Worksheets and No Prep Teaching Resources Reading Comprehension Worksheets Ancient Rome

Gladiators Ancient Rome

---

Gladiators
Print Gladiators Reading Comprehension with Fifth Grade Work

Print Gladiators Reading Comprehension with Sixth Grade Work

Print Gladiators Reading Comprehension

Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 5 to 7
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	6.73

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		combats, disfavor, edict, excruciating, forefinger, listless, ludi, shameful, latter, high-ranking, popularity, historical, dagger, afterlife, enrolled, response
	content words:		Emperor Constantine, Emperor Honorius

---

Gladiators By Vickie Chao

---

¹     Back in the old days of Rome, people loved to see gladiators fight. Gladiators were professionally trained warriors. Their job was not to defend the nation. Instead, it was to battle against each other in public. To the onlookers, such combats were fun and exciting. But to gladiators, they were not. To them, such combats were excruciating matters. Every time they marched to the center of an arena for a match, they put their lives on the line. If they made one false move, they could easily get injured or worse, face the most horrible outcome of defeat - death!
 
²     Interestingly, though ancient Rome was famous for this brutal form of sport, it did not invent it. The credit should really go to the Etruscans. The Etruscans believed that when an important man died, his spirit needed a human sacrifice to survive the afterlife. To honor the deceased, they would stage a battle at the man's funeral. They would have two gladiators fight until one killed the other. As the loser lay dying on the ground, his listless body became a burial offering.
 
³     The Etruscans ruled Rome for about a century. While it is quite possible that they first brought the custom to Rome during that period, there was no proof that the Romans actually practiced it. Historical records show that the first gladiator fight in Rome occurred in 264 B.C. It was long after the Etruscans were gone. That display was for honoring a man named Brutus. At his funeral, his sons held a contest among three pairs of gladiators. The fight must have gotten a lot of buzz around the town. Slowly, it took root in Rome and became a popular sport. With more and more people watching the game, the scale of it grew bigger over time. It went from the initial three pairs to three hundred, and then to five thousand!

Paragraphs 4 to 7:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable

---

Weekly Reading Books

Create Weekly Reading Books Prepare for an entire week at once!

---

Feedback on Gladiators

Leave your feedback on Gladiators   (use this link if you found an error in the story)

---

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome

---

Social Studies

Social Studies

United States History and Theme Units         American Government         Ancient America         Ancient China         Ancient Egypt         Ancient Greece         Ancient India         Ancient Mesopotamia         Ancient Rome         Biographies         Canadian Theme Unit         Country Theme Units         Crime and Terrorism         Economics         European History: 1600s-1800s

Explorers         Famous Educators         Geography         Grades 2-3 Social Studies Wendy's World Series         History of Books and Writing         History of Mathematics         How Can I Help?         Inventors and Inventions         Middle Ages         Renaissance         World Religion         World War I         World War II         World Wonders

Copyright © 2025 edHelper