Free The Unofficial Hunger Games Companion by Lois H. Gresh Page B

arena goers, few concerned themselves with the lives of beasts.” 4
     
    In the real arenas of Rome, the battles were much worse than in the World of The Hunger Games. For example, in AD 107, Trajan threw a twenty-three- day Games, in which 10,000 gladiators fought to the death and men slaughtered 11,000 animals .
    It was common to beat and burn slaves to death if they were suspected of desertion, treason, or magic. Further punishments included crucifixion, and also excruciating death in the ring by wild beasts. In the latter case, a slave or criminal entered the arena naked with a chain or rope around his neck. He was tied to a post with no defense against the wild animals that then ravaged his body. The Romans sometimes used these methods on women and children as well as men.
    Women were common in Nero’s gladiatorial events. He thrust women of all ages and classes into the ring: slaves, foreigners, and even nobles. In AD 63, we know that Ethiopian women and children fought to the death in Nero’s games.
    There simply were no boundaries regarding the methods of torture. Professional gladiators fought against older men with disabilities. Blindfolded men fought with swords. Men fought with lassos, tridents, spears, daggers, clubs, and nets.
    Considering the size and length of the Games, the number of people—men and sometimes, even women and children—violently killed in the rings, and the torture and killing of so many animals, ancient Roman games were probably the most inhumane and brutal in history. Scholars suggest that the cruelties of the Games were as horrific as the Nazi exterminations of millions of people, and that even Genghis Khan wasn’t as inhumane as the ancient Romans. As one scholar put it, “No one can fail to be repelled by this aspect of callous, deep-seated sadism which pervaded Romans of all classes.” 5
    As another example, in AD 80 when the Colosseum opened, Titus threw a Games in Rome lasting one hundred days, in which nine thousand wild and domestic animals were slaughtered, followed by gladiatorial combats. Next, the arena was filled with water, so men could fight each other in mock sea battles. Outside the city, additional exhibitions pitted three thousand men against each other in another mock sea battle, which was followed by a mock military battle on the ground. And by “mock,” we mean that although the battles weren’t really waged between opposing government forces, the men and animals were killed in brutal combat.

    The Hunger Games arenas differ from one year to the next. It’s all in the hands of the Gamemakers to dictate how children will fight and die and under what conditions they will battle. When desired, the Gamemakers simply change the rules of the Games. If they want to subject tributes to monkey muttations and poison gas, they have the authority to do so. In the books, they change the rules a few times: first, to allow two tributes to win the Games, then they change the rules back to allowing only one tribute to win. It is only Katniss’s ingenuity that saves both Peeta and herself.
    In her first Hunger Games, Katniss is thrust into an environment similar to District 12. The arena resembles a pine forest with trees where she can sleep at night and hide, with foods she knows how to procure, with terrain she can manage to navigate.
    In Catching Fire , the arena resembles a clock divided into wedges that possess different deadly hazards.
    In all cases, the Hunger Games arenas are enclosed areas. The only way into the arena is by force, and the only way out of the arena is by death (most common, obviously) or by slaughtering all the other tributes and emerging as the winner.
    The ancient Colosseum was also an enclosed arena. The only way into the Colosseum was by force (unless you were watching the Games), and the only way out of the Colosseum was by death (most common, obviously) or by somehow killing the other gladiators and emerging as the winner.
    It took ten years to