[blam]

GGG Ping.

[stan the beaver]

Well, so much for Spartacus, Maximus, and all the other cinematic gladiators.

[BigBobber]

Sounds like an early version of the WWF, with occasional deaths thrown in to spice it up, like NASCAR.

[Clemenza]

I've always enjoyed Gladiator movies myself, and I don't know why...

[ProudVet77]

Next thing you know they will be telling us that wrestling is show business and not real.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Blam.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[SunkenCiv]

Someone named Kurt Saxon has posted the entire text of this cheesy old garage sale paperback, from the 1950s, which sez the same thing:

Those About To Die
Chapter II
by Daniel P. Mannix

The gladiators were mainly matched against a group of German prisoners of war. This was because a highly trained gladiator was a very valuble investment and the lanistai did everything they could to keep the men from getting killed unnecessarily. The best way to safeguard a gladiator was to pit him against a nonprofessional. When gladiator fought gladiator, the match was frequently fixed, at least in this comparatively early period. Even if the mob demanded a fallen man's life, the victor only pretended to kill him. He was then hauled out with a hook as though a corpse and later sent to some provincial circus where he wouldn't be recognized. A lot depended on the editor giving the games. He could insure better fights if he insisted on the men fighting to the death, but that cost extra.

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[quantim]

attending gladiator fights was considered a more intellectual pastime than going to the theatre,

Pinging Mike Tyson, what say you?

[neb52]

Colleen McCullough puts forth in her Rome series that there was two levels of Gladiators. Those that volunteered that were "Entertainers" and those that were slaves. Her theory of Spartucus being a Roman Legate that had fallen out of favor and sent to be a "voluntary gladiator" for a while only to be sent to a slave gladiator school since he would not play by the rules and killed his opponents. The Senate covered up his origins, since it was known that a Roman could not enslave another Roman "wink" "wink". It would of been taboo, so he was made out to be a Thracian(sp?) slave. I don't know where she gets the facts to help form up such a theory, but does sound plausible.

[nmh]

I'm not sure you can glean all this from images.

[Fedora]

I suspect the author of this article might revise their opinion after getting punched in the face with a cestus. I'm reminded of the time Mick Foley walked into a hospital after a wrestling match with his ear ripped off and the nurse tossed his ear in the garbage while asking him, "Isn't wrestling fake?"

[Ciexyz]

I still believe that the film "Gladiator" was the gospel truth. (smile)