Roman tradition held that gladiator games were not of Roman origin. Julia Shear traces their origin to Greek festivals now known as the Panathenian games.Shear, Julia L. Serving Athena: The Festival of the Panathenaia and the Construction of Athenian Identities. N.p., Cambridge University Press, 2021. These celebrations included 'dancers in arms' (Gr.:pyrrhichistai) who are often seen as the fore-runners of gladiators. Some Roman writers thought the gladiator games came from the Circus Maximus or the Circus Flaminus which had developed under the Etruscan kings from the sixth century BC. The circus games were state occasions, presided over by a magistrate, and financed by the state, while the gladiatorial shows were later and did not originate as state occasions.
