5. A gladiator usually needed to fight 15 times to win his freedom – so lots of them never escaped their violent slavery
Unless he had performed exceptionally well in the arena, a gladiator was unlikely to be made a freeman after just one victory. He would be allowed to return to his training camp and rest before getting back to work. In most cases, a gladiator needed to fight 15 times in order to be freed from slavery. Since they fought 3 times a year, this was a long time. What’s more, since as many as one-fifth of all fights ended in one of the combatants dying, the odds of making it to freedom were not so great.
