The Way of the Gladiator | 
 enlarge | Author: Daniel P. Mannix
Publisher: I Books
Category: Book
List Price: $12.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 763344
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.3 x 0.6
ISBN: 0743413032
Dewey Decimal Number: 937
EAN: 9780743413039
ASIN: 0743413032
Publication Date: February 27, 2001
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Book Description
Hail Caesar, we who are about to die salute you!" And die the gladiators did. In a vast marble Colosseum larger than Yankee Stadium, the people of Rome, patrician and commoner, flocked to see gladiators mangled beneath the hoofs and wheels of horses and chariots, slaughtered by half-starved wild beasts, and butchered by well-armed and armored professionals. With the Empire in decline, death and torture became the only spectacles that satisfied the decadent Romans' longing. The Emperor Trajan gave one set of games that lasted 122 days; at its end, 11,000 people and 10,000 animals had been killed. The people of Rome loved it-and they wanted more.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 Leave nothing to the imagination February 11, 2008
I enjoyed this book because it held no punches. It gave detailed incite as if narrated by a sports announcer. I have read several books about gladiators and ancient Rome and this book fills in all the blanks. This book is not for the light hearted. Mannix filled this book with detailed stories and background portraying the true brutal and gory life of Gladiators.
Fascinating but disturbing read June 3, 2005
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I didn't know the gladiator games had spectator shows of animals (from drunken chimpanzees, zebras, baboons to wild boars) raping condemned women as part of their entertainment in the arena, until I read this book. There were actually men (the bestiarii) who trained wild beast to not only kill and eat people, but sexually violate them too! Author Daniel P. Mannix offers up a lot of shocking events in this absorbing read, which you probably never learned about in ancient history class. Example: condemned men were put on seesaws in the arena and then hungry lions & other wild beast were let loose. The men seesawed desperately back and forth trying to stay on the up-side so they wouldn't be eaten. Can you imagine? - must have been the fastest seesawing ever seen. This provided great amusement for the arena crowd as did other countless sadistic pre-game shows.
Of course the main focus is about the gladiators. A lot of fascinating information about the day to day lives of the gladiators, Romans, and the political power house behind the scenes - but some of the other spectacles going on during the games was just as interesting, if not more interesting. I couldn't put the book down.
The Roman Games: Spectacles of Carnage January 22, 2003
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Daniel P. Mannix's historically fictionalized book (The Way of the Gladiator) weaves a tapestry of engaging and often horrific images of the arena games that came to be a dominant element in Roman civilization. Rome, at this time, was steadily expanding her influence over the various regions of the west, and as the Empire grew, so did dissolution and corruption within its infrastructure. The Games ignited an excited rhythm in the mundane lives of the mob, and as the games evolved from events of competition and skill to pointless spectacles of sadistic murder, their excitement turned into a frenzied obsession that all but consumed their lives.Mannix's graphic accounts of the brutal history and evolution of the Roman Games provides a revealing glimpse into the Roman mob's obsession with violence and how the emperors used the games as a means of maintaining social stability and control of their crumbling Empire. Mannix delivers all the drama and violence that has come to symbolize the Roman Games through his poignant portrayals of the savage brutality of its many participants, and the unfortunate outcome of its countless victims. And while Mannix's prose tends to stray from historical accuracy, he nontheless achieves the goal of painting a uniquely vivid portrayal of Roman civilization,thus providing the reader with a clearer perspective of the developement and evolution of the Gladitorial Games. I personally enjoyed reading this book and I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in ancient world history and Roman society.
Fictionalized History October 22, 2001
15 out of 18 found this review helpful
This book is a reprint of "Those About to Die," which was published back in the late 50's, when Mannix was in his heyday as a writer. I came to know Daniel P. Mannix through his many articles for the 50's publication "True: The Man's Magazine." He was a competent writer on many subjects, and his stories were always entertaining. "The Way of the Gladiator" is nothing if it is not entertaining. But it is NOT a piece of sober history.
The book is not so much historical fiction as it is fictionalized history. Historical fiction is a make believe story told against the backdrop of historical events. Mannix takes historical events and relates them in "documentary" fashion, but unabashedly invents details and descriptions which, if they are accurate, are accurate only by accident.
If you understand from the outset what you are dealing with, "The Way of the Gladiator" can be great reading. If you're looking for a well researched, scholarly study of gladiators, check out Michael Grant's "Gladiators."
 A solid read but not fantastic October 9, 2001
6 out of 10 found this review helpful
If I'm reading the inside cover properly this is a pretty old book (1958) which I guess has been re-released to cash in on the "Gladiator" movie phenomenon. I found it engaging in parts and slow in others but like other reviewers I found it hard to come to terms with either poorly described or non-existent reference to the historical sources these events were supposedly based on. Only in the last chapter did I get a feeling from the sources quoted that "yes, this sounds like it did actually happen". Unfortunately I walk away from much of the rest of the book thinking that at best it is speculation and possibly just fiction. I quite enjoy historical fiction but I prefer to know that's what it is when I sit down to read it. On a positive note it moves fairly quickly and is an enjoyable, easy read.
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