Successful gladiators ... so famous that free men queued to take their chances in the arena. Bloody, brutal but popular, gladiatorial contests are often seen as the dark side of Roman civilization.

However, as I discuss in my book, Vitruvian Man: Rome Under Construction, the gladiator represented something else altogether. The most famous martyr of the Roman republic -- Marcus Tullius Cicero ...

The graveyard of Liternum, near Naples, was in use between the first century B.C.E. and the third century C.E.

In ancient Rome, gladiators took part in one of the most bloodthirsty spectacles known to history. Depicted in Ridley Scott's epic films, the armed combatants engaged in violent public battles ...

To protect themselves, gladiators formed a close-knit brotherhood and would club together to pay for the funerals of fallen comrades. The Colosseum in Rome: History's most famous amphitheatre The ...

Italian archaeologists recently unearthed ancient Roman tombs during the excavation of a necropolis – including one bearing the epitaph of a gladiator. The discovery was announced by the ...

Researchers made the “extraordinary” find while excavating a 1,600-square-foot necropolis — an ancient cemetery with ornate tomb monuments — located near the location of the ancient settlement of ...

“I see a gladiator school ... found in 1562 on one of the ancient slabs incised with Rome’s city plan. Fortunately for Neubauer’s team, the Romans tended to construct new settlements ...