1st century C.E. Roman relief portraying gladiators and lions fighting. Roman gladiators’ fights to the death have inspired morbid fascination for millennia. But for something seemingly so ...

Fearsome Roman gladiators dueling for the entertainment of a roaring amphitheater looms large in the cultural imagination, perhaps now more than ever with Ridley Scott’s blockbuster Gladiator sequel, ...

Wed, April 23, 2025 at 6:00 PM UTC Gladiators, for instance, fought each other—and often animals—to the death in arenas where bloodier was better. Ancient Romans often delighted in watching carnivores ...

Tales of gladiators going head-to-head with ferocious lions in ancient Rome's coliseum are legendary. Scenes of such deadly combat have been portrayed in stories, paintings, and mosaics (a Man versus ...

A gruesome but fascinating discovery in an ancient cemetery near York has brought fresh light to the brutal world of Roman gladiators. For the first time in Europe, scientists have found physical ...

In Turkey, a team of archaeologists discovered the tomb of a Roman gladiator dating back to the third century B.C., with the remains of 12 individuals inside. The tomb was unearthed during the ...

Marcus Tullius Cicero used gladiators’ physiques not to celebrate the republic’s valiant heroes, but to deride their bloated muscles as the embodiment of amoral tyranny. But I’m most interested in how ...

A Roman oil lamp shows two female gladiators fighting like men—strong visual proof women fought. An ordinary Roman oil lamp shows two gladiators with unmistakably female features, fighting in the same ...

With the premier of Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II fast approaching, English Heritage has made the timely announcement that it will display a Roman knife handle cast in the shape of a gladiator. The ...

Ancient Roman gladiators were often pitted against animals in the arena—animals capable of killing a human being. Skeletal remains in a Roman burial ground in northern England were found to have ...