Like the ludi, they were to gain a wider public role. Archaeological evidence favours the Campanians. The Campanians and Etruscans first held combats as funeral rites, and the Romans did the same at first, calling them a munes. Two rival Italian peoples, the Etruscans and the Campanians are possible originators of these bloody celebrations. Like so many apparent Roman innovations, gladiator combats were a borrowed entertainment. Historian and archaeologist Simon Elliott discusses the Classis Britannica, Rome's regional fleet that patrolled the shores around Britannia. Caesar’s heir Octavian held his own ludi in response. One of Caesar’s killers in 44 BC, Marcus Brutus, sponsored games to help win the people over to what he had done. As public, elected officials got involved they became a tool to win popularity, growing in size and magnificence. By the Imperial era, from 27 BC, there were 135 days allotted to ludi. The number of days on which they appeared each year soon began to grow. Ludi were games held as part of religious festivals and included horse and chariot racing, mock animal hunts, music and plays. Roman games did not originally include the gladiator combats with which they are so associated now. Chariot racing was the most popular, many games were a great spectacles of killing, with gladiators fighting to the death and horrific public executions of criminals, prisoners of war and persecuted minorities like Christians. Roman games included great sporting battles. Rome was a great civilisation, but lots of its customs are far from civilised by our standards.