Did Rome Actually Make Captives Fight Each Other to the Death?

Primary: Josephus, The Jewish War 7.2–3 (Greek 7.37–40) · After the fall of Yahrushalam

What the ancient record says

Not only volunteer gladiators, captives from the war were forced into deadly spectacles. At Caesarea Philippi, captives forced to fight one another as enemies.

At Domitian's birthday celebration at Caesarea, captives died fighting animals, being burned, and killing one another. These were prisoners of war, already defeated and under Roman control, placed into spectacles where death became entertainment.

Number: more than 2,500 killed at the Domitian celebration (Josephus's number, not an independent ledger); the practice itself is directly described. Multiple locations: Caesarea Philippi (animals + forced combat), Caesarea (thousands at Domitian's birthday), Berytus (captives at Vespasian's birthday), repeated during Titus's postwar travels.

The surviving Greek (The Jewish War 7.37–40) explicitly describes the Ioudaioi killed in combats with beasts, burned, and dying through mutual killing, checkable against the Greek, not dependent on one English translation.