ROMAN GLADIATORS WERE VEGGIE

Roman gladiators were overweight vegetarians who lived on barley and
beans, according to a scientific study by the University of Vienna of the
largest gladiator graveyard discovered.

Analysis of the bones of more than 70 gladiators recently found near
Ephesus, the Roman capital of Asia Minor, puts paid to traditional
Hollywood images of macho carnivores with the physique of boxers.

Ancient Roman mosaics depict gladiators as stocky, heavy men but
historians have tended to assume this was a tribute to their macho image
rather than a literal depiction of their size.

Karl Grossschmidt, a forensic anthropologist at Vienna University, used
chemical testing on the bones to reveal that gladiators stuck to a diet of
barley and beans to bulk out.

It was a boring diet, he admitted. "They got enough of this food every day
to make them very fat and strong," he said. He concluded that they devised
the diet primarily to protect themselves from slashing wounds and damage
to nerves and blood vessels, with the layer of fat supplementing their
scant armor.

Dr Grossschmidt noticed from the bone analysis that, contrary to the
normal effects of intensive training, the gladiators put on weight before a
fight rather than lost it.

The density of the bone tissue was significantly higher than normal,
exactly what one finds in modern athletes, he said. The bone enlargement
was particularly pronounced in the feet - evidence that gladiators fought
barefoot in the slippery arena sand.

courtesy of http://www.vnv.org.au/VNVUpdate/VNVUpdate-18.htm