How were slaves captured in ancient rome?

The Gladiator wasn't much like the Gladiators that you see on the television nowadays. A Roman Gladiator wore armour and carried a variety of weapons. As many of them were slaves and criminals they fought for one reason only: freedom, as famous gladiators could be freed from slavery. Because of this the Gladiator would fight extremely hard and often fights were to the death. This type of entertainment was very popular with the Romans and many captured soldiers were forced to fight as Gladiators in a bid to gain their freedom. They trained for the fights very hard and there were special Gladiator centre's where they would practice using the different weapons and try to work out ways of avoiding being hurt.