Posted on 03/15/2015 1:25:12 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
I wholeheartedly agree!
Historians think over 500,000 people were killed in the Coliseum during its four-five hundred year run.
Purple sweater, white gloves and a pillow? It reminds me of a gladiator movie.
To stop the head inside from being split open by a blow from a sword or battle axe to the top of the helmet.
Without a doubt. I've read about layered cloth armor and shields too. Similar in principle to modern Kevlar armor.
Yes, it was apparently very tough stuff.
"Brothers, what we do in life echoes in eternity. "
Gladiators switched from male?? They were certainly ahead of their time, but I guess they had the right tools for performing chopadicoffafme operations.
Gladiators were very highly trained for specific fighting styles and fed a special diet producing a layer of harder fat around the body that reduced bruising of the muscles. Greaves and other armor were laid on top of a thick layer of padding: the only thing worse than a dead gladiator was a maimed or wounded one.
The physician Galen established his fame by reducing the mortality rate from wounds by half at a gladiator school. His position also afforded the opportunity for dissection and the close study of anatomy.
Despite the rules and opportunity for mercy, I have read that the chances of survival through the number of bouts required to earn freedom was probably less than 10%.
The only tie I ever read about came during some games under Domitian where two friends who had known in each in the same school were opposed and fought until each had disarmed the other of sword, shield and dagger and both were left trying to wrestle one another until they both collapsed from exhaustion. The emperor himself presented both with laurels.
Exactly.
Yes, the finger across the throat was common and i believe the thumbs up or finger up meant send him to the gods.
Maybe it was quilted, with fiber stuffing, like that used to train attack dogs. It’s very difficult for a blade to cut through padded cloth though the linen probably wouldn’t protect you much from blunt force, distributing it nly slightly.
Linoleum!
Maybe they were just for training too.
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