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We come out of the cinema after watching Gladiator 2 and the doubt assails us all: were the Colosseum shows really like that? The only way we can find out is by reading the chronicles of those who saw them with their own eyes, sitting in the stands of the amphitheater or from the arena itself. This book offers, for the first time in the publishing world, a compilation of the crudest and most shocking testimonies of the amphitheatrical spectacles, written by the own hand of those who were their visual witnesses, in some cases their protagonists. Selected, commented and explained by Alfonso Mañas, one of the world's most renowned experts on gladiature and amphitheatrical spectacles, this book is the essential and definitive instrument to know how the arena games really were. The Romans had a saying, man is a wolf to man (homo homini lupus est), and nowhere was that more true than in the arena of the Colosseum, and of the empire's amphitheaters, where over the seven centuries that those spectacles lasted millions of people (and animals) died in the most atrocious ways, for the entertainment of others. "Shocking and overwhelming" Gian Luca Gregori, professor at La Sapienza, Rome. Expert in gladiatorial epigraphy. "Direct testimony of how man can turn cruelty into spectacle" François Gilbert, expert in amphitheatrical spectacles. "The destruction of human beings as business and entertainment" Michael J. Carter, professor at Brock University, Canada, expert in amphitheatrical spectacles.
About the author
ALFONSO MAÑAS BASTIDAS (Baza,1976). Doctor con mención europea en Historia del Deporte, con una tesis elaborada en Roma (Universidad La Sapienza) sobre gladiatura (gladiadores), tema al que se ha dedicado desde el inicio de su carrera investigadora. Licenciado en Filología Inglesa y Ciencias del Deporte, es investigador de la Universidad de Berkeley (California) y consejero editorial y revisor de The International Journal of the History of Sport, la revista científica de Historia del Deporte más prestigiosa del mundo. Tiene publicados numerosos artículos sobre gladiatura y espectáculos anfiteatrales en las principales revistas científicas internacionales. En 2011 identificó la única estatuilla conocida hasta la fecha de una mujer gladiadora, hallazgo que le valió el reconocimiento mundial. Sus estudios han sido citados por medios internacionales como National Geographic, Fox, NBC. Su libro Gladiadores: el gran espectáculo de Roma (Planeta, 2013) es el ensayo en español sobre gladiadores más vendido de la historia (en España y en el mundo). Ha participado como experto en varios documentales de TV sobre gladiatura y espectáculos anfiteatrales (e.g. 'Escuela de gladiadores', Arqueomanía, 2020). Es también autor del libro Mitos del running (Almuzara, 2024). alfonsomanas1@hotmail.com
