Gladiators and the Roman Psyche: Interview with Dr. Harry Sidebottom
Tides of History
Audible / Patrick Wyman
4.7 • 6.5K Ratings
🗓️ 2 April 2026
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Gladiators are one of the most instantly recognizable yet alien aspects of Roman society, and Dr. Harry Sidebottom's new book - Those Who Are About to Die - offers a cutting-edge view of these fascinating entertainers based on the most recent research. We discuss what recent research has revealed about their lives, why the Romans were so intrigued by them, and why they matter today.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Audible subscribers can listen to all episodes of Tides of History ad-free right now. |
| 0:05.2 | Join Audible today by downloading the Audible ad... |
| 0:09.7 | Hi, everybody. From Audible, welcome to another episode of Tides of History. |
| 0:18.1 | I'm Patrick Wyman. Thanks so much for joining me today. |
| 0:21.3 | When we think of the Roman world in the popular imagination, gladiators are one of the first things |
| 0:26.1 | to come to mind. Muscular, oiled-up warriors performing on the sands for the adulation of the |
| 0:31.3 | crowd, spilling blood and spending their lives to entertain the populace Romanus. But what was the reality of gladiatorial combat, and how did Romans understand their peculiar |
| 0:42.0 | institution? |
| 0:43.5 | What did it mean to them, and why does it matter today? |
| 0:47.2 | We couldn't hope to have a better guest to help us answer those questions with us here today. |
| 0:52.4 | Dr. Harry's sidebottom is lecturer in ancient history at |
| 0:55.5 | Lincoln College, Oxford, and the author of numerous books. He's written a great deal of excellent |
| 1:00.7 | historical fiction, including the Warrior of Rome series, along with numerous nonfiction titles |
| 1:05.5 | focusing on ancient warfare, the emperor Elagabulus, and many more topics. His most recent book is entitled |
| 1:12.0 | Those Who Are About to Die. I enjoyed the heck out of it, and I think you will too. |
| 1:17.1 | Dr. Sidebottom, thank you so much for joining me today. It's an absolute pleasure. Thank you, |
| 1:21.5 | Patrick. So why write a new book about gladiators? What pulled you to this topic? |
| 1:27.3 | As you just said, I mean, |
| 1:28.6 | when modern guys think about Rome, ancient Rome, I guess the gladiator is the iconic figure |
| 1:34.0 | they think of. And I've spent my whole career reading about Rome, thinking about it, teaching it, |
| 1:40.6 | writing about it, and I'd never address gladiators. So I guess they were just |
| 1:44.8 | the elephant in the room. And as for why, a new book, I guess you could say I did my due diligence |
... |
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