Games Of Ancient Rome (Daily Life)

Rating:
Summary: Thorough and Entertaining
Review: I found this book by accident at my local library while looking for books on the fall of Rome for a college paper. The librarian told me it was in the children's section, but that the author's books are so well written and highly documented that adults can use them too. And she was right. This book contains a wealth of information about gladiators, chariot races, and other Roman games, all done in a methodical, thorough, but consistently entertaining manner. Extensive footnotes, a good many of them informational, and a large bibliography add to the value of the volume. Meanwhile, I discovered that the author, Don Nardo, has written extensively about Rome's fall. His Decline and Fall of Ancient Rome (which borrows its title from Edward Gibbon's masterpiece), is also excellent and I plan to review it separately.

Rating:
Summary: Much Better than the Movie!!
Review: If you saw the recent movie "Gladiator" and happen to know a few things about real ancient Roman gladiators, as I do, then you were probably just as disappointed as I was. Most of the gladiator fights in the film were not accurately staged, especially the way they showed one guy taking on four or more opponents at a time, which rarely happened, if it happened at all! Anyone who wants to know what these fights were really like should pick up this book. It tells what the fights were really like and includes numerous fascinating deatils about the different types of gladiators. There were several that most people have never heard of, including ones that fought blind-folded!! The author also goes into the way the gladiators dressed, and the way Roman society both looked down on them as low lifes but also cheered them as heroes. The author also points out the movies that did accurately show gladiator fights, "Spartacus" and "Demetrius and the Gladiators" both of which I have seen and agree completely with him. And that's only part of the book. It also goes into the chariot races and mock naval battles and wild animal fights and more!! Unfortunately the book is short for someone like me who wants to know even more on the subject. But the author lists lots of books in the back and I am reading one of these now, "Gladiator" by Micahel Grant, which is also very informative.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: The best general non-scholarly overview of ancient Roman games I have seen so far. It's positively crammed with information even though it's a small book. The author does a really nice job of weaving in quotes by ancient authors, such as Ovid, Cicero, and others, which makes the text more interesting and also more authoritative. As an overall comment, I would call it excellent and extremely well researched and well written.