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Students To Live Like Ancient Roman Gladiators
Twenty students from the University of Regensburg plan to live and train like Roman gladiators as part of a scientific research project this summer. The students will give up their usual fast food fare for the more traditional gladiator diet of berries and white beans. They'll also learn how to fight while wearing bronze armor, and showers, clean clothes or visits from a girlfriend won't be allowed during the project. From the article: "'We know hardly anything about the gladiators,' historian Josef Löffl said. 'There are a lot of myths and clichés attached.' Löffl and his colleagues plan to find out this August whether they can make modern young men into authentic gladiators following the Roman example."
Or single. Or sacrafices are made, its no different then a girlfriend going to Grad school and not seeing her for a year. This is just a summer.
But, then again, Ancient Romans... err... well... You know how it is. When you live in a society that glorifies males as the superior sex, those kinds of things tend to happen. I wonder if these students will make a few discoveries this summer, and maybe not about history, but themselves.
visits from a girlfriend won't be allowed during the project I take it, then, that all the volunteers are gay?
Some maybe. The others will be receiving visits from wealthy senators' wives and nobility who bribe the keeper in order to get it on with a gladiator.
Loose lips lose spit.
Behold, the man! The gladiator! The greatest champion to ever fight in this Colosseum! HOMOEROTICUS!
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
"I take it, then, that all the volunteers are gay?"
these are 20 guys training to be Roman gladiators, are you sure you want to call them "gay"?
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
The students will give up their usual fast food fare for the more traditional gladiator diet of berries and white beans. They'll also learn how to fight while wearing bronze armor, and showers, clean clothes or visits from a girlfriend won't be allowed during the project.
I'm a physics/computer science research assistant on a public grant, who does sabre fencing in his spare time. They can just come study me. I've been living like they describe for the last 5 years.
Also, why no showers? Didn't they have baths back then?
Each time a gladiator stepped into The Colosseum (or other gladiatorial arena), they had a 50/50 chance of never seeing the next day.
What utter rubbish. Learn some history. Gladiators were a very expensive commodity - especially the ones that made it to Rome. The whole "always fight to the death" concept is horribly wrong. A bought in the arena where a gladiator died was actually somewhat rare for the most part, short of a few incidents when emperors really wanted to wow the crowd. Did people get hurt and injured? Yes, did those injuries lead to death? Sometimes. Did gladiators actually kill one another on the arena floor? Rarely.
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