Francois Gilbert, Gladiators 1st-5th centuries AD (Osprey, 2024)
Attending a gladiator fight was a Roman’s favourite activity, according to Francois Gilbert. Watching two men fight in peculiar armour, and carrying strange but lethal weapons, excited them like nothing else. In some ways, it still does, and many of our blood sports echo those ancient combats. But the gladiator shows, while standardised to some extent, changed with the times over the Imperial period. Francois Gilbert’s new book describes the games and the people who often risked everything in the name of entertainment.
Gilbert begins by discussing Augustus’s reforms of the gladiator system, bringing it under imperial control. Marcus Aurelius in the mid-2nd Century instituted reforms that made gladiatorial combat less lethal, but that only lasted until the reign of Commodus who ushered in an era of severe brutality. Valentinian ended gladiator games in the early 5th Century. From that overview, we can see that gladiator fights were subject to evolution and change. That applied to almost every aspect. Gilbert moves on to the gladiators. Unsurprisingly, most of them were slaves or the condemned. However, there were volunteers and even some all-female fights took place. Whatever their origin, gladiators were subject to severe discipline, though they were otherwise well treated and well fed, according to Gilbert. The different types of gladiators follow. There were fifteen specialities armed and equipped to provide balanced match-ups in the ring. Gilbert works through them, describing how they fought and how they changed over time. A thorough survey of clothing, including armour, and weapons concludes Gilbert’s book.
Gilbert’s survey of Imperial gladiators is entertaining and informative, and sometimes surprising. He covers all the bases readers will need to develop a more nuanced understanding of this bloodiest of all blood sports. Gilbert also provides a useful bibliography for those who want more. Moreover, the source photographs and artistic renditions of gladiators fit the text like no other Osprey book I have read – figure painters will love this book. My quibbles were the author referring to previous books he has written and a lack of conclusion to wrap things up, but those are minor issues. If you are interested in gladiators, you will enjoy this book.
