A day in the life of a gladiator

Prosthetic legs, wheelbarrow wheelchairs and guide… children? Those were just some of the assistive technologies and body augmentations available to our medieval and early modern ancestors. In this episode, Rae Gillibrand highlights how bodily difference was understood in this pr ...  Show more

It's now often used as an adjective for anything standard, plain, and borderline boring – but the history of vanilla is anything but. Eric T Jennings – whose book Vanilla: The History of an Extraordinary Bean is among the titles shortlisted for the 2026 Cundill History Prize – te ...  Show more

The Colosseum packed with roaring crowds, the sand stained with sweat and blood. But today, you’re not watching - you’re fighting. Welcome to a day in the life of a Roman gladiator.In this episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes is joined by historian and author Dr Harry Sidebott ...  Show more

Who really were the gladiators of Ancient Rome?With them once again hitting the big screens this month, we wanted to take you back a couple of thousand years to find out more about the people who fought and what their lives were really like.What rights in society did they have? H ...  Show more

The ferocious, professional fighters who fought in great arenas all across the Roman Empire for the pleasure of the crowd were the celebrities of their day. They were sex symbols and yet they also ranked amongst the lowest in Roman society. Today the gladiator is one of the gr ...

Take a trip back in time to Ancient Rome, to discover the bizarre and barbaric world of the gladiators. But who were these mysterious warriors? And how much truth lies behind the legends? Take your seat in the Roman Colosseum, the games are about to begin. This is a Short Histor ...  Show more