{"id":105681,"date":"2025-10-31T13:54:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T17:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=105681"},"modified":"2025-10-31T14:18:42","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T18:18:42","slug":"brock-expert-helps-bring-epic-stories-of-gladiators-to-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2025\/10\/brock-expert-helps-bring-epic-stories-of-gladiators-to-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Brock expert helps bring \u2018epic stories\u2019 of gladiators to life"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Hollywood movies to headlines on archeological discoveries, fascination with gladiators has long outlived its Roman roots \u2013 a phenomenon Professor of Classics and Archaeology Michael Carter says is fueled by a desire for \u201cepic stories for the ages.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carter, whose research focuses on Roman sport and spectacles, is sharing his expertise in a new documentary series now streaming on National Geographic.<\/p>\n

The six-episode series, Gladiators – Warriors of the Ancient World<\/a><\/em>, tells the origin stories of iconic gladiators, following the ancient combatants on their life-or-death journeys to the Colosseum.<\/p>\n

\"A

Professor Michael Carter, seen above visiting the site of the ancient Flavian Amphitheatre in Pozzuoli, conducts research related to the social and cultural significance of gladiatorial contests and similar Roman spectacles.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThanks to historical and literary sources like ancient inscriptions, epitaphs and even poetry, we have brought these stories to life, imagining alongside audiences what it would have been like to be a gladiator experiencing combat in front of thousands of cheering \u2014 and jeering \u2014 spectators,\u201d Carter says.<\/p>\n

One episode, for example, tells the tale of Spartacus, a key player in the famous slave revolt of the Roman Republic in first century CE.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have pieced together where Spartacus might have come from and who he might have been; based on historical facts, the Nat Geo documentary outlines what it might have been like for Spartacus training in gladiatorial school and what lead to his breakout during the slave revolt,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Other historical figures featured in the series include Spiculus, a famous gladiator and favourite of infamous Roman emperor Nero, and Marcus Attilius, a Roman gladiator known only from three distinct \u201cgraffito\u201d \u2014 texts or drawings scratched into a wall \u2014 on a tomb at Pompeii depicting three of his fights.<\/p>\n

Another episode features the \u201cbeast fighter\u201d Carpophorus, who in 80 CE had poems written about his torrid battles against a lion, bear and leopard at the opening games of the Colosseum.<\/p>\n

According to Carter, the gladiator battles of ancient Rome remain culturally relevant because modern-day society is still just as enamoured with the spectacle of sport as it was in antiquity.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur collective enjoyment of large-scale organized sport has never dulled, evidenced in the millions of dollars spent on athletes worldwide, and occurrence of the Olympics every two years where the \u2018best of humanity\u2019 is idealized in a global context,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Gladiator warriors in particular have always carried elevated mystique stemming from the perceived honour and glory of fighting for their lives, Carter says, a defining component of ancient era sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can imagine what it would have been like to experience thousands of people chanting in an arena,\u00a0 potentially fighting for their lives \u2014 it\u2019s a familiar theme that we see across many movies and books across multiple storytelling genres,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Foundational to Carter\u2019s research is a continued exploration of the impact and social importance of ancient sport, both as a cultural practice and form of entertainment,\u00a0and its influence on identity and culture both in antiquity and today.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am thrilled to have been invited to be part of this Nat Geo project, it\u2019s one more way this compelling history is being shared with the world,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Hollywood movies to headlines on archeological discoveries, fascination with gladiators has long outlived its Roman roots \u2013 a phenomenon Professor of Classics and Archaeology Michael Carter says is fueled by a desire for \u201cepic stories for the ages.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":105687,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[37,1],"tags":[11474,1583,14914,30,4325,14915],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105681"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105681"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105689,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105681\/revisions\/105689"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}