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.
अपनी इस घिनौने काम को हलका करने के लिए बाद में उन्होंने इस रिवाज़ को एक खेल का रूप देना बेहतर समझा ।