In the days of the Roman Empire they used a mechanism for control of the people called "bread and circus". The same holds true today, as long as the people are fed and entertained they will easily go along with the dictates of the leaders. You can now be entertained with some circus maximus, Roman style.

Enter "Gladiatus" to entertain yourself with this free, simple and easy to play online game. "Gladiatus" requires no download, just an internet connection. You will need to create an account with an email, username and password. Once you have established an account, you are ready to step back in time and have some adventure. You will need to work on training your gladiator and battle against other online gladiators.

Just like in the real world you need gold to finance the training and adventuring you will need to do. To become a mighty gladiator you will need to train . You need plenty of gold to buy food and equipement too.

You gain experience, gold or prestige by doing any of the following:

Work in the Stables

Going on a Quest

Going on an Expedition

Buying/Selling Items

Fighting in the Arena

In the beginning, the Stables will be a job full of hardship and low in pay. As your gladiator gains experience, you will be promoted to a higher paying job at a pre-designated level. You put in how many hours you want to work, then in real-time whatever you chose counts down until the work is done. When you're finished, you'll recieve pay for every hour worked at your level's pay rate as well as a nice sum of experience. If you cancel, even if at most of the way through the counter, all time into the job will be lost, thus no pay. You cannot do anything else while you work, so it's best saved for times of inactivity or while you're sleeping.

Quests can range from finding something, killing something, or even just talking to someone. To find an item for someone, usually you'll want to go on an expedition.

When you're on an expedition, all fights are even to your level, so other than the type of enemy you will face, it's pretty much an even chance everywhere. No two fights will ever be exactly the same, save random coincidence. When your gladiator returns, you'll know the success or defeat of your expedition down to the last blow. Although every expedition might not bring back any items or gold, you'll always recieve at least a little experience from it.

You will need to buy and sell to survive and thrive and there are several shops to provide your needs.

The Weapons Smith provides the swords, clubs, tridents, knives and axes that will help you defeat your opponents in battle. The weapons all are rated with different degrees of quality and strength.

The Armor Smith has the shields, helmets, and chest armors that help reduce damage from your battles. The armor protects you and the pieces all are rated with different qualities and strength.

The General Goods Store has a variety of foods, boots, rings, pendants, etc. with different strength value.

The Alchemist has the boosts, item upgrades, potions and these items ehance your weapons, armor, your health and abilities.

The Auction Building houses the finer items to bid on and the Market is where to go for great deals or to sell an item at your own listing price. All types of items can be sold at the Market. You choose the price, but beware, if your price is too high, they're going to buy someone else's item before yours! If you don't want to rely on another player buying your items though, and you need your gold right then you can always sell items to the correct store that wares them.

There is a gladiator training ground and in the beginning of your adventure you will be weak and susceptible to all types of misfortune.

For a sum of gold you can have your gladiator trained in the art of a certain stat resulting in a permanent and base of +1 to that stat. As you sink more and more gold into your gladiator you will find it simply takes that much more to pursue further training. Some skills are easier learned than others. For instance, you will have much less trouble gaining in agility than you would in skill. As a direct result, it will take less gold to raise agility regardless of how high the stats are.

The Tavern is where you find quests to gain your fame and fortune. Here you will hear remarks from the tavern owner like.....

"Ave warrior! Do you want a good tip? Avoid Bandit Camp. Why? Well if you want to know this maybe you should go there. Are you confused now? Haha! A great warrior but a small mind. Oh, no reason to get angry. Just go there. If you do it you`ll be wiser and richer."

After the quest is over you will receive a reward. You get gold and or items you can keep or sell at the market or shop of origin.

The game has no blood, gore or violence. There are screens that you view and click through after you have decided what you want to do. You do not need to have good eye/hand coordination to play and you can easily stop and do something in the real world, if you need to.

The expeditions, quests and arena battles all take a certain amount of time to accomplish. These are timed and you have a timer that ticks down in real time.

You can join or create a guild and interact with other players in real time and work together on common goals.

This game requires a click, hover and drag and drop to play, it is very simple and has a short learning curve. Even though this is a free game you can upgrade and have many benefits that will shorten the amount of wait time and more. You do not need to upgrade to play and there is plenty to do to keep you engaged.

"Gladiatus - Hero of Rome" is fun, entertaining, challenging and is easy to learn how to play. I'll see you in the arena!