two years in the schools. ... The number of days in each year given up to annual games and spectacles of one sort or another in the city was startlingly large, and increased continually. ... Myrmilliones carried a shield and a short scythe and wore a distinctive fish ornament on their helmets. ...

• Word Count: 3227
• Approx Pages: 13
• Grade Level: High School

He also founded the city of Cartagena, or as it was known in Rome, Carthago Nova.7 He discovered many silver mines in Spain, which financed Carthage's war until Spain was taken by Scipio Africanus. ... Then he turned his attention to a Greek port city of Saguntum, which had made itself a "friend of Rome" and therefore Rome was supposedly obliged to defend it. ... With two armies now decimated in successive years, Rome was in a pretty pickle. ... No one touched Hannibal until the next year.14 Sitting around and waiting for Hannibal to make a mistake is not a short term thing, and mos...

• Word Count: 3489
• Approx Pages: 14
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School