Roman gladiators were not physically fit but rather were “quite fat”, a historian has said. Gladiators have gained a reputation for having chiselled bodies from the Hollywood actors who portray them, ...

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 ...

Before they could lay the smackdown in the arena, gladiators were professionally trained, combining a physical regimen with an education in the rules of the ring. Gladiator reenactors pose amid ...

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 ...

Popular media, such as the 2000 film "Gladiator," often depict Roman gladiators in gory battles that don't end until at least one of the fighters is slain. But in real life, did gladiators really ...