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> If everyone around them is eating meat, where's the motive for them to abstain? Presumably as a gladiatorial slave you wouldnt need to worry about abstaining

> If everyone around them is eating meat, where's the motive for them to abstain? Presumably as a gladiatorial slave you wouldnt need to worry about abstaining from food choices. I’m a marathon runner and my best runs are in full on ketosis. I’ve experimented with a vegitarian ketosis diet but never did a full marathon while eating like that, but felt pretty good otherwise. There are some UFC fighters who eat vegetarian, paleo, keto, some trying the “warrior diet” (which I think is like paleo with some intermittent fasting...but not entirely sure what those athletes are really doing daily). It’s also worth noting most of the recent studies on gladiators also suggest they were not lean and resembled more of the strongman contest physiques.

ryanmercer 8y ago
>Presumably as a gladiatorial slave you wouldnt need to worry about abstaining from food choices. It is worth noting that many gladiators, and Olympic competitors, were in fact not slaves and many were actually quite wealthy. Gladiators would do alright purely off of sexual relationships, rather high-class Roman maids and matrons like Hippia actually walked away from her family to be with a gladiator. There are many rumors from the time that allege various sons of powerful people to be bastard offspring of gladiators. There's even tell of some being 'the care and suffering of women' such as one byt he name of Hermes that Martial wrote of. You can tell how wealthy some were simply by looking at the fines issued to them. If you look at charioteers Theogenes and Porphyrius you can see good examples, Theogenes for example was once fined 2 talents for withdrawing from an event (about 250k dollars). If you look at a 2nd century prize table from Aphrodisias you see 500-3000 drachmas and there were several games referred to as 'the 3000-drachma Games', some would see prizes of 6000 drachma and in at least one instance of 30,000 drachma (about 100 years of a solderier's pay) being paid for a single athlete just to appear. At the Panathenaic games the lowest prize was 100 amphrae of olive oil, about 225k$ worth and winners were often fed by their home city for life if they won. Diocles, another charioteer, would compete for prizes up to 60,000 sesterces at a time which would be worth 2.5-3 million dollars today and if you look at his known life time winnings you get 35.8 million sesterces making him a billionaire and then some in today's dollars.
- warent 8y ago
  Where did you learn all this? I feel like I could have kept reading this post forever. If you have any books to recommend, that would be amazing.
  - ryanmercer 8y ago
    A book titled "Manthropology: The Science of Why the Modern Male Is Not the Man He Used to Be" by Peter McAllister (bahahaha I just realized that's the same name from Home Alone). Everything in the book should be taken as liberal interpretation of history, however that being said he does cite where he gets facts and figures from so you can do your own research of the subjects. Here's a source of the 30k figure https://books.google.com/books?id=QMgsAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA74&lpg=PA74&dq=30,000+drachma+inscription&source=bl&ots=xAAKo4aegQ&sig=vcQu_BUxGqNpnrBeaUVWG8jxTWA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj9q4nPlYTfAhUHvFkKHeB6Cz4Q6AEwBHoECAUQAQ#v=onepage&q=30%2C000%20drachma%20inscription&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=QMgsAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA74&lpg=P... Here's an article that actually puts Diocles worth 15 billion https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7942699/Wealth-of-todays-sports-stars-is-no-match-for-the-fortunes-of-Romes-chariot-racers.html https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/794...
- will_brown 8y ago
  >It is worth noting that many gladiators, and Olympic competitors, were in fact not slaves and many were actually quite wealthy. Hence my qualifier gladiatorial slave. Yes presumably a free gladiator had more choice than a gladiatorial slave. Your use of “many”, doesn’t shed much light on the subject, by all accounts most were slaves, free gladiators were definitely the exception not the rule. But yes some were the superstar athletes of their day and the wealth (women) that goes along with that status.
- Someone 8y ago
  Wikipedia On Diocles (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaius_Appuleius_Diocles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaius_Appuleius_Diocles): His winnings reportedly totaled 35,863,120 sesterces, allegedly, over $15 billion in today’s dollars, an amount which could provide a year's supply of grain to the entire city of Rome

ryanmercer 8y ago

>Presumably as a gladiatorial slave you wouldnt need to worry about abstaining from food choices. It is worth noting that many gladiators, and Olympic competitors, were in fact not slaves and many were actually quite wealthy. Gladiators would do alright purely off of sexual relationships, rather high-class Roman maids and matrons like Hippia actually walked away from her family to be with a gladiator. There are many rumors from the time that allege various sons of powerful people to be bastard offspring of gladiators. There's even tell of some being 'the care and suffering of women' such as one byt he name of Hermes that Martial wrote of. You can tell how wealthy some were simply by looking at the fines issued to them. If you look at charioteers Theogenes and Porphyrius you can see good examples, Theogenes for example was once fined 2 talents for withdrawing from an event (about 250k dollars). If you look at a 2nd century prize table from Aphrodisias you see 500-3000 drachmas and there were several games referred to as 'the 3000-drachma Games', some would see prizes of 6000 drachma and in at least one instance of 30,000 drachma (about 100 years of a solderier's pay) being paid for a single athlete just to appear. At the Panathenaic games the lowest prize was 100 amphrae of olive oil, about 225k$ worth and winners were often fed by their home city for life if they won. Diocles, another charioteer, would compete for prizes up to 60,000 sesterces at a time which would be worth 2.5-3 million dollars today and if you look at his known life time winnings you get 35.8 million sesterces making him a billionaire and then some in today's dollars.

warent 8y ago
Where did you learn all this? I feel like I could have kept reading this post forever. If you have any books to recommend, that would be amazing.
- ryanmercer 8y ago
  A book titled "Manthropology: The Science of Why the Modern Male Is Not the Man He Used to Be" by Peter McAllister (bahahaha I just realized that's the same name from Home Alone). Everything in the book should be taken as liberal interpretation of history, however that being said he does cite where he gets facts and figures from so you can do your own research of the subjects. Here's a source of the 30k figure https://books.google.com/books?id=QMgsAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA74&lpg=PA74&dq=30,000+drachma+inscription&source=bl&ots=xAAKo4aegQ&sig=vcQu_BUxGqNpnrBeaUVWG8jxTWA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj9q4nPlYTfAhUHvFkKHeB6Cz4Q6AEwBHoECAUQAQ#v=onepage&q=30%2C000%20drachma%20inscription&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=QMgsAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA74&lpg=P... Here's an article that actually puts Diocles worth 15 billion https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7942699/Wealth-of-todays-sports-stars-is-no-match-for-the-fortunes-of-Romes-chariot-racers.html https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/794...
will_brown 8y ago
>It is worth noting that many gladiators, and Olympic competitors, were in fact not slaves and many were actually quite wealthy. Hence my qualifier gladiatorial slave. Yes presumably a free gladiator had more choice than a gladiatorial slave. Your use of “many”, doesn’t shed much light on the subject, by all accounts most were slaves, free gladiators were definitely the exception not the rule. But yes some were the superstar athletes of their day and the wealth (women) that goes along with that status.
Someone 8y ago
Wikipedia On Diocles (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaius_Appuleius_Diocles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaius_Appuleius_Diocles): His winnings reportedly totaled 35,863,120 sesterces, allegedly, over $15 billion in today’s dollars, an amount which could provide a year's supply of grain to the entire city of Rome