View Review Gladiators Ebook by Alex Stewart

From the 60s AD female gladiators appear as rare and "exotic markers of exceptionally lavish spectacle". In 66 AD, Nero had Ethiopian women, men and children fight at a munus to impress the King Tiridates I of Armenia. Romans seem to have found the idea of a female gladiator novel and entertaining, or downright absurd; Juvenal titillates his readers with a woman named "Mevia", hunting boars in

gladiator, professional combatant in ancient Rome. The gladiators originally performed at Etruscan funerals, no doubt with intent to give the dead man armed attendants in the next world; hence the fights were usually to the death. At shows in Rome these exhibitions became wildly popular and increased in size from three pairs at the first known exhibition in 264 bce (at the funeral of a Brutus

Most gladiators lived and died anonymously, but a few became popular celebrities and their names have reached the present day. Crixus was a Gallic slave and gladiator that escaped captivity and became one of the leaders of the rebel army in the Third Servile War, between slaves and the Roman republic

Gladiators fought in particular combinations, usually to provide a contrast between slower, more heavily armoured classes such as the Myrmillo against quicker, less protected gladiators such as the were many other lesser types of gladiators with various combinations of weapons and armour and names changed over time, for example, 'Samnite' and 'Gaul' became politically incorrect