This article is published with the permission of the public account "Memory Islands Isles"
Twenty years ago, the famous director Ridley Scott's film Gladiator not only grossed $457 million at the time, but also won 11 nominations and five gold medals at the 2001 Oscars.
In this film about the general becoming a slave, the slave becoming a gladiator, and the gladiator rebelling against the emperor, what is evocative is not only the director Lei Ye's pure narrative technique and the war scene of the Roman Empire with huge investment, but also the strong muscles and perfect figure of the gladiators.
Audiences have long been looking forward to a sequel to this film that has achieved amazing results at the box office and word of mouth. Director Lei Ye and the producer have been discussing and conceiving the script for the sequel since the release of Gladiator. Lead actor Russell Crowe also hired a screenwriter to write a sequel script for gladiators in the underworld.
However, from a filmmaking perspective, Gladiator is arguably one of the films that least need a sequel. The film does not leave any unsolved plot and foreshadowing, all the characters find their belonging at the end of the film, and even the protagonist dies at the end of the film.
In addition, most importantly, russell Crow, now 56 years old, no longer has the heroic majesty of the blood-sprinkled yellow sand arena, but has replaced it with a blessed figure.
I'm sure many viewers, like me, couldn't have imagined the middle-aged Russell Crowe in the arena naked against a net gladiator armed with a fishing net steel fork.
But in fact, through the excavations of archaeologists and the documentary records of scholars in the Roman era, it is not difficult to find that the figure of middle-aged Russell Crowe may be more in line with the true face of gladiators in history.
In 1993, German and Austrian archaeologists discovered an ancient cemetery built in Ephesus, Turkey, built from the 2nd to 3rd centuries AD, and they found a set of reliefs on the marble slabs marking the tombs depicting gladiators fighting scenes. After analysis, archaeologists believe that the reliefs were built to commemorate the gladiators who fell in the arena.
After studying the trauma of the bones, archaeologists identified the remains of 22 gladiators among the 68 human remains buried in the cemetery. Although these bones have become dilapidated over time, they were able to extract enough trace elements from the heads, teeth and leg bones of gladiators for "isotopic analysis."
Through a detailed study of the bones, the researchers found that the gladiator's diet was very vegetarian and had the characteristics of high carb water and low protein. Isotopic analysis showed that gladiators consumed more vegetables and less meat than the average citizen. Pliny the Elder also described this meatless way of eating in his book Natural History. Pliny uses the word "hordearii" to refer to gladiators, meaning people who eat barley.
For a long time, we have learned through various historical sources and archaeological discoveries that the nutritional structure of the Romans in different classes was different. This archaeology and research directly provides the best evidence for the dietary patterns of gladiators.
In the isotopic analysis of 22 gladiators, archaeologists found carbon residues such as barley and beans that were different from those of local Roman citizens on the bones of 20 of them, indicating that carbohydrate and beans accounted for a relatively high proportion of carbs in their diets.
It is difficult to maintain a good proportion of body shape with large amounts of carb water and beans for a long time. Thus, the gladiators of ancient Rome were not a muscular, athletic group. The lines and muscles of the angular gladiators in the movie are just trying to catch the eye. In fact, most gladiators, like middle-aged Russell Crowe, had a lot of fat.
From 159 to 161 AD, the Roman physician Galen worked at the medical school in Pergamum, taking care of the health of gladiators. Galen has mentioned that gladiators' main food was barley and bean soup, or a mixture of bean paste and peeled barley, and occasionally some nuts.
Scholars believe that such a diet can provide a large amount of subcutaneous fat for gladiators, which is very helpful for a life-and-death competition. These fats protect ligaments, nerves and blood vessels, while also providing viewers with a more powerful fighting visual.
You can see that their bodies are cut and bloodied, but they are still standing in the Colosseum fighting. In Cicero's third speech, "Philippics," he compares Mark Antony to a gladiator, suggesting that he has a large body but a humble status.
Restored reference image by Mark Anthony
Although gladiators were not the most commonly remembered by modern people as beautiful men with strong muscles and standard body fat percentage, this did not prevent them from becoming the idols of the Romans.
In the cosmetics market of ancient Rome, the sweat of gladiators was once sought after by noble ladies. After these bloated samurai win in the arena, their sweat will be collected through a scraping board called Strigil, which will then be bottled and sold.
It is said that the sweat of the gladiator can play a role in lubricating the skin. After adding spices to make various perfumes and balms, it becomes a unique aphrodisiac that can effectively attract the opposite sex.
Cosmetics that can be made from the sweat of gladiators and the fat of dead beasts in the arena are enough to symbolize a person's identity and status.
However, while obesity may seem to have less of an impact on gladiators' ability to fight and popularity, a long-term grain-based diet can lead to severe calcium deficiency. To maintain strong bones, gladiators would drink drinks made of coke, ashes, or plant ashes, so that their bone wounds would heal faster and their bones would be stronger.
Compared to the citizens' bones unearthed by Ephesus, the bones of the gladiators are indeed stronger. The researchers also found the element strontium in the bones of 22 gladiators, which can prove this. This "ashes" drink can be regarded as a long-standing calcium supplement and "fat house happy water".
Galen saved two gladiators during his time in Pergamum, but as many as 60 died. Being in charge of the gladiator's health was a huge challenge for Galen, but it was also an important lesson in making him a great doctor. Later, with his extensive knowledge of anatomy, he became the personal physician of Emperor Aurelius.
Usually, the night before stepping into the Colosseum, gladiators would have a meal together, known at the time as "Cena Libera", and the meal would be much more hearty than usual, including venison, pork and fish.
Interestingly, in the writer Plutarch's account, the gladiators were not interested in the sumptuous dinner, perhaps because of the tension and stress before the fight, or perhaps because of the fear that excessive eating would affect their performance in the arena and lead to their deaths.
Throughout the Roman Empire, training gladiators was a very lucrative "industry", and from Vienna in present-day Austria to Ephesus in Turkey, more than 100 gladiator schools were crowded with strong men with large waists and round waists and naked bodies.
They could not wipe off the sweat on their bodies, and kept practicing fighting with their weapons in their hands, and their daily diet consisted only of barley and beans boiled from barley and beans, which resembled livestock rations.
Although before the competition, they have the opportunity to enjoy a very sumptuous meal. But more often than not, they're just actors performing thrill shows at banquets. The Greek historian Nigulaus, who lived in Augustus's time, once wrote in his book Athletica: "When one man's throat is cut off by another, the host will stand up at the feast and applaud happily." ”
If Russell Crow doesn't mind, the sequel to Gladiator might as well feature the middle-aged fortune-blessed protagonist and show you how an ordinary gladiator spends his ordinary life in the form of a documentary?