The Gladiator: The Secret History of Rome's Warrior Slaves.

A dramatic, vivid picture of Roman life, Alan Baker's evocative history tells the stories of the extraordinary gladiators, trainers and emperors who participated in history's most violent game.

Condemned and yet feared by Emperors, slaughtered and yet adored by the masses and loved by women, the Gladiator's life was invariably short and violent. His existence was an abyss of bloody darkness illuminated only faintly by the prospect of honor, wealth, public attention and the amorous attentions of adoring women. With fear and danger as his constant companions, his enemy was as likely to be a starved tiger as a fellow battle-hardened human being. Yet men gave up their freedom to become gladiators, noblewomen gave up their positions to elope with them, and Emperors risked death to fight these slaves.

A work of history that reads like fiction, The Gladiator recreates the stories of Spartacus, Commodus, Caligula and others, bringing to life this most extraordinary Empire and the unique players in the gladiatorial arena.

Alan Baker was born in Birmingham in 1964 and studied English at the University of Reading. This is his fourth book, including Invisible Eagle: The History of Nazi Occultism. He lives in Hove, East Sussex.