I was new when this happened. I had only been a gladiator for about a half a year. This was my fourth fight and my best. I was 19 then. Since it was the next year 424 C.E., Aprilis 10 to celebrate the emperor's brother Theodosius ll's 23rd birthday. He wanted a grand fight where the rules of death were last man standing. He called in 4 tigers and 10 men to fight. 2 Caspian Tigers and 2 Hyrcanian Tigers. They were fierce and looked it too.
The 9 other gladiators looked to be quite older than me except for 1 who looked to be 18-20. The young looking one was quite frail for a gladiator and was named as Crispus Aelius meaning"curly- haired"and "sun". His name was literal, since he had bright red curly hair, although the "sun" part was very wrong. He seemed to be trying to man up, but it was obvious he was frightened. With good reason I guess… I learned all of our names and appearances as we were called out. I was 1st and Crispus was 2nd. Next was an older guy, 50-55 and he looked like he could throw me like a twig. "Aetius Varius," was called out which means "eagle" and versatile" as I remember.
I started to think about my weapon choice of a Bo Staff, a rare Japanese staff that is shaped like a walking stick that was brought over to Rome by Asian merchants. I've used this weapon before and I was quite good at it. I like how easy it is to grab it and how swiftly, but powerful it was. As I spaced out and started to think about who I should fight first based off of appearances, the others were named. I didn't need to know their names anyway, since either me or they, will die and be forgotten. The only ones who will remember us are the gods. I spaced back into reality and looked at the other fighters. They all looked like they were in the age range of 28-55 and were different body types, but still all looked strong.
The host explained the rules of the gladiatorial game today as "last man standing". This was because the emperor wanted this for his grand show. It was protocol for the host to explain the rules every fight. Once he took a bow the crowd roared awaiting the great game. One of the closest praetorian guards to the emperor bent over to his ear and said something in his ear I presume. The emperor raised his arm and yelled "let the games begin,".
We all glanced at each other and started walking from our stand points. Into the arena we went. All of us stood point at the end of our walk points entering the arena growing the tension. The crowd stared intensely at us awaiting our next move. The host ran off the arena and into the stands now as our signal to start. A burly guy with a hammer in hand ran out towards Aetius. The man's queue hairdo flung behind him as he rushed up and swung his war-hammer, high and mighty. Aetius swung behind him and the man swung his hammer back behind him. Smack! It hit Aetius' arm, but he held it out. The burly man stepped down and lowered the hammer from Aetius and looked up at his next target. Their height difference was quite large even though they were both gigantic compared to me. As their fight continued I stood watching and waiting for a fight.