Gladiator: Rome's Bloody Spectacle by Konstantin Nossov

Gladiator: Rome's Bloody Spectacle

Gladiator is an extremely informative and well written account of the phenomenon that whipped the Roman world into a frenzy for the better part of seven centuries. This book is a detailed account of everything related to the ultra violent world of the premier sporting event and icons of the ancient world. Konstantin Nossov is from Moscow and is a researcher in and advisor on ancient and medieval arms, armour and warfare, as well as the author of numerous books and articles on the subject. This book was originally published in Russian in 2005 but has thankfully been translated into English

I wrote a review of this book for Ancient Warfare magazine which you could read here:

http://www.ludus-nemesis.eu/aw4-1_p54.pdf