Those Who Are About To Die: Gladiators and the Roman Mind
Aug 2025 · Random House
Ebook
384
Pages
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infoThis book will become available on August 28, 2025. You will not be charged until it is released.
About this ebook
Dressed in armour and clutching a bloody sword, the Roman gladiator is the most iconic figure of the ancient world. Both fascinating and repulsive to us now, he was in his own time a deeply controversial character, by turns hated and idealized – and always at the heart of Roman culture.
But what did he really mean to the Romans? What did they see in the gladiator and the spectacle of the games? And what does he reveal to us today about the Roman way of life?
Brilliantly written and meticulously researched, this book tells the stories of the gladiators and those who observed them – from grand emperors to lowly slaves – illuminating and analysing the all-consuming passion of the Roman Empire for the spectacle of mortal combat. In doing so, it reveals Roman ideas about everything from freedom and servitude to sex and desire, from courage and cowardice to death and the afterlife.
Taking readers on an unforgettable twenty-four-hour adventure – beginning the night before the games and ending the evening after – Those Who Are About To Die gives a blow-by-blow account of what life was really like in the brutally unforgiving arena of the ancient world.About the author
Dr Harry Sidebottom is a Fellow of St Benet's Hall and lecturer at Lincoln College, Oxford, where he specializes in ancient warfare and classical art. All six of his Warrior of Rome novels are available from Penguin in paperback and ebook.
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