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Gladiatorial combat really was a bloodsport

You may have seen a story in the news recently about somebody who has a theory that when gladiators fought, it was primarily a martial arts exhibition, and not a real fight.

To amuse the crowds around the arena the gladiators would display broad fighting skills rather than fight for their lives, argues archaeologist Steve Tuck of the University of Miami. "Gladiatorial combat is seen as being related to killing and shedding blood," he says. "But I think that what we are seeing is an entertaining martial art that was spectator-oriented."

Well, Cronaca says don't you believe it. Besides problems with the methodology of Tuck's research, we've got the cemetaries of gladiators filled with guys who'd been stabbed between the shoulder blades to prove it.