Gladiator
Train at a gladiator school and perform for a full arena. The swords are wooden, the crowd is real and the thumbs, mostly, go up.
264 BC – AD 404About the role
For more than six hundred years, gladiators were the most famous performers in Rome. They trained for years at specialist schools, fought in particular styles and appeared only a few times a year. Crowds knew their names, and fans scratched their pictures on the walls of Pompeii.
At the Ludus Magnus Replica, you'll train in one fighting style, with a trainer and a wooden sword, then perform in the arena for an audience of members. Bouts are choreographed, safe and still quite frightening. Nobody is harmed. Everyone is very loud.
What you'll do
- Train every morning with your doctor, the school's veteran trainer.
- Choose a fighting style and learn its moves, armor and weapons.
- Perform in the arena twice a season, with conviction.
- Salute the crowd before and after each bout.
- Sign walls, sandals and wax tablets for your fans.
What we're looking for
- Good physical fitness, or a willingness to acquire it.
- Stage presence in front of a large crowd.
- Comfort in a helmet you can only see out of through small holes.
- A sense of drama. The crowd votes.
Perks
- A wooden swordThe rudis, Rome's symbol of a gladiator's retirement. Awarded at the end of your placement.
- A barley dietGladiators were nicknamed “barley men”. Ours is cooked by a nutritionist.
- Your name on the wallPainted by a fan outside the arena. Spelling not guaranteed.
