On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we look at the ultimate form of sports entertainment—Roman Gladiators. Everyone pictures these brave, bloodthirsty men performing for the crowd and emperor, but there is a lot more to their tale. For one, a lot of them were slaves or prisoners of war. Another thing is, they became crazy popular, becoming the celebrities of their era. There is still graffiti in places about girls in love with gladiators! There were no gladiators without the crowds, and we talk about the scope of gladiatorial games as well as how politicians used them in corrupt ways to sway the politics of the empire! Visit Our Sources: https://www.historyextra.com/period/roman/who-were-roman-gladiators-famous-spartacus-crixus/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladiator https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-roman-gladiators https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/gladiators/gladiators.html https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/5-fast-and-furious-facts-about-the-lives-of-gladiators https://www.bbc.com/news/education-29723384#:~:text=Roman%20gladiators%20had%20a%20diet,University%20of%20Bern%20in%20Switzerland. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Roman_gladiator_types