In the presence of Emperor Stephanus and Praetor Gambit (above) a gladiators tournament was held at Romanum yesterday.
The event was a part of the ongoing GA SummerFest and in celebration of the Gay Archipelago's seventh anniversary.
I visited the event with my husband Tomais and our friend Vexsten, we were joined by our friend Rusty (above). The rest of the audience was not large, but extremely enthusiastic.
The Rectoris Gladiatoris Austen functioned as a master of ceremonies of sorts. He explained the proceedings to those of us who were not well acquainted with such events.
There were six gladiators present. They were paired of to give us three near-mortal fights.
After those fights the three winners of the first jousts got to meet each other in a free for all.
The last man standing and winner of this fight was the gladiator Gaius (above), at least in my opinion, although the Rectoris Gladiatoris declared that the victory was shared by Gaius and Tybalt. It is true that Gaius lost consciousness immediately after he had beaten Tybalt, but as far as I could see he was somehow defeated by a gladiator who wasn't among the three finalists.
Gaius receives his due reward (above) by getting a kiss from the gladiator Januarius, whom he had defeated in the final.
The Rectoris Gladiatoris then called in all six gladiators, brought in three lionesses (who did not wish to be photographed) and joined in himself in a final fight, with all against all and the lions.
The winner of the final fight was the gladiator Tybalt (below), this time fairly and squarely knocking all of the rest unconscious and killing some lionesses too.
