Did They Have Tailgates At The Roman Colosseum?

ALBERTO PIZZOLI. Getty Images.

This is probably a stupid question to ask, but do you think they had tailgates before matches in the Roman Colosseum? Like, I can’t stop picturing it. Most of us have been to college football tailgates, and I’d argue most of us would agree those tailgates were the best part about college. You know the drill, rolling up at 8am, already cracking open beers, throwing on your best gameday fit, linking up with fine shits at the frat house, and then going on an absolute rager until kickoff. The game itself was just the cherry on top. But imagine what a pregame would’ve looked like before a death match or one of those wild naval battles in the Colosseum.

Here’s how I picture it, Romans stumbling in at sunrise with their wine jugs, firing each other up with chants, maybe even pulling up in some dope ass togas like when we rock a sick throwback jersey today. I’m sure there were the Unc’s who cared about the technique of the gladiators, like the one dude who breaks down boxing technique during the fight, but let’s be honest, most of those people were just there to get absolutely plastered and watch chaos. It’s the same vibe as UFC now. Some people genuinely love the skill, the ground game, the knockouts, but then there’s the other half who are there because they’re coked out of their minds and just want to scream when someone gets knocked unconscious. The Romans were 100% the second group. They had to be.

Now, I don’t know exactly what the drinks of choice were back then, but they definitely had wine. I’m picturing a massive crowd of people slapping wine boxes (idk what the fuck they put it in) the same way we slap boxed wine bags, except instead of EDM blasting from a frat house speaker, it’s some orchestra cranking out some fire ass beat. Thousands of sweaty Romans hyping each other up before watching two dudes fight to the death. That’s not just a tailgate, that’s the Super Bowl of tailgates.

Which leads me to the part that really gets me curious, the gambling. Because you know they were betting on this stuff. But what exactly were they betting on? Was it just a straight “dead or alive” line? Or did they get into the props? Like, “Over/under on number of limbs lost,” “First blood drawn before five minutes,” or “Survives more than two tigers.” Tell me that doesn’t sound like the Roman version of DraftKings. And let’s not forget about parlays, “I got Spartacus killing two guys and making it to the semi-final before being taken out by a lion.” That’s peak gambling.

Honestly, I think we might’ve missed the golden era of sports betting. Vegas is cool, but imagine being able to throw money down on whether a dude gets mauled by a bear before halftime. I don’t know if we’ll ever get back to that level of intensity, but part of me wants to do a full deep dive into Roman tailgates and betting culture just to see how close my imagination is to the truth. Because if they were anything like I’m picturing, modern sports culture is just playing catch up.