Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Ruins of Roman gladiator school found in Austria


Archaeologists in Austria say they have discovered a large, well-preserved school for Roman gladiators. The school, which contains sleeping cells, a bathing area, a training hall with heated floors and a cemetery, is the only one of its type to have been discovered outside Italy

link

1 comment:

  1. I have read that Roman gladiators were usually not slaves, but more like professional athletes. They were groomed for show and media attention and even contracts were let between them and their schools and between the schools themselves. Because they were often valuable commodities very few of the fights were actually to the death. Often these schools were the hobbies of rich patrons.

    I wish they had shown how small those sleeping cells were, and if each gladiator had his own small place to call his own.

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