The Gladiators: History's Most Deadly Sport - Softcover

Meijer, Fik

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0285637045 ISBN 13: 9780285637047

Publisher: Souvenir Press Ltd, 2003

Synopsis

For almost eight hundred years men and women from all levels of Roman society were entertained by battles for life and death in the arena. This study, translated from the Dutch, draws on documentary evidence, as well as works of art and gravestones, to discuss the history of gladiators, looking at their daily lives, their place in society, their cost and earnings, the arenas they fought in, their fights against other gladiators or animals, the Colosseum programme of events, sea battles, the disposal of the dead, the odds against survival and their depiction in Spartacus and Gladiator .

About this title

About the Author

FIK MEIJER is a Professor of Ancient History at the University of Amsterdam and is the author of Emperors Don't Die in Bed. His next book will be a study of Rome's charioteers.

From Publishers Weekly

Locked in mortal combat before 50,000 cheering spectators in the Colosseum, the two gladiators thrust and parry until the crowd gets what it came for: one dead athlete and one living, victorious athlete. While the games themselves might have been exciting for the Roman crowds, Meijer's listless prose and superficial examination of the gladiator's life and work fails to capture any of the excitement, terror and pride that the gladiators and spectators must have felt. In pedantic fashion, he provides a survey of the different types of gladiators, the kinds of animals they fought, the dimensions of the Colosseum and other amphitheaters and the daily life of a gladiator. As many other books have pointed out, the gladiators themselves were slaves or prisoners of war who were rigorously trained in the sport. Meijer (Emperors Don't Die in Bed), a professor of ancient history at the University of Amsterdam, also describes a typical day at the Colosseum that featured hunters fighting animals, followed by executions of criminals during lunch and finally human combat. Apart from a tendentious and nitpicky critique of the historical accuracy of the films Spartacus and The Gladiator, Meijer adds nothing new to our knowledge about gladiators. 55 b&w illus. (Dec.)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Souvenir Press Ltd
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0285637045
• ISBN 13: 9780285637047
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 267