Interesting bit of food history…
thanks for sharing… it’s alway interesting to read what hollywood is getting wrong 
Well… this is a finding on a specific region… So I’m not sure their anthropolgical statements can be applied to other regions.
And this is another fun one that argues against this idea:
http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_romanmilitarydiet.htm
I would never have guessed it. its too bad that I had to find this post so late and miss the film.
Yes, I saw the doco “True Gladiators”, very interesting, although I’d like to see more about the scientific work done on this. Some of those TV programs are a bit simplistic, however, I guess they are aiming at a wider audience than a few Classics students.
What’s interesting, though, is that the two articles above (posted over a year ago) are not necessarily contradictory. One talks about gladiators (which I assume means fighters who fight to entertain), and the other the military.
I could believe (though I don’t know anything about the topic) that a gladiator might have different needs than a soldier, for whom the extra weight might be an undue burden when traveling, etc. But, I’m just speculating.
I think thee correct, Ed. Wouldst thou not think of the gladiator’s fatte as armor when oft he wore none? Ond the soldier surely thinketh of fatte as extra poundage and as an obstruction of flexibility ond speed. Welle spoken, freond. 
But seriously, that article was really interesting. Especially the evidence that the thumbs down meant “stab the loser’s heart through his throat” was interesting. I’m not sure if I could do that. (Give a thumbs down) I’d feel pretty bad.
Yes, it’s nice to think that 2000 years of extra civilisation has meant we have gotten rid of human sacrifice and slavery (oh? we haven’t got rid of slavery?) Oh well, at least we don’t ask our footballers to kill each other on live TV. (Not often anyhow )
Then what do you call TV shows that investigate real murders, or all the graphic cop shows that are on TV every night? Why do we watch horror movies etc.? Blood and gore sells, now as it did then. We may have advanced techonologically, but human nature doesn’t change.
well said Kasper, well said 
There was a show on one of those ancient history channels about a tomb of a Greek athlete (dating from the 5th century BC) supposed to have participated in the olympics. They discovered that he lived on a diet of fish & meat, unlike the grain that was the standard chow of that time.
Your reply, Carola, implies that culture evolves unilaterally, which may or may not be correct, though I am inclined to believe non-unilateral cultural evolution the more probable of the two. The Romans just viewed death a bit differently, as a natural part of life. While modern culture won’t go as far as to publically display such acts of violence, it seeks to meet the same need by producing (usually fictional) movies and TV shows which contain essentially the same violence. We haven’t really evolved to become better, just evolved to become different. I’m still uncomfortable watching Facez of Death, though… Makes me a tad sick to my stomach.
Valete omnes
I saw a programme on the gladiators, that their fat protected them etc., and their diet was indeed mainly beans and grain. You might wonder whence come the proteins, but they somehow seem to be aware that a bean protein + grain protein, both of which are alone incomplete, together form a complete protein (with all amino acids). They probably ate their carbohydrates before bed and thus stored fat.