A comprehensive study devoted to the gladiators of Roman antiquity, detailing the history of gladiature, recruitment and training, the various categories of combatants — such as the essedarius, the murmillo and the retiarius — armament and the conduct of bouts. Numerous photographs of frescoes and mosaics from across the Roman Empire complement the text.
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For decades, everything was said and written about gladiators, except the truth.
Despite an abundance of ancient documentation, only anecdotes transformed into generalisations and clichés have been retained, endlessly perpetuated by literature, cinema and comic books. Fortunately, in recent years serious research has been undertaken to better understand these legendary fighters — their sociology and history, their equipment, and also the way they fought.
Experimental archaeology has been fundamental on this point. From this work a new image of gladiature has emerged — one that was neither monolithic nor simply barbaric as we long believed. Over the course of nearly a millennium, it went through different phases and justifications that are illuminated in the light of Roman and pre-Roman history.
This comprehensive study, richly illustrated with reliefs, frescoes and mosaics from across the Roman Empire, as well as highly precise original plates, explains and depicts the history of an ever-evolving phenomenon, and examines the daily life of a category of men — and women — both reviled and idolised by the society of their time.
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