"Brutal, bloody, spectacular." "Gladiatorial games epitomised the violent soul of the Roman Empire." "Yet the men behind the masks remain an enigma." "Now, skeletons excavated from a Roman cemetery in York could reveal the lives and deaths of six gladiators in vivid detail." "Their rules of combat, the foes they faced, the blows that killed them." "Forensic evidence from the remains can make real the legends of the arena." "The Bestiarius." "Secutor, the pursuer." "Equites, the horseman." "Murmillo, the heavyweight." "Retiarius, the net fighter, and Thracian, the swordsman." "No longer just bones in a labelled box, these are gladiators back from the dead." "It's estimated over one million gladiators died fighting in the arenas of the Roman Empire." "But no complete gladiator skeleton has ever been discovered." "A fact that makes the discovery of what may possibly be 75 gladiators in a single cemetery in York a find of huge significance." "2,000 years ago, York was a vital Roman stronghold... ..a regional capital and garrison town, with a population of over 20,000." "York is one of the most important cities in the province of Britannia, and this is a place where Romans come and use it as a staging ground as they push forward north against the Scots." "You've got Emperors coming into the city, you've got Constantine declared Emperor there." "So it's a very, very important city historically." "Most of Roman York still lies hidden under the modern city, and its arena has not been found." "In 2004, building work in the suburbs uncovered a 2,000 year old graveyard." "Archaeologists were called in, and as they excavated the site, they unearthed a large number of skeletons in remarkably good condition." "From the outset, details about the burial site baffled the archaeologists." "In total, 80 skeletons were recovered." "Most had been buried individually along with grave goods, a sign that they were respected citizens." "There were other unexpected similarities between the bodies." "75 of them were male, and all had died in the prime of life." "Initial measurements suggested they were also significantly taller and more muscular than the average Roman man." "Cut marks and fracture scars on the bones pointed to lives of violence." "Most interesting of all, many had been savagely decapitated." "The evidence defied known Roman burial conventions." "On the one hand, you've got these massive amounts of burials, and the people are beheaded, and on the other hand, you've got the reality that these are people buried with grave goods." "They aren't just simply beheaded and discarded." "So you're confronted with a really difficult question - who can these people be?" "The unique qualities of the skeletons led the archaeologists to explore an exciting theory." "You've got powerfully built men, you've got the wounds, the way in which they are killed, and the fact that they're all buried in the same site together that leads us to interpret these finds, these bodies," "as being those of gladiators." "Gladiatorial games were brilliantly-staged entertainments, provided free of charge to the masses, paid for by the Roman elite." "The public loved them." "But gladiators were more than just entertainers, they served as the poster boys of the Empire's ideology." "Their fights sent out a clear message to the millions who watched " "Rome held the power of life and death." "It was savage but effective propaganda... ..as observed by Roman statesman Lucius Seneca." ""Death in the arena should be instructive examples" ""to demonstrate virtues, or to be terrifying warnings."" "The existence of a gladiator graveyard in York makes historical sense." "As the Empire expanded outwards from Rome, arenas were built in all strategic locations." "To date, 230 have been discovered." "These games were a symbol of their conquest over the world, and they structured these games, in which they have the right over life and death." "And this is pretty much setting up the reality of the Roman Empire." ""We're the powerful, we're the strong."" "To substantiate the tantalising possibility that the York skeletons were once gladiators, the scientists needed hard evidence." "The task of deciphering the bones fell to forensic anthropologist Mick Wysocki." "Each skeleton has got 206 bones, thereabouts, so you can imagine, that's 16,000 plus bones to look at, and we had to look at the bones individually, sometimes looking for very, very minute modifications," "which might indicate the use of certain types of weapons." "From the 75 male skeletons discovered in the York cemetery, six were chosen for further investigation." "Every fragment of the remains was searched for clues in the attempt to establish who they were." "The first body focused on by the forensic team appeared unexceptional." "Initial tests revealed he came from central Europe, and stood a little over 1.70 metres tall." "But it was mysterious scars on his hip and shoulder bones that caught the archaeologists' attention." "There are two puncture marks here on this hip bone, and here, a very typical penetrating fracture." "This is part of the shoulder blade, and you can see another puncture there." "Wysocki's interpretation of the wound was sensational." "These are absolutely typical of carnivore tooth marks." "The forensic team set about narrowing down the list of possible attack animals." "We took some measurements of the diameter of the puncture marks, and we compared those to measurements of various big cats and other large mammalian carnivores, and the measurements fitted pretty well with either bear or tiger." "The astonishing theory was put to the test." "This tiger's canine tooth actually fits the puncture mark very, very nicely." "Even more so on the left side, the tooth fits in there nicely and snugly." "Also, with our shoulder blade, the scapula, there's the canine of a tiger, and it fits that hole almost perfectly." "Capable of exerting a bite force twice that of a brown bear, the teeth of a tiger can penetrate through armour, skin and muscle, before hitting bone." "And that would be the about the depth of penetration that you'd expect." "Remember, the animal's not interested in biting the bone, it's getting at the flesh, so this kind of puncturing is coincidental." "The evidence could fit with the gladiator theory." "It would seem highly unlikely that this individual was attacked by a tiger as he was walking home from the pub in York 2,000 years ago," "but if he was in the arena, and he was actually facing a tiger, that's where he's very likely to have got these injuries." "The bite marks suggested a class of fighter known as a bestiarius, or beast fighter." "Historical records described the role of a bestiarius in gladiatorial games." "They were not trained fighters, they were criminals or errant slaves, thrown to wild animals to entertain the crowd." "The beast fighter of York supported these accounts." "His bones confirmed he wasn't physically big or well-muscled, nor were there any signs of intensive training." "The bestiarius has a lot of the flesh of his body exposed." "He usually has a long spear to go against wild animals." "The odds were stacked against the beast fighter." "There's going to be a lot of scratches, there's going to be a lot of bites, that's what's going to be inflicted on their bodies, and that's what the people apparently want," "because so much of their body is exposed." "Roman crowds delighted in these battles, the more unusual the beast, the better." "We're talking about panthers, lions, tigers, something truly extraordinary and exotic." "At the opening of Rome's Colosseum in 80 AD, over 9,000 animals and untold bestiari were slaughtered, a terrifying demonstration of the Empire's power over man and nature." "In York, the beast fighter would have suffered the same fate." "The bite marks on his bones revealed the last brutal seconds of his life." "We're talking about a penetrating injury through this part of the shoulder blade just here, and also coming down onto the top of the humerus here." "So, if you imagine a pair of jaws coming down here, and this is a typical way in which animals like big cats will bring their prey down, they'll go for the shoulders, they'll bite on there, and try to drag the individual down..." "..and then provide the killing blow by going for the soft part of the belly, and attacking there." "Plunging into the beast fighter's shoulder, the tiger's teeth first shredded his trapezius muscle, before severing his cervical artery." "It was a fatal attack." "Such gruesome deaths were witnessed by the Roman senator Flavius Cassiodorus." ""If the hunter is not good enough, he becomes food for his own enemy," ""and he satisfies the one whom he desires to kill." ""The spectacle is horrible to an unimaginable degree."" "The bestiarius of York was as young as 22 when he met his savage death." "Five more bodies awaited investigation, five more skeletons, with their own stories to tell." "Six unusual skeletons discovered in a Roman cemetery in York showed characteristics that could mean they once were Gladiators." "One skeleton had already provided powerful evidence of a tiger attack on a bestiarius, a lowly class of gladiatorial fighter." "An archaeological first." "(TIGER GROWLS)" "Despite being almost 2,000 years old, the skeletons were incredibly well preserved." "From the cut marks and fractures, the scientists set out to deduce which wounds were survived and which ones were fatal." "They also examined the tell-tale bony growths where muscles anchored to the skeleton." "From these they calculated the men's physiques, and the likely physical activity that produced them." "At 1 metre 83 tall, from central Europe, the bones of this man showed powerful upper body development, making him one of the biggest men discovered." "Two savage wounds to his arm raise the possibility that he, too, was a gladiator." "The first mark looked at is a deep cut." "We noticed a lot of interesting injuries to his right ulna." "This is the right ulna, this is the elbow bone." "If I were to hold my hand up like this, it's this part of the bone that would be facing you." "As you can see here, there's a linear defect here." "This is sharp force trauma." "There's another linear defect here." "Again, this is sharp force trauma." "So someone was hacking at him with a bladed instrument, probably some sort of sword." "The muscular build and cut marks were all evidence that pointed to the man being one of the heavyweight gladiators, a class of fighter known as the murmillo." "Wielding a huge shield and a short but deadly blade, the murmillo combined brute force with skilful swordplay." "This helmet here is used by the murmillo and it's very impressive and characteristic with this brim." "This heavy massive thing is resting on your head." "It's not like something modern that's very lightweight material." "It's a lot of metal and the idea is that he's the most massive, he is the most impressive, physically so powerful to carry all the massive heavy armour that he does." "The murmillo's elaborate armour and dominating physique made him a crowd favourite." "No expense would have been spared on his training, or on his medical care." "The discovery of healed injuries on a number of the York skeletons was evidence that time and money had been spent patching up their wounds." "A gladiator who'd been injured in the arena would have had some first aid." "We know that doctors of that time knew about bleeding and how serious it was." "We know that they used vinegar for sterilising a wound." "We know that they used cautery, which is applying a hot iron to a burning area to stop it bleeding." "(MAN SCREAMS)" "We know they would have used sutures to tie bleeding vessels off." "Even the best medical practice available couldn't have saved this man from the horrific combination of wounds that brought him down." "The second savage injury on his arm completed the story of his last epic battle." "He's got a very nice, well, very nice for us, but not very nice for him, I'm afraid, butterfly fracture." "This is from a blunt implement which has struck the ulna in mid shaft." "(SCREAMS)" "It causes both compression and tension, so you get tension fractures here at this point and the bone breaks and you get compression fractures on both sides." "It creates this shape which is a little bit like the angled wings of a butterfly, hence the term "butterfly fracture"." "Not only was a sharp-bladed instrument used, but also another type of weapon as well." "The blows on the murmillo were evidence of a concerted attack by his opponent." "A gladiator's courage in the face of such onslaughts inspired admiration in all sections of the crowd." "The heroics of the fighters were recorded by the writer and senator Marcus Cicero." ""Just look at the gladiators, and consider the blows they endure." ""Consider how they who have been well-disciplined" ""prefer to accept a blow than ignominiously avoid it." ""They consider nothing other" ""than the satisfaction of their master or the people."" "The sword tore through the murmillo's ulna artery and nervous system." "It was a mortal wound." "There were no signs of healing." "If massive blood loss didn't kill him quickly, subsequent infection would have taken him within days." "The heavyweight was dead before he reached 25." "To keep their arenas stocked with fighters, gladiators were brought in from all over the Roman Empire." "The forensic team set out to discover where the men found in York originally came from." "The answer rested not in their bones, but in their teeth." "Unlike most human tissue, the chemical make-up of teeth changes little after childhood." "By analysing carbon and nitrogen isotopes in their teeth, the scientists gathered evidence about the geographical origins of the men." "The results established the men's childhood diets and from that data, informed assumptions could be made as to where in the world they grew up." "The findings from the skeletons were remarkable." "The men in the burial site originated from all over the Roman Empire." "It's very unusual to find this diverse mixture of people who appear to be from the southern Mediterranean, from central Europe, and from northern Europe all in one cemetery and all of one group." "They're much less likely to be soldiers, which is a possible explanation for some of these injuries, because in the Roman Empire they tended to recruit their soldiers from the same geographical region." "So they all spoke the same language, they all may have known each other quite well or known the region, so they were buddies, really." "Based on the isotopic tests, one man in particular came in for extra scrutiny." "His results suggested he was born at the other extreme of the Roman Empire" " North Africa." "To further narrow down the man's birthplace, the forensic team began a detailed examination of his skull." "We've gone through that process of data analysis and in the case of this particular individual, the shape of his skull is nearest to that of Ancient Egyptians." "At just over 1 metre 70 tall, with particularly well developed arm and shoulder muscles, the man had a build suited to that of the quick, highly skilled, middleweight swordsman known as a Thracian." "This helmet belonged to the Thracian." "And it's going to have this griffin on the top." "This represents the goddess that is protecting you, and that is Nemesis, the avenging goddess." "You want to think about this guy's life, his status, where he is, and how he wants to avenge himself, as it were, in his life as a gladiator." "You've also got a very particular and impressive kind of sword." "This is called a sica, and it's bent like this and with the idea of when you're striking and blowing, you're going to be cutting tendons, you're reaching round limbs and so forth." "It's quite horrific." "It's most likely this man was transported to York as a prisoner of war and a prized asset in the gladiatorial spectacle." "The remains of the people in the burial site in York come from all over the Roman Empire." "North Africa, the central Mediterranean basin, central Europe, and that's telling us something, if they are gladiators, what goes on in Roman society." "You are purchased in one place and you are rented out or contracted out to go to another place." "It's kind of like the sports figures today." "The great players of our professional sports teams don't just stay in their local environment." "They're being purchased and going to other places for more and more money." "His life's journey took him thousands of kilometres from his birthplace, but in York, the Thracian's days were numbered." "It was his skull that revealed the horrific way his life ended." "Something else that was interesting about this particular cranium is that it has this circular defect to the side of the frontal bone there." "There's a blow from a blunt instrument and it's come in and bashed this guy right on the forehead, right at this part of the head and it's of enough force to knock a whole piece of skull right through into the brain area." "Smashing into his brain, the skull fragments instantly destroyed the Thracian's frontal lobe." "Forensics established the injury happened at the time of death." "The nature of the brutal injury suggested it wasn't a fellow gladiator that ended his life." "Another altogether more sinister figure lurked in the wings, just as eager to deliver the killer blow." "The injury to his skull fitted perfectly with one of the great legends of the gladiator games - the ceremonial dispatching of immobilised gladiators by an executioner dressed as Charon, an ancient god of the underworld." "Charon is a very interesting and bizarre character in all gladiatorial spectacles." "He is the agent of death, he is like the god of death and he's going to ferry you over to the underworld." "And so the person comes out into the arena dressed like this god with a mask." "And he's got a massive hammer and he comes over to the apparently dead gladiator." "He is going to ensure as the agent of death that this person really is dead." "He'll strike the gladiator in the head so the audience knows this person's not faking it, this person is dead." "The forensic signature of the Charon-style execution, in conjunction with the tiger bites and unhealed sword wounds, is compelling proof to support the scientists' gladiator theory." "Forensic results from three further skeletons will provide even more evidence." "Six skeletons unearthed in an ancient cemetery in York have allowed archaeologists to discover more about the lives of gladiators than ever before." "The fourth body they scrutinized revealed a life lived in torment." "It was one of the bulkiest skeletons, and at nearly 40 years old, one of the oldest." "But it was the discovery of iron rings around the man's ankles that fired the archaeologists' curiosity." "These rings each weigh about 1kg and they were forged onto the individual while they were alive." "It's difficult to know exactly what these represent, because they're unique so far in the Roman world, but one possibility is that it could be evidence for slavery." "Forensic analysis reveals the devastating effect the iron rings had on the man's legs." "When we examined the bones, we can see here, on the shin bone, there's an area of swelling in the bone and this is a bony reaction and it's very likely to be as a result of the rings which were chafing against the skin." "So there would be, um, soft tissue injury, perhaps soft tissue infection in the bone and that's caused this bony reaction over a period of time." "It shows that those rings were on there for a long period of time." "A closer inspection exposed another shocking detail about the man's suffering." "This individual had a fracture of his fibula." "This is where the bone was broken." "Its fused back together again but it's fused slightly offset, and you can see the line here running diagonally where that fracture occurred." "Now, these are fairly typical of blows or force directed to one side of the leg." "We could speculate that this fracture of the fibula might've occurred when the rings were actually" "put on this individual in that they may have been beaten into place." "No, no!" "No, no!" "HAMMERING" "Might've been a slip of the hammer." "Very...unfortunate and painful." "We don't have anything like a similar injury here, so I don't think it was anything deliberate in the way of trying to partially cripple him." "With his thick-set frame and bulky muscles, the man's physique pointed to him being amongst the most ferocious of all the gladiators... the secutor." "This helmet here is used by the secutor, the guy that pursues." "So you think about him doing the pursuing and not being chased down by somebody else." "He is the one though that wears the heaviest armour, and you can see this really awe-inspiring kind of mask or helmet." "So you'd imagine physically the presence of the secutor is going to be very dominating in the arena." "He's going to be big, he's going to be large, he's going to be massive." "Deliberately handicapped by the iron rings, the York secutor had a special role to play in the games." "Having something like that visible in the arena is a sort of novelty of the gladiatorial spectacle, wearing something different that people are going to notice." "It's that kind of question we can raise when we look at this strange phenomenon." "Of all the bodies, the secutor was most clearly a slave, and yet he too had been buried with respect." "It's a paradox in keeping with the gladiator's place in Roman society." "There is an inherent contradiction in the life, in the persona of a gladiator, because on one hand, they're coming from the lowest form of society - they are the slaves - and at the same time they can become the superstars," "they can become the person everyone is talking about." "They're the ones that the women are swooning over, dream about this true man - this is still at the same time a slave." "The bestiarius, the murmillo, the Thracian and the secutor had no choice but to fight." "But the remains of the fifth skeleton told a very different side to the gladiator story." "From Central Europe, with a slight build, this man was one of the youngest recovered from the York graves." "As we were looking through the skeleton, we noticed this sharp forced trauma just above the knee, which would have been extremely painful and quite bloody and messy." "Now, that's quite an unusual place to get a sword blow." "Its very, very low." "This doesn't seem to make very much sense." "The deep slash wasn't the only feature that interested the forensic team." "As we looked at these more closely, we then noticed there was a slight deformation in the thigh bone." "As you look at the bone here, it starts to bend outwards." "Now, why should that be?" "Down this side of the thigh bones, the abductor muscles are arranged and among the things that the abductor muscles do is medially rotate the thighs, so that's bringing them in, as if you were trying to grip, say, the body of a horse." "It was an exciting find that suggested the team had uncovered a class of gladiator that fought on horseback, known as the equitis." "Gladiators typically come from the lowest form of society - the slaves - but the Roman society was very open, and even freed citizens could voluntarily become gladiators," "and their motivation is the fame, the glory and the money." "These freeborn gladiators often came from the upper echelons of Roman society." "They were the privileged, young male rebels of their day." "Accounts from the time described how even aristocrats could be driven to risk everything in the gladiatorial arena." "Young men who came from the wealthy families of the highest rank, suddenly separated from not only their wealth, but lacking even the basic necessities to sustain life and spirit, will not engage in everyday work, not being able to endure the drudgery of labour." "Their only alternative is take on a dangerous occupation that could cost them their life." "Now, if he was a horseman and riding on a horse, this sharp forced trauma here makes sense because his knee would actually be out in an elevated position, as he's riding past, if somebody hits him with a sword that" "may well be the cause of that injury." "It was a major wound that severed the tendons of the thigh muscles and branches of the femoral artery." "The loss of blood would have been enormous." "Forensics revealed no healing of the wound, nor could they find any other evidence of trauma on the horseman's body." "What may have been his first fight, was almost certainly his last." "Each body investigated by the scientists has given up more secrets of the gladiators' lives - their physical prowess and fighting styles..." "..their distant origins." "The deep and fatal wounds have laid bare the ferocity of the gladiatorial combat." "But it was a small, almost overlooked anomaly on the final body that shed light on one of the Roman games' darkest practices." "In his mid 30s, 1m 72 tall, with compact musculature, this seemingly unexceptional skeleton hid the secrets of a childhood lost to violence." "When we came up to this particular individual, we had a bit of a surprise." "When we were measuring the bones of his arms, we measured the humerus, this is the bone of the upper arm." "When we measured his left humerus, that's 322mm." "But when we measured his right humerus, it was 340mm in length." "That's a difference of 18mm." "Now, that is exceptional." "On closer inspection, distortions in arm length were discovered in almost one in seven of the York bodies." "It's a phenomenon that can be explained by modern sports science." "Motion-capture technology shows the effort this professional tennis player exerts as he repeatedly hits a ball at force." "Now, as in Ancient Rome, the impact of such intensive training leaves its mark on the body." "We know from tennis players, that if they start training below the age of puberty, then they tend to have a lot greater increase in arm length as opposed to those players who've started training heavily after puberty." "In order for the bones in York to have this 18mm discrepancy, that individual must have been training very intensively before the growth spurt started." "So they will have been training from a very young age right the way through puberty into adulthood." "The boy's over-developed right arm highlights how the gladiator trade exploited young slaves." "Though a master could justify killing a boy slave for being unruly, he was better off selling him to a lanista, the owner of a gladiator school, a man reviled as the lowest of the low in Roman society." "The poet Decimus Juvenalis summed up this contempt " ""He is no better than those who carry corpses to the pyre" ""or those who sell slaves under the authority of the spear" ""or those who clean out cesspools."" "There really is no age limit as to how old you have to be to be a gladiator." "Being a gladiator is simply based on the fact that you are a slave and you're being purchased and trained." "From the moment he entered the gladiator school, every aspect of the boy's life was geared to transforming him into a killing machine." "As an apprentice gladiator, he would have been a valuable investment protected and nourished until he was ready for the arena." "Locked in his bones were more clues that indicated the type of fighter he grew in to." "Interestingly, this individual has this feature here, which is a stress lesion on the collar bone." "This is the ligament that attaches here close to the neck." "It's involved in movements which involve a lot of circular rotation of the arm and the shoulder." "When he was younger, he was probably involved in activities which placed stress on his right arm in particular." "The boy's distinctive physique was a good match for the fighter known as a retiarius or net-man." "His owner, the lanista, now started to recoup his investment in the gladiator's training." "He would have hired him out on a fight-by-fight basis, the fee reflecting the fighter's expertise and reputation." "With so much money at stake, little was left to chance." "The training of a gladiator is a major financial investment, and the lanista, the investor, needs a return on that investment, so we cannot think of the gladiators during the Roman Empire as being always expendable." "CROWD CHANTS" "These are people that are properly trained, these are people that need to give a return on the investment on the part of the lanista and make that person rich." "CHEERING" "It was a ruthless business for which the York retiarius was to pay a terrifying price." "The York Retiarius, or net fighter, had been trained for the arena since childhood." "His skills as a showman would have been as valuable to his owner as his ability to fight." "When we're thinking of parallels with the gladiatorial games, we can look, seriously, at professional wrestling." "CROWD CHEERS" "You have individuals that are at their physical prime." "They're physically dominating the arena." "You're staring at them, you're just in awe of all that muscle." "A lot of posturing, a lot of physical dominance from the worked-out bodies of these individuals." "It's that kind of finessing in the presentation that adds a lot of drama to the fight." "It's much more than just swordplay." "For the crowd, the ultimate thrill of the games was the death of a gladiator." "Such bloody conclusions came at a price." "The gladiator's owner, the lanista, was heavily compensated if any of his fighters were sacrificed in the ring." "Death is a key component of training as a gladiator." "So getting prepared for death is an essential component of being a gladiator, because every time you go in the arena, you are facing death." "Forensics performed on this York skeleton showed that his career could have lasted as long as 20 years." "When he was finally defeated, he would have known exactly what to expect, and just as importantly, what was expected of him." "The fate of the Retiarius now rested in the hands of one man... ..the editor." "As the host of the games, he'd paid the lanista for his fighters, and bought the power of life or death over them." "A defeated gladiator could appeal to the editor for mercy." "But there were times when his decision was a foregone conclusion." "If you want to have a real bloodbath or tell everyone you're going to see a lot of blood, then you say these games are being held Sine Missione." "There is no reprieve." "You're definitely going to see somebody die." ""What even mediocre gladiator ever groans, ever" ""alters the expression on his face?" ""Which one of them acts shamefully, either standing or falling?" ""And which of them, even when he does succumb," ""ever contracts his neck when ordered to receive the blow?"" "There are a lot of ways in which gladiators are put to death." "Sometimes they get their throat slit." "Sometimes they've got a sword going down the back of the neck." "We have some depictions of swords being thrust right down the throats of the gladiators." "In York, we have a compelling body of evidence for a lot of people that are buried, and they've been decapitated." "This is the fate that awaited the York Retiarius, the same fate shared by over 40 of the bodies found in York." "He was decapitated in quite a brutal and frenzied manner." "We can see here, there's a slice right through his third cervical vertebra." "There's about eight blows... ..from behind, from the front, and from the side which were involved in the decapitation." "There is no other record of gladiators being beheaded after defeat." "It was possible that the men in York were victims of a local, crowd-pleasing variation." "Roman York was a garrison town, home to thousands of soldiers who would have been the dominant element in the arena crowd." "They're coming from the Celtic region." "They're coming from around the Danube." "And these are places where there's a long tradition for beheading." "Could that be a tradition that's been rolled into the gladiatorial spectacle?" "It definitely would have been very impressive to see those heads rolling." "When the Romans left York in 410 AD, gladiatorial games, like the Empire itself, were falling into decline." "1,600 years later, forensics from six skeletons have revealed remarkable new insights into the lives of the men who died in Rome's arenas." "They were forced to fight to make other men rich, traded like commodities and readily sacrificed if the price was right." "Yet their unflinching bravery in the face of death celebrated the ruthless and fatalistic ethos of the empire that enslaved them." "They died its heroes." ""The gladiator may test the pity of the people," ""but you will neither lower your weapon nor beg for life." ""You must die erect and unyielding." ""Moreover, what profit is it to gain a few days or a few years?" ""There is no discharge for us from the moment we are born."" "Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd"