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People of all walks of life were either driven or pulled to become a gladiator in Ancient Rome. Some were taken captive on the battlefield and sold into slavery; others willingly gave up their freedom in repayment of debts, crimes or simply to seek fame and fortune. Even emperors competed in gladiatorial games. Wherever you can from before, the life of a gladiator was harsh (emperors competed in the games occasionally but where never tru...

The Roman Gladius was effectively used for centuries and during that time saw few changes in design, but the ones it did see were significant. The Maintz pattern being an evolution of the spatha and the Pompeii evolving further from the Maintz pattern. The most easily identified differences are the body style of the blade and the point of the sword. Right from the beginning a person can see that the body of these two styles vary from each oth...