Great introduction, primarily for younger surfers, but instructive and humorous for all. Follow your fate in cartoon form, as you're captured, sold, trained as a gladiator... and then put to fight in the arena.
Check out especially the "Who's Who" page!
Based on the book You Wouldn't Want To Be A Roman Gladiator!

This fantastic website has an excellent section on gladiator "games" as well as on the Colosseum. The wonderful illustrations are large and clear, and there are many hyperlinks to other parts of the site. for instance, click on the hyperlink "free-specatcles" to learn about the origin of gladiatorial contests.
Use the the drop-down menus for full navigation of the site with loads more info.

Good web-page on gladiators and amphitheaters.

Another good site from the BBC, dealing briefly with gladiator origins, styles of fighting, barrack life, and graffiti.

Excellent discussion of the movie by Alan Ward of Connecticut University.

Haven't yet seen the film? Here's the original trailer.

Movie poster of the Gladiator (Russell Crowe).

The tigers may have been chained for the film, but in Roman times...

Despite being slow to load, this is a great little game where you have to correctly supply the arms and armour for different types of gladiators. Use the clues to pick the correct weapons for them. Your choice of weapons and armour will decide whether or not they are victorious.

The amphitheater is a Roman invention, but what is it exactly? The differences between theaters and amphitheaters graphically explained. Excellent!

The greatest of all Roman amphitheaters was the Colosseum in Rome. Excellent animation (courtesy Discovery Channel/BBC) providing short, precise information on various areas of the arena.

One of the best & most accurate computer-generated images on the web.

Fact-packed, easy-to-access web-pages produced by the BBC and Prof. Keith Hopkins.

Detailed website on this amphitheater's history and architecture of the arena; more suitable for older surfers.

This fabulous aerial view kicks off this collection of great views:

- exterior

- interior showing the corridors and niches under the arena where the beasts & gladiators were kept;

- at night;

- the collapsed exterior wall revealing inner walls;

- model;

- cut-away model;
- computer reconstruction showing the statue of the emperor Nero shown as the sun god Helios, the colossal size of which gave the arena its name in the Middle Ages.

- "the Square Colosseum" (aka "Palazzo della Civilt� Italiana"), built 1938-43 in a modern suburb of Rome called EUR.

Good, illustrated article from the Smithsonian magazine about recent discoveries of how the trapdoors and cages under the floor of the amphitheater worked.

Description, photos and plans of the actual remains.

More links:

- aerial view.

- official webpage.

Famous fresco of a riot in and around Pompeii's amphitheater in 59 AD. Note the awning shielding spectators from the sun.
From House I-3-23 in Pompeii; now in National Archaeological Museum, Naples.
The Roman historian Tacitus records this riot:
"About the same time a trifling beginning led to frightful bloodshed between the inhabitants of Nuceria and Pompeii, at a gladiatorial show exhibited by Livineius Regulus, who had been, as I have related, expelled from the Senate. With the unruly spirit of townsfolk, they began with abusive language of each other; then they took up stones and at last weapons, the advantage resting with the populace of Pompeii, where the show was being exhibited. And so there were brought to Rome a number of the people of Nuceria, with their bodies mutilated by wounds, and many lamented the deaths of children or of parents. The emperor entrusted the trial of the case to the Senate, and the Senate to the consuls, and then again the matter being referred back to the Senators, the inhabitants of Pompeii were forbidden to have any such public gathering for ten years, and all associations they had formed in defiance of the laws were dissolved. Livineius and the others who had excited the disturbance, were punished with exile."
From Annals Bk.14.17.

More links:

- interior view.

- interior corridor.

More photos:

- arena including description;

- an internal corridor;

- a modern performance;

- aerial view.

Beautiful aerial photo of the 3rd largest amphitheater in the Roman world. More photos:

- anothe aerial view;
- exterior 1;
- exterior 2;

- old photo of exterior before modern buildings built close by;

- interior view;

- the long trapdoor cavity.

As rebuilt c.180 AD the amphitheater at Chester was a rather splendid building with engaged columns runnning around the exterior.

Part of the arena is preserved and dramatically lit under the Guildhall art gallery in a stunning display, while other parts of the arena are outlined in Guldhall Yard.

First built in AD 70 when it was made of timber, the arena was enlarged in the 2nd C. with its outer walls re-built of stone. It held 6000 spectators - when the population of London was between 20-30,000. It was abandoned in the 4th Cent.

Detailed with images.

Short description with ancient images.

One of several gladiator helmets found in the quadriporticus of the theater in Pompeii which had been rebuilt as gladiator barracks.

This was the helmet of a Thraex (Thracian) gladiator and was decorated with a tall solid crest terminating in the head of a griffin, the companion of Nemesis, goddess of vengeance and retribution. It was decorated with feathers placed in sockets on the sides, and a plume could be fastened to the crest.

Now in the National Archaeological Museum, Naples.

Said to be also from the quadriporticus of the theater in Pompeii.
In the British Museum, London.

From quadriporticus in Pompeii; now in the National Archaeological Museum, Naples.

Again from the quadriporticus in Pompeii; now in the National Archaeological Museum, Naples.

Fresco of two gladiators fighting painted on the wall of a the Tomb of Vestorius Priscus in Pompeii.

As shown on p.105 of CLC Book 1.

Fresco of two gladiators fighting painted on the wall of a the Tomb of Vestorius Priscus in Pompeii.

As shown on p.132 of CLC Unit 1.

This superb sculpture shows gladiators in action: the round-shielded Hoplomachus or Samnite is surounded by three Secutores. It's part of a much larger funerary monument of Lucius Storax.
In the National Archaeological Museum of Chieti in Italy.

These sculptures, found in 2007, once probably decorated the inside of a tomb. Pairs of gladiators fight to the music of horns and trumpets. More images.

Dating to late 1st-century BC, they are now in the Lucus Feroniae Museum of Archaeology near Rome.

Yes - on occassions women did fight as gladiators in the arena.
This sculpture even gives their tough stage names - Amazon and Achilia. Originally from Halikarnassos (modern Bodrum) in Turkey, and now in the British Museum, London.

Each gladiator is coached by his trainer. In L'Aquila Museum, Amiternum, Italy.

Wonderful mosaic - of a terrible ordeal. The duels between the "net-man" and the "chaser" were always popular. The referee (or summa rudis from the rod, rudis, that he carried) adjudicates.

This detail is part of a stunning mosaic floor in Nennig, a town 30 miles south of Trier in Germany. Made of nearly 3 million tesserae (cubes of stone), it dates to the 200's AD. The mosaic, is housed in its reconstructed Roman villa in Nennig.

Further description.

Lightly-armed and lightly-armoured, the "net-men" always seem the under-dogs. Here, though, the nets have been thrown and their opponents entrapped.

In the National Archaeological Museum, Madrid.

He's lost his net, but the retiarius has the uper hand.

Detail from another major "gladiator mosaic", this one from a villa in Bad Kreuznach,Germany.

The left-handed Thracian, distinguished by his curved, griffin-crested helmet has lost his shield.

Here's the whole mosaic from above.

These gladiators carried a small shield and sword.

In the Roman villa at Bad Kreuznach,Germany

The Romans also liked "unusual" pairings, presumably such as these gladiators armed merely with whips and rods.

Another detail from the Nennig mosaic, as described above.

Part of another famous "gladiator mosaic", this one originally from Torre Nuova near Rome. The dead gladiators are marked with a theta, the first letter of the Greek word for death - thanatos.

In the Galleria Borghese, Rome.

from Augusta Raurica (modern Augst) near Basel, Switzerland; on display in the town museum.

One of these guys is on stilts! Honest! Image of the "Magirius Mosaic" from Smirat, near El-djem in Tunisia. In the Museum of Sousse, Tunisia.

in the Hermitage Museum, Russia.

This is the Colchester Vase, one of the most famous pots from Roman Britain. It was made in Colchester about AD 175 and shows a fight between two gladiators. An inscription scratched on the pot tells us their names: Memnon and Valentinius.

in the British Museum.

Roman fresco of hunter confronting a lion.

Originally painted on the barrier surrounding the arena in the amphitheater of Merida (ancient Augusta Emerita) in Spain; now in the city's National Museum of Roman Art.

As depicted on p.110 of CLC Book 1.

Roman fresco of hunter confronting a lion.

Originally painted on the barrier surrounding the arena in the amphitheater of Merida (ancient Augusta Emerita) in Spain; now in the city's National Museum of Roman Art.

As depicted on p.137 of CLC Unit 1.

Part of the same fresco as above, but here a lion attacks another animal (a wildebeest or large wild boar?).
Again, in the National Museum of Roman Art at Merida in Spain.

Bestiarius killing a leopard.

In the Roman villa at Bad Kreuznach,Germany.

Another bestiarius killing a leopard.

At Nennig Roman villa, Germany.

The venator was a specialised hunter and often rode on horseback.

The hunted animals include a deer, an antelope, a lion, a leopard and a bear.

This is the central panel from the magnificent mosaic in the Roman villa at Bad Kreuznach, Germany.

Tiger and antelope.

At Nennig Roman villa, Germany.

Tiger and donkey.

In the Roman villa at Bad Kreuznach,Germany

Bestiarius and bear.

In the Roman villa at Bad Kreuznach,Germany

Bestiarii and bear.

From Nennig Roman villa, Germany.

Elephant and boa constrictor snake...

From Carthage.

In a more humane scene, the trainer pats his lion.

From Nennig Roman villa, Germany.

Similar fate for this condemned man. From Zliten, near Leptis Magna, and now in the Archaeological Museum in Tripoli, Libya.

Leopards being hunted. The "Magirius Mosaic" from Smirat, near El-Djem, Tunisia.

Bestiarii fighting lions.

In the Museum of Roman Civilization, Rome.

To add "drama" and to entertain the crowd, musicians played before, after and presumably during the gladiatorial contests.
This organist and trumpeter are from Nennig Roman villa in Germany.
As depicted on p. 107 of CLC Unit 1.

Found at Zliten, on the coast east of Leptis Magna.

Now in the Archaeological Museum, Tripoli, Libya.