The Crisis of the Third Century

Cities across the Roman world contracted from their peaks in both size and population. Increasingly worthless coinage and shrinking export markets tightened budgets, leaving less money to spend on pricey gladiatorial games. Without those bonds of reciprocity between ruler and ruled, there was no need to compete through games; this meant that there was increasingly little need for gladiators. The rise of Christianity reared it said, with specifically Christian criminals 40 years later barred from gladiatorial schools.