Thirst for Health, p.

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Zachary M. Esposito
UWRT 1103-037
October 2014
Thirst for Health:
Ideal Roman Gladiators as a Guide for Current Health and Fitness
Introduction/Background
A battle worn man looks up from the blood soaked ground to see fifty thousand
fans shrieking his name all around him. The man is coated in blood from the man he just
slew and appears to be grinning from ear to ear, even though his own body appears to be
cut. As we looked more closely at the man, we see that he is early twenties with scars all
over his body and it quite fat for his age. Additionally, we can see that this man is very
skilled with a sword because all he got from the fight was a cut on his left arm while the
man he fought had his stomach slashed open. As the man starts to walk out of the arena,
we can clearly make out his name to be a famous roman gladiator.
Gladiators were slaves or captives of war from the many Roman campaigns. At
the very beginning of a gladiators life they would have to swear loyalty to the Lanista
(the owner of the gladiator). As he trained, he would be accessed to see if he was worth
putting in the arena. Once in the arena, a gladiator fought until he lost or was told to stop.
If a gladiator continued to win then he could make a name for himself and live a very
success life. Gladiators came in all shapes and sizes but all of them had one thing in
common, they had to win to survive. With each new piece of literature about gladiatorial
training and winning strategies, we will examine historic practices in preparing for an

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event and then we will suggest modifications in the gladiators lives in order to get the
best results in the arena and find the perfect, ideal gladiator.
Review of Relevant Literature
Before going through the body of works regarding what we can learn from the
ideal roman gladiator that can teach us good practices with current health and fitness, it is
important to know my stance on the subject. As a fan of the roman time period I have
always loved learning about anything gladiator related, including current cinemas
depicting the gladiatorial lifestyles. These films have always impressed me because they
show what gladiators ate and what they did in the arena. Also, as an ex high school
athlete and a college student trying to stay fit it is a passion of mine to same healthy and
fit for the much of my life. Even though I dont agree with how the gladiators ate and
trained, it is still my personal interest and passion to find out what we can learn from the
ideal roman gladiator that can teach us good practices with current health and fitness.
There are many articles out there that can be put together to help clear up
strategies for the ideal gladiator, such as with A Note on Cooperative Strategies in
Gladiators Games which was written by Jrme Ballet, Damien Bazin, and Radu
Vranceanu, M.J. Carters. "Gladiatorial Combat: The Rules of Engagement. and even the
article I made on strategies for gladiators and it was called Assignment One. All of
these articles argue the same thing that in order to win you first have to fight smart. Many
good gladiators balanced putting on a good show for the people and finding out if their
opponent believed in killing over riches. This strategy along with following the rules of
engagement ensured that that gladiator would live long and have a very lucrative life.

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The next articles show what the ideal gladiator ate back in roman times.
McGowan talks about how normal Roman captives were treated and fed in Roman
society in his book Discipline and Diet: Feeding the Martyrs in Roman Carthage.
Preceding the gladiators, captives were fed next to nothing and they were forced to live a
in a disgusting cell; nonetheless, once the worth of gladiators were seen this soon
changed to a heavy grain diet and nicer clean cells where they could sleep. This transfer
to better living accommodations and food was later used by Lanista when gladiators were
established. The other article is "The Gladiator Diet " which was written by Andrew
Curry and it starts with telling us that gladiators ate a diet that was high in carbohydrates.
The diet included more plants along with less animal protein and this was designed for
the gladiators to help them pack on the pounds. The extra weight was so when the
gladiators were cut there was less of a chance that a major artery was hit because the
extra fat would protect it. This maybe a good choice for a winning strategy but this would
affect their lifestyles much more; for example, since they are bigger they must consume
much more food and alcohol than normal romans causing a dip in the social status
because of all the trouble they cause.
The final type of article explains what an ideal gladiator training habits were.
Michael Carter in ("Gladiatorial Combat with 'Sharp' Weapons."), BBC history, and
National Geographic all showed that the ideal gladiator would train well after he was
deemed fit to fight in the arena so he could hone his swordsmanship to an all time best.
The reason why they did this is so they could stand out from the mediocre gladiators and
establish themselves on the top. Furthermore, National Geographic painted a picture of a
gladiator that was envied, scorned and even lusted after. This picture was made because

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once the ideal gladiator finished his training then his opponents would hate and fear him
while the crowd would idolize him. From what we know and from my observational
techniques about the ideal roman gladiator, I will suggest ways that we could practice
good current health and fitness from what the past historical models that the gladiators
taught us.
Entering the Conversation
Throughout history, the idea of a perfect roman gladiator has not dramatically
changed that much. In almost all cases, the roman gladiator has characteristics that set
him apart from others. Most of the time it is the gladiators style of fighting. For example,
if a gladiator has a type of swordsmanship that is flashy(meaning that it is entertaining
to watch) supposed to just straight out killing his opponent, then this gladiator will bring
in more of a crowd because people want to see his unique fights. Ideal roman gladiators
were also supposed to eat a diet rich with carbohydrates so they would gain huge
amounts of fat. This large gain in fat was deemed important because it would protect
gladiators organs in fights.
Moreover, the ultimate gladiator would train and hone his skills so he could live
for years and maybe one day win his freedom. All gladiators trained but only a handful of
those who wanted to be the best would train after the mandatory training time.
Furthermore, this gladiator would have a catchy name that could easily be passed around
by word of mouth because that was the easiest way to gain fame and this name would
also strike fear into his opponent because not only were the names catchy but most of
them revolved death. Finally, the gladiators that had all of these characteristics and was

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good looking would set themselves above all the others because then more of the roman
women would lust after that particular gladiator.
With the ideal roman gladiator in mind, we could learn from the past historical
models that the gladiators taught us and use it to learn about good practice in current
health and fitness. The first practice that we could learn from was the fat the gladiators
had. As I said earlier, roman gladiators ate a diet rich with carbohydrates so they would
gain huge amounts of fat. This fat worked well for the gladiators because they would use
it as a protection against deadly sword blows in the arena. However, in todays society
we know too much fat can lead to many health risks. Many of these risks lead to death if
the person continues to live as they are currently. Another problem that comes with that
much fat is the stress it puts on your organs. As you gain those extra pounds, your organs
are the ones who feel it the worst because they are the ones getting pushed down on the
most. What we could learn from all of this is to have a balanced diet. If the gladiators ate
some meat and vegetables with their huge amounts of carbohydrates then the fat gain
would be minimal. Additionally, with a more balanced diet, your energy levels would be
at an all time high making more exercise feasible and thus making you a healthier person
all together.
Another idea that has to be considered when learning from the past is that back in
roman times they didnt have genetic engineered food. Today, almost everything that is
consumed has been engineered in some way, unlike in Rome where one hundred percent
of the food that was made was made from organic foods. This change in the process of
food making has made it more likely for us to become allergic to certain foods which was
something that couldnt happen in roman times. Something that could be learned from the

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roman gladiators was to eat organic foods. For example, instead of going to a fast food
restaurant go to the grocery store and pick up some fresh ingredients and make your own
food. This simple change in foods would dramatically improve your health because
instead of eating foods that are bad for you, you are eating healthy foods that are fresh
from your local farm and many times the foods that you are eating taste good too.
The last practice that could be learned from the ideal roman gladiator would be to
exercise. Roman gladiators were notorious for the harsh training they had to go through.
Often times, gladiators would be train until their trainer deemed were done for the day
and sometimes that was at midnight just to wake up and do it again the next day. The one
item that could be taken away from this is the benefits of exercise. The benefits of
exercise could clearly be seen from what the gladiators ate. Even with the gladiators diet
rich with carbohydrates, they continued to perform at a high level in the Colosseum. If
people followed the gladiator model of exercise by just moving everyday then their
health would skyrocket. This exercise would include anything as long as they are up and
going somewhere because everyone starts somewhere. Also, the reason why their health
would increase because with exercise comes better cardio and when your cardio
increasing your heart gets healthier.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we can learn a great deal from the ideal roman gladiator. One of the
major ideas that could be learned from them is good practice with current health and
fitness. By taking what they have shown us and applying it to the future, many ideas
come to mind. The first being the risks that come with having large amounts of fat.
However useful it was to them back them still doesnt make up for the fact that too much

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fat is a bad thing. Additionally with changing the up the diet, genetically engineered food
and exercise also come to question the health aspects of todays society.
The reason why this is important because even though that the roman gladiators lived
many years ago, the things that we can learn from them could still be used today.
Moreover, by showing what they did right can maybe save someones health but more
importantly his or her life. What we could gain from the roman gladiators would be lifechanging activities. For instance, simply following their idea of exercise everyday could
help keep the fat away. Also, by looking closely at the roman gladiators we can see the
benefits of consuming locally grown food because it has no harmful side effects like the
engineered foods we mostly eat now a days. With all this in mind, we could lastly see an
image of our healthier self and its all thanks to want we learned from the roman
gladiators about how we can improve our own health and fitness.
Finally, there are some questions that future researchers could answer. The first one
would be if the gladiators did change their diet, how would the gladiatorial games be
different? This question has been with me ever since the paper and I feel like it would be
a great paper and answer many important questions. Another question that future
researchers could answer would be how bad is genetically engineered food versus the
food the roman gladiators ate? I know that current researchers are asking questions about
the food but I would like to actually hear what they find out as answers.

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Citations:
Strategies for Gladiators
Jrme Ballet, Damien Bazin, and Radu Vranceanu A Note on Cooperative Strategies
in Gladiators Games, 2013
Carter, M.J. "Gladiatorial Combat: The Rules of Engagement." 2006, 97-114.
Zachary M. Esposito, Assignment One (University Writing, UNC Charlotte), 2014
Diets for Gladiators
McGowan, Andrew. "Discipline and Diet: Feeding the Martyrs in Roman Carthage."
Harvard Theological Review, 2003, 455-76.
Curry, Andrew. "The Gladiator Diet." How to Eat, Excercise, and Die a Violent Death,
2008, 28-30
Training Roman Gladiators
Carter, Michael. "Gladiatorial Combat with 'Sharp' Weapons." 2006, 161-75.
Geographic, National. "Gladiator Training." YouTube. January 1, 2010. Accessed
October 3, 2014.
Worldwide, BBC. "Guide to Gladiator Fight Training - BBC History." YouTube. January
1, 2008. Accessed October 3, 2014.