On the origin of gladiatorial combat, third - century writer Tertullian says: “The ancients thought that by this sort of spectacle they rendered a service to the dead, after they had tempered it with a more cultured form of cruelty.
कालांतराने या प्रथेला करमणुकीचे स्वरूप देऊन त्यांनी आपला अधार्मिकपणा लपवण्याचा प्रयत्न केला.