Gladiators of Britain

Gladiators are in the news at the moment. This is no doubt due to the release of Gladiator II which appears to have had a far from favourable response from many film critics and a similarly unfavourable one from many experts in Roman history. 

Perhaps coincidentally, or perhaps not knowing how commercially minded the national collections have become, the British Museum is publicising a major travelling exhibition for next year entitled Gladiators of Britain. This opens in January at Dorchester in the splendid Dorset County Museum before moving onto Northampton, then to Chester, and finally to Carlisle before it closes in early 2026. The British Museum website about the exhibition can be seen at Gladiators of Britain

There is an introductory video with the discussion of some of the principal exhibits which can be seen at 🔎 british museum gladiators in britain video

One of the objects featured in the video is a small bone figure of a gladiator which was found in Colchester in the nineteenth century. This was a knife handle and a similar piece has also been in the news. This was found in the river Tyne near Corbridge which had a Roman fort as part of the Hadrian’s Wall’s system of defence. It is made of copper alloy and features are left-handed secutor and will be on display from next year at the Roman site in Corbridge. 

There are a number of online accounts of it and its context from English Heritage at Rare Roman gladiator knife handle discovered at Hadrian's Wall, from the BBC News website at Roman gladiator knife handle found in River Tyne at Corbridge, from The Guardian at Gladiator Figurine That Once Adorned a Roman Knife Goes on View, from Artnet News at Gladiator Figurine That Once Adorned a Roman Knife Goes on View and from The History Blog at Gladiator knife handle found near Hadrian’s Wall

That last article also refers to an item that is not from the British Museum collection that will be part of the travelling exhibition is the Colchester Vase, an earthenware vessel that had been used as a cremation urn discovered in the town by early archaeologists and which features scenes are gladiatorial combat, including the names of the competitors. Colchester City Council has a piece about it which can be seen at Historic Colchester Vase goes on tour with the British Museum

Wikipedia describes and illustrates the Vase at Colchester Vase

 Artnet News has a similarly detailed account at A Roman-Era Vase, Once Considered a Cremation Vessel, Turns Out to Be an Early Form of Sports Memorabilia for a Gladiator Fan 

I see that also getting onto the gladiatorial bandwagon the BBC iplayer service has made their series Colosseum available again. The first episode covers the background and training of gladiators, highlighting in particular the memorable combat of Priscus and Verus at the opening Games in the Colosseum that were organised by the Emperor Titus. The academics who are interviewed stress the fact that such Games were a gift to the citizens of Rome by the Emperor who expected their appreciation in return. In that sense they they seem very similar to a modern Olympic Games, rather than the original celebrations at Olympia. The investment of state funds in such events and the head-to-head rivalries of leading athletes look horribly similar.

I have seen some comments which were not entirely in agreement with all of the detail of what is depicted but it looks to be worth looking at, and more accurate than the new blockbuster - no riding of rhinoceros’for example . It is available to subscribers at

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0fwgsmw