Many commentators have criticised the film Gladiator II on technical aspects of the fighting. But there was so much more to gladiators than that.

The gladiator troupes, mostly criminals or enslaved prisoners of war, were housed in cramped cells in secure barracks, made to swear an oath to ‘be burned by fire, bound in chains, beaten and die by the sword’ and then put through the most rigorous training procedures to put on a good show.