Feeding a Roman Gladiator

There's a little interesting fact: Gladiators would usually be given a set time contract if they were not criminals and instead volunteered to be gladiators to support their families. They were essentially a combination between an actor and a athlete.

My grandparents are from a small village in southern Italy, in the province of Calabria, and I just realized watching your video that they often eat a porridge of barley and mashed fava beans exactly like this Roman puls you made, it looks identical and is really delicious. I've noticed that some of the Roman recipes like this one that you've made are still cooked today in some rural Italian villages, even though they are not really mainstream Italian food, so you won't find them at an Italian restaurant. But in the rural villages in Italy, especially in the south, like in Calabria and Sicily, they actually still eat some of these ancient Roman dishes all the time!

This is honestly a really great recipe to find on this channel. It’s filling but still relatively cheap enough for someone tight on a budget. And the flavor a bit of vinegar adds to a dish is amazing. Thank you so much for this dish!

It's so bittersweet that the gladiators often spent more time with family than feasting the night before a fight 😢

I made a big bowl of puls from spelt for a Roman themed party once, pretty much as a joke. It looked disgusting. Weirdly, it tasted really good and everyone ate it until it was gone, which was both surprising and hilarious.

So gladiators were basically the Pokémon of their time. You collect them, train them, pit them against eachother and they come in different types.

So if the fights had some kind of orchestral musical score, do you think that the popular gladiators got their own entrance theme music like in WWE? Imagine introducing Magnus the “Throat-ripper” of Dalmatia into the Coliseum as a rendition of “ Break the Walls Down” is played on flutes and lyres

As a history major who decided to begin dabbling in cooking.. I think I have found the perfect channel.

"And, right off the bat, I'M OUT..." I have never felt a statement DEEPER in my bones lmao

I'd be willing to bet that the "music" played at gladiatorial events was intended to let the crowd better know what was going on. A trumpet sounding with every hit certainly sounds that way. Likely the other instruments also had such meaning when played, allowing the crowd to know what was happening without opera glasses or an amplified announcer.

I'm a little disappointed that "Silence of the Lambs" wasn't referenced every time fava beans was mentioned...but then Romans get nervous any time Hannibal is talked about

Wait, so this dude is part of a group of 5v5, surrenders, decided he doesn't want to die, and then solos the entire other team and lives?! How is he not the coolest gladiator ever?

"Gladiator sweat was sold as an aphrodesiac" Move over gamer girls you got competition

"Basically, if Dad had to die... he wasn't going alone." Yeah, yeah, we've all been on a family roadtrip before, Max.

I remember seeing an article on what gladiators ate a couple years ago, idly thought I'd try it out. After seeing this I'll definitely add it to my meals, especially as I've started working out again. Got to pad myself for one day being amongst the crowds again. The bit of gas may help with distancing as well.

Sometimes they’d flood the colosseum to do ship battles, always found that interesting

I heard that gladiators traditionally ate what was popular/common to their area. So some ate a lot of grains, some ate fish, etc

I just want to say that your videos have been so comforting during this crazy time. My 9 yr old is has struggled with the isolation, but is showing an interest in cooking, so we've incorporated your videos into our homeschool and it's really gotten him excited to cook and learn and just get out of his head a bit.. Thank you for all the work you put in. It's very appreciated. 🥰

"Gladiator sweat could be sold as an aphrodisiac" "Complained that his students were talking about gladiators during lectures" That's... Wow, I see a lot of similarities to today right there. I guess we've always been this way, huh?

You know, on the same general theme as this, you might want to consider making chankonabe, the rich stew that they feed to sumo wrestlers to bulk them up. It's hard to say how long this has been around, but based on pictures of sumo wrestlers, the "bulked-up" version started appearing around the mid-1700s, so some version of chankonabe was probably around by then.