The Gladiators: History's Most Deadly Sport - Fik Meijer
The popularity of the Roman gladiator games was utterly unprecedented. In this book, Meijer takes an indepth look at the history of the gladiator games. He believes that public executions in China and Iran, cruel fights involving animals (cockfights, bullfights), the excessive violence of movies and video games, the brutality of some contact sports evidence that "we are closer to the gladiator shows than we might like to admit" (12). The standard program for the Colosseum's games involved a day-long bloodbath, beginning with animal fights followed by wild animal hunts, the execution of criminals during lunch, and the gladiator fights in the afternoon (136). First, the Colosseum was filled with animals that were successively killed. The more animals the better. And the more exotic, the more exciting. Animals included: ostriches, antelope, gazelles, deer, donkeys, bears, tigers, leopards, lions, and elephants. During lunch, criminals and slaves were publicly executed: Roman citizens were put to death by the sword, non-citizens by crucifixion, burning, or dismemberment and devouring by wild animals (or a combination of all three). In order to keep the excitement going, creative ways to execute criminals were invented. Sometimes dramatic or comedic epics were played out with the criminal playing the tragic hero who faced death. In perhaps the most disturbing account, a woman prisoner's vagina was smeared with blood from a cow in heat and she was draped with cowhide and offered to a lustful bull, in order that the myth of Pasiphae and the bull could be reenacted. It is was in the Colosseum that many Christians - refusing to offer worship to the Emperor - were put to death. Ultimately, the gladiator games were put out of business through Roman conversion to Christianity and the financial ruin followed by the fall of Rome. In the final chapter, Meijer critiques popular gladiator movies. He applauds Spartacus, but finds Russell Crowe's "Gladiator" very unsatisfying - its complete lack of historical accuracy is appalling.