Fik Meijer, The Gladiators (New York: St. Martins Press, 2005)
The Gladiators by Fik Meijer. Meijer has compiled an informative and entertaining book on the gladiators of ancient Rome. The focus of this book is on the various conditions that led to the rise of the gladiator games as well as the fact that the games were a way for Rome to show its domination over nature and all things human and that the games were a way for emperor’s to improve upon their popularity. Meijer uses mostly primary sources in compiling this work by authors such as Tacitus, Augustus and Cassius Dio to name a few. In this review I will focus on the following areas. First I will give an overall evaluation of the book followed by a brief summary of the main ideas. Second I will discuss whether or not the author does a good job of covering the subject thoroughly. Finally I will comment on the clarity or lack of clarity of The Gladiators.
The Gladiators is an excellent source on the gladiators of ancient Rome. Meijer pays particular attention to the aspects of the gladiators life aside from what happened within the Coliseum or other venue. The author appears to focus more on the less “exciting” aspects as a way to emphasize more than fighting. The book begins by discussing the games that preceded the gladiator games. The most important of these were chariot races. According to the author these races were held throughout the empire but the most important location was the Circus Maximus. The Circus Maximus was an enormous venue, with a capacity of around two-hundred thousand in which drivers and their chariots would be pulled by teams of either two or four horses. Meijer goes into great detail of how each stable would be represented by a particular color red, blue, green, or yellow, and supporters of these stables would carry banners representing these colors. Additionally Meijer discusses the danger to both the animals and drivers during these events. Meijer...