Games (May 2013)

A Note on Cooperative Strategies in Gladiators’ Games

  • Radu Vranceanu,
  • Jérôme Ballet,
  • Damien Bazin

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/g4020200
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 4, no. 2
pp. 200 – 207

Abstract

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Gladiatorial combat was in reality a lot less lethal than it is depicted in the cinema. This short paper highlights how cooperative strategies could have prevailed in the arenas, which is generally what happened during the Games. Cooperation in the arena corresponded to a situation of the professionalization of gladiators, who been trained in gladiatorial schools. This case provides an analogy of the conditions under which cooperation occurs in a context of competition between rival companies.

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