Did you know that the gladiators who competed in Rome had a 90 percent survival rate? In François Gilbert’s new work, “Gladiators 1st-5th Centuries AD,” we are presented an up close and evolving view of the ancient and violent sportsmen during the Roman Empire.
Gilbert’s book is not necessarily about interesting facts regarding the gladiators, their arenas, the spectators, and the outcome of competition. His focus is primarily on what the gladiators wore, how they protected themselves, the weapons they used and why, and how over time, especially during and after the reign of Commodus (A.D. 180–192), who became a gladiator himself, that survival rate among gladiators plummeted to 50 percent.
