Not Crowe - Roman Gladiators Said To Have Been Chunky Vegetarians

[matcom]

<snip>

HOLLYWOOD has portrayed them as muscle-bound and handsome, but Austrian anthropologists have found evidence suggesting Roman gladiators were overweight vegetarians who bore scant resemblance to Russell Crowe.

The scientists did tests on skeletons of two types of gladiator - the myrmillos and retiariae - found at the ancient site of Ephesus, near Selcuk in Turkey.

"Tests performed on bits of bone taken from the skeletons of some 70 gladiators buried at Ephesus seem to prove that they ate mainly barley, beans and dried fruit," said Karl Grossschmidt, of Austria's Institute of Archeology.

"This diet, which has been mentioned in the oral history, is rather sad but it gave the gladiators a lot of strength even if it made them fat."

The paleo-anthropologists from Austria relied on a method known as elementary microanalysis to determine what a human being ate during his lifetime. Using a sonar, they established the chemical concentrations in cells of bone samples from the skeletons.

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,9199018%255E13762,00.html

[nuxvomica]

1. The anthropologists maintain slim figures themselves

by regularly jumping to conclusions. That diet, which is actually pretty healthy, wouldn't necessarily make someone fat but it's not very newsworthy just to say gladiators were vegetarians.

[RebelOne]

2. Since I am a vegetarian, I find this quite newsworthy.

[Brewman_Jax]

3. Roman history week on Discovery Channel

did an excellent series of article on the gladiators. Nicknamed "barleycrunchers" for the bland but hearty stew they ate. It is thought that the extra weight provides added protection from weapons' cuts while in the arena.