This is an entry from my gladiator journal. This entry is about living in the coliseum and about what training was like for gladiators. I hope you like it.  

I was sent to live at the coliseum, the largest amphitheater in Rome.      

       As terrified as I was, the colosseum was even more impressive

      than my old masters mansion. Huge awnings covered the 50,000

       seats around the arena, a huge circle of sand. Inside the actual

struncture, tunnels wound through the walls of the building,all

of them leading to the seats. We entered the substructure of

the building and the guard shoved me into a cell I was to

share with 8 other Greek women. I didn’t mind the sleeping arrangements

     so much, I was used to sleeping on a pile of hay at the domus

     and all of the women were

very friendly  considering the circumstances they were under.  

The girl sleeping next to me was especially nice. Her name was Achima

and we became very good friends. All of the girls in our cell were from

conquered lands like myself, but in other parts of the barracks criminals and

Romans who couldn’t pay the high taxes shared quarters with wealthy Romans

who had actually volunteered to become gladiators. I can’t imagine how anyone

could be so stupid.

 I was told that I was going to be trained as a Refiarius, the most vulnerable

Type of gladiator. The Refiarius fights with a net and a trident. Training is hard. Every morning we wake up at dawn. We began the

day with breakfast, followed by ten laps around the arena. Next, we

lift weights for a full hour to build up our arm muscles. After that its

time for one hundred push-ups and one hundred fifty sit-ups. Then we

practice fighting on a straw man on a platform. Since we are training as

Refiarius Gladiators, we practice with wooden tridents and daggers. On

the first day, the trainer beat me for slashing the straw man with my

dagger. “Slashing is for Greeks! Stab like a real Roman!” I decided that

telling him I wasn’t Roman would be a bad idea. After lunch we often

watch some of the more advanced Gladiators do practice fights. Usually

some spectators from the city will sit on the other side of the colosseum

to watch as well. After watching them for awhile while our trainer

pointed out their tack ticks to us, we were sent of to do another ten laps

and finally we would do a practice fight of our own but with wooden

weapons. After a long hard day, we eat dinner and then head off to

our cells for bead. I’m so exhausted every night; I’m usually asleep before

I even hit my pile of straw. Everyday I think of Marcus and where he might be.