11-27-2007, 07:45 PM
Quote:A rather old one , but still good is "Gladiators" by the famous historian Michael Grant - covers all aspects ( but alas probably out of print now )
I just finished reading a reprint by Penguin books from 2000 of the slightly revised 1971 version and I disliked this book totally. In my opinion in a scientific book the author should have a neutral point of view and should not put his own aversions into the writing. But this Michael Grant did, he detests gladiatorial games so much I'm wondering why he wrote about it at all.
Also he mixed it up if he was talking about gladiators or the condemned criminals who had to fight in the arena, for him it's all the same. He tries to put our today's moral upon the Romans but does not make an attempt to see why the Roman thought so differently. This Thomas Wiedemann had done very well in his book "Emperors and Gladiators", he tried to blend out our today's view and tried to find a way to see the whole thing from the Roman side.
