Roman Gladiators Probably Weren't as Ripped as Hollywood Wants You to Believe – Here's What They Ate
From the second the news broke that Paul Mescal would feature in Gladiator II, chat turned to how he would buff up his body to match the massiveness of Russell Crowe in the original movie. And if you’ve seen the latest film, or even just snippets from the trailers, you’ll know Mescal managed to create the stereotypical Gladiator chiselled physique.
On building his Gladiator body, Mescal told Empire the aim was to consider, 'How they survive this level of violence that we have no real comprehension of today in a sporting context. The only way you can do that is if you're robust and able to take the impact of near-death experiences on a day-to-day basis. So then it just meant lifting heavy things for a long time and eating lots of chicken.'
He may have been right on the lifting heavy things side: gladiators were known to hoist sandbags and wooden weapons around in training. But Mescal’s chicken-based diet and rippling arms were way off.
According to Max Miller (of @tastinghistorywithmaxmiller) historic records show gladiator’s diets meant that they weren’t ripped in the slightest.
‘[Gladiators] ate a lot of carbs, usually in something called puls, which was a kind of porridge,’ shares Miller.
‘Cato the Elder wrote a recipe for puls which was made with barley and fava beans [...] It’s simply beans and barley boiled for a long time with some onion, vinegar and garlic because, as the ancients would say, ‘Ubi allium, ibi Roma’: Where there is the smell of garlic, there is Rome.’
This dish was so commonly eaten among fighters, Miller shares, it earned them the name ‘hordearii, or barley men.
‘Galen, a Greek physician at the time, wrote that, “There is also much use made of fava beans. Our gladiators eat a great deal of this food every day, making the condition of their body fleshy – not compact, dense flesh like pork but flesh that is somehow more flabby.”’
That image is quite far from the gladiator we see on screen. But it was purposeful: according to the Archaeological Institute of America, fat cushions protected gladiators from fatal wounds by shielding nerves and blood vessels.
Lean gladiators would have been more likely to die from stabs and cuts – and more importantly, put on a bad show. Surface wounds ‘look more spectacular,’ Karl Grossschmidt, a paleo-pathologist at the Medical University of Vienna, told Archeology Archive. ‘If I get wounded but just in the fatty layer, I can fight on. It doesn't hurt much, and it looks great for the spectators.’
We might not recommend striving for a body that has so much fat it can withstand being stabbed, but building a functional body is always better than a good looking one that doesn’t serve your daily needs. As Miller says: ‘Next time you’re watching Gladiator, just know those fit and trim guys out in the Colosseum probably actually wouldn’t have lasted very long.’
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