The ludi had the same basic layout all over the empire: gladiators were lodged in small cells around the yard where they trained; the schools, which were spread all around the empire provinces, could accommodate from 100 to 1000 gladiators.
Private schools of gladiators were common, too, in the other provinces of the empire, and all were submitted to the authority of a procurator, an imperial official who controlled an entire area like Gallia (modern France) or Asia (Turkey). The schools were essentially prisons, where discipline was extremely strict.
In the year 73 BC, about 70 gladiators of the Capua school, led by Spartacus, escaped, set up a revolt of slaves and created an army of 90.000. They kept in check the Roman state for three years before the revolt was suffocated. The organization of the schools was thereupon set to avoid such accidents. Beside every school there was a garrison of soldiers, who delivered the real weapons to the gladiators in the morning and took them away at night. Soldiers would intervene in any case of disorder. The schools were considered so safe that they could be located inside the cities. Inmates could not escape, and could only hope to save their lives by fighting so brilliantly in the arena as to attract the attention of some powerful person who could reverse their fortune by freeing them. This remote chance of being liberated was the myth that allowed gladiators to suffer their destiny.
