Search Results: Gladiator

A Roman gladiator was an ancient professional fighter who usually specialised with particular weapons and types of armour. They fought before the public in hugely popular organised games held in large purpose-built arenas throughout the Roman...

Fragment of a commemorative relief depicting a gladiator's victories, a contraretiarius against a retiarius called Improbus, 3rd century CE. National Museum of Rome, Baths of Diocletian, Rome.

Gladiator's dagger and pair of bronze greaves (leg guards) from Pompeii, decorated with reliefs of Jupiter (left) and Neptune (right), 1st century BCE. Archaeological Museum, Naples.

Gladiator helmet-shaped dropper flask decorated with "snake thread" trails, found in Cologne, Germany, dated to the 3rd century CE. Römisch-Germanisches Museum, Cologne.

A graffito with a gladiatorial scene on a 1st-century CE fresco from Pompeii. Naples National Archaeological Museum, Italy.

Mosaic pavement depicting two naked gladiators fighting. It was found in Reims (France) in 1890 and dates from the 2nd century CE. Musée Saint-Rémi, Reims.

Mosaic depicting two gladiators in combat. Their names in Greek are listed above them: Margarites (left) and Hellenikos (right), late-3rd century CE. House of the Gladiators in Kourion, Cyprus.

Female gladiators in ancient Rome – referred to by modern-day scholars as gladiatrix – may have been uncommon but they did exist. Evidence suggests that a number of women participated in the public games of Rome even though this practice...

In Theaters: 12 May 2000 (UK) Maximus is a powerful Roman general, loved by the people and the aging Emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Before his death, the Emperor chooses Maximus to be his heir over his own son, Commodus, and a power struggle...

The revolt of the gladiator Spartacus in 73-71 BCE remains the most successful slave revolt in the history of Rome. The rebellion is known as the Third Servile War and was the last of three major slave revolts which Rome suppressed. The story...