Gladiator training as a hobby

[Sean Manning]

I'm not sure if there is written anything on it, other then references to rich people (or suns of richt people) who got private training. At least I don't know any discussion of it in Junkelmann, Shadrake, Nossov and some others.

Since I'm a grad student, that phrase is music to my ears. It wasn't just rich people (at least in fiction): there is a teenaged slave in Petronius who seems to own Thracian arms (although the text is unclear). The class of Romans who drove the book market were just most interested in elites who shamed themselves by performing in public.

I will also check Poliakoff.

I'm having trouble putting my thoughts into words, but people often dismiss martial arts (or training) which isn't rough enough or isn't aimed at the right sort of violence. You see this when sports stylists boast of their brutal training and testing, and duelling stylists boast that they are learning to win real fights not some game, and self defense stylists mock them both for not being prepared for a mugging or a rape attempt. So I'm not surprised if scholars focus on real gladiators, doing something so unusual, rather than on mock combat with similar equipment.