Gladiator
one of a class of men whose profession was to fight in public for the entertainment of the people.
They were armed with deadly weapons, and usually fought in pairs. The numbers of these men were principally recruited from prisoners of war, or refractory slaves sold by their masters to the lanista, or trainer. Malefactors also were occasionally forced into fighting as gladiators, and occasionally Roman citizens offered themselves voluntarily for hire, and to such the specific term auctorati was applied, their pay being called auctoramentum. Under the more worthless and dissolute emperors, equites, priests, and senators did not scruple to contend in the arena, in the hope of attracting the attention and gaining the favor of the prince; and even high-born women were found who consented to pander to the appetite for novelty, by fighting with each other or with dwarfs. The representatives of different nations were frequently matched against each other, and the comparative efficiency of their weapons, offensive and defensive, was thus put to the test.
GLADIOLUS (-ō'lus), a genus of Iridacex, with beautiful spikes of flowers, sword-shaped leaves and corms or bulbous rhizomes. They are propagated by offset corms or from seed; in this way innumerable hybrids have been produced. The hardy European forms are well adapted to the mixed border, wild garden or shrubbery in dry and sunny situations. Among the leading Cape forms are G. cardinalis (red), psittacinus (yellow with purple spots), floribundus (purple and white), etc., and these have given rise to numerous hy- GLADSTONE many new series of hybrids and sis, which again stands at the head of many new varieties. The scarlet G. brenchleyensis series of hybrids and is similarly a standard form. The corm of corms. species for the sake of their starchy the Hottentots dig up some of the Cape species for the sake of their starchy corms. of William E. Gladstone, born at Lon- VISCOUNT, an English statesman,_son of William E. Gladstone, born at London, in 1854. He was educated at Oxford and from 1877 to 1880 was lecturer and in the latter year was appointed he was private secretary to his and in the latter year was appointed Lord of the Treasury. He was successively Financial Secretary of War, Under-Secretary of the Home Office, and First Commissioner of Works. From Liberal Party, and from 1905 to 1910 was Secretary of State for Home Affairs.
He was a member of Parliament from year he was appointed First Governor- General of South Africa, serving until Leeds from 1880 to 1909. In the latter 1914.