Host: Gladiator is either a warrior, healer or a villain to [Rome]. He may have
been a slave or a criminal or even a prisoner of war. But now he's become a
caged performing animal, fed a diet of high-energy food and savage beatings. He
is an object of score, envy, admiration, and even lust. If he is lucky, stardom
waits. The crowd will chant his name and he will win his freedom. But his days are
spent honing the only skills for which he will ever be praised or valued, the
fighting, killing, dying. A: Gladiators are trained in special facilities, the so
called ludi or games literally, but they probably weren't a whole lot of fun. This
is where gladiators live. These are barrack like facilities. Host: In the
decades after the opening of the coliseum, a huge training school with its own arena
will be built next door to feed it with skilled fighters. It looks small but only
compared to the coliseum itself. In fact, it serves as barracks for hundreds of men.
A: The training of gladiators in many ways parallels the training of roman soldiers.
Just like a roman soldier, a gladiator has to learn how to wield a sword. Both
legionaries and gladiators will train with a gladius, a standard two-edged sword.
Host: The gladius is designed for close-quarter work, stabbing, slashing
from behind a shield in the press of battle. Many of the gladiators have seen
firsthand how the legionaries use them. They were prisoners or war, they'd face
them. While legionaries are taught to kill with an efficiency that is almost
industrial, the training the gladiators receive is different. They have to be
shown it. B: It's spectacle fighting. It's extreme ritualized, and it's a world apart
from ordinary fighting, from soldiers fighting. Host: Because the Roman people
were obsessed with gladiator fights, we're able to build a very clear picture of what
one looked like. There's written evidence, pictorial evidence, graffiti from the
time, and most strikingly of all, this armor. A gladiators weapons and his armor
are his costume and his props. Andrew: These bits of gladiator's kit were found
both in Herculaneum and Pompeii. And they list very beautifully, the extraordinary
variety that you need to make a gladiatorial spectacle. Look at this guy
with this helmet with tiny little holes. That gives him good protection. Host: The
various styles of armor are meant to represent the battle dress of Rome's
conquered enemies. Andrew: This helmet is supposed to be a Thracian's helmet. Now,
let's imagine that the Thracians were once upon a time gladiators who came from
Thracian were kitted out like Thracian soldiers. But no Thracian soldier ever
wore such a fancy thing, with all this elaborate visor around his face, this
really elaborate line to the helmet and then the decoration of it, wonderful
medusa's face. Host: Real battle armor offers its wear of the best possible
combination of mobility and protection. But again, gladiator armor is different.
Its purpose is to ensure that the spectators, connoisseurs of violence, see
a very balanced contest. Andrew: Here's another way of doing it. You've got bigger
holes from the eyes and you can see his helmet is much more decorated. But suppose
he's pitted against the [next man], who chucks his net over you, brings you down,
and then gets at your body, which, though your head is beautifully protected, your
body is exposed. Nobody should be fully protected. Everyone's got to have weakness
and the opponent knows which weakness to go for and of course, all spectators know
which weakness, and they're cheering on and their seeing the skill with which each
one both defends himself and attacks. Host: Training and experience are
everything. A gladiators' most dangerous fight is always going to be his first. He
has on average a one in six chance of dying every time he steps in the arena,
and these statistics are sued by the fact that in every generation, a handful of
elite killers fight dozens of bouts and win every time. For those few, fear
revealed, loathed and applauded, a kind of celebrity beckons.