AHC: Gladiator becomes emperor

[Mort the Reaper]

While multiple emperors are said to have performed in the arena, there was never a case of a gladiator becoming an emperor.

Your challenge is to change that.

 

[Fabius Maximus]

While multiple emperors are said to have performed in the arena, there was never a case of a gladiator becoming an emperor.

Your challenge is to change that.

Spartacus-wank?

Other than that, how strictly are we defining "gladiator"? I imagine you could have an heir to the throne who sometimes performs in the arena, although he wouldn't be a gladiator in the sense of it being his primary occupation.

 

[Kaze]

Byzantine Empire (yes, yes, I know it after the Roman Empire, but some people consider it a continuation) Basil I the First. Basil started off as a peasant. In an ASB world where gladiatorial combat is used for military training, he could have become a gladiator instead. Through murdering the right people at the right time, marrying the right woman at the right time (a gladiator and the emperor's daughter / mistress story) , and intrigues Basil becomes emperor. Basil the First then hires the Varangian Guard, his former Gladiator buddies, as his bodyguard.