Trevor Bloom – Author

Gladiators are very much in the news at the moment. We have the brutal swords and sandals TV epic Spartacus Blood and Sand going great guns, just ten years after Ridley Scott’s Gladiator starring Russell Crowe. And while we may gasp at the macho goings-on of gladiators who dared to defy an empire, the archeological discoveries are no less astonishing, or bloody.

Three years ago the remains of 68 individuals were found at Ephesus in Turkey, once a major Roman city. Scientists concluded that they were the bodies of young gladiators, together with one older man who was believed to be their trainer. The remains had healed wounds suggesting that they received expensive medical treatment. Analysis showed their diet was mostly vegetarian, although meat was eaten on special feast days.

And then two months ago a gladiator burial ground was discovered at York. Described as the world’s best preserved gladiator burial ground – a sly dig at Ephesus where the graves are more a collection of bones, the York graveyard contained the remains of 80 robust young males, many of whom had been decapitated rather than hammered to death as was the custom elsewhere. One had a bite from a large carnivore, presumed to be a lion, tiger or bear and many had sustained brutal weapons injuries consistent with gladatorial combat.

And now, following hard on the heels of York’s discovery, we have the announcement that the remains of a female gladiator have been found at Hereford of all places. Originally, archeologists assumed they had discovered the remains of a strapping big bloke but the pelvis, head and gender indicators all suggest the body is that of a woman.

With women gladiators and vegetarian lifestyles, our knowledge of gladiators has clearly come on in leaps and bounds since Kirk Douglas played a dimpled Spartacus in Kubrick’s 1960 film. Yet the stream of movies and media interest in the archeology show that the Romans’ habit of forcing men and women to fight for their lives in the arena continues to fascinate us. Perhaps gladiatorial combat demonstrates how different Roman morality was to our own? We have advanced beyond the deliberate infliction of pain and suffering in a public arena, (I’m not counting England’s abysmal defeat in the World Cup). And yet, the use of CGI enhanced close-ups and slowmo techniques to heighten the tension and maximise the gore suggests otherwise. The appeal of watching others struggle and die while you remain safe and comfortable munching popcorn in seat G28 has perhaps not altered as much as we think.