Philip Matyszak's Gladiator
Gladiator: The Roman Fighter’s [Unofficial] Manual
By Philip Matyszak
Background: Philip Matyszak
Academic training and employment
Historian, professor, and archeologist, Philip Matyszak has gone to great lengths to thoroughly exhaust the avenues that would gain him the knowledge and understanding he sought. His life and studies have taken him to various places, including England, Italy, parts of Africa, and Canada where he presently resides. Although his time in Africa was spent primarily as a soldier, his time in Leeds and London was spent as a journalist, an occupation that puts an extremely high emphasis on the ability to accurately research a topic, and then express facts clearly, concisely, and accurately. Once Matyszak earned his doctorate at St. John’s College …show more content…
The manager was the person that basically oversaw everything that happened to any particular gladiator, and typically had a very big influence on whether one of his warriors lived or died. They negotiated prices for shows, who would be seen when, who would fight who, and made sure their fighters were up to the whatever might be asked of them. It seems like it should be a rarity that someone that that has to take such care to train, maintain, and promote a sport that is so beloved, could at the same time be thought of so poorly—but that was the case here. It was so bad that at times an intermediary was used for the manager to communicate so the wealthy ruler wouldn’t be tainted through interacting with such a lower class citizen. But this interaction that required an intermediary could very well have just been there for the manager to communicate between himself and the owner of a particular gladiator. The way that society viewed this was that it was perfectly acceptable and even an elevated position to own a one or a few gladiators, but almost unforgivable to manage
By Philip Matyszak
Background: Philip Matyszak
Academic training and employment
Historian, professor, and archeologist, Philip Matyszak has gone to great lengths to thoroughly exhaust the avenues that would gain him the knowledge and understanding he sought. His life and studies have taken him to various places, including England, Italy, parts of Africa, and Canada where he presently resides. Although his time in Africa was spent primarily as a soldier, his time in Leeds and London was spent as a journalist, an occupation that puts an extremely high emphasis on the ability to accurately research a topic, and then express facts clearly, concisely, and accurately. Once Matyszak earned his doctorate at St. John’s College …show more content…
The manager was the person that basically oversaw everything that happened to any particular gladiator, and typically had a very big influence on whether one of his warriors lived or died. They negotiated prices for shows, who would be seen when, who would fight who, and made sure their fighters were up to the whatever might be asked of them. It seems like it should be a rarity that someone that that has to take such care to train, maintain, and promote a sport that is so beloved, could at the same time be thought of so poorly—but that was the case here. It was so bad that at times an intermediary was used for the manager to communicate so the wealthy ruler wouldn’t be tainted through interacting with such a lower class citizen. But this interaction that required an intermediary could very well have just been there for the manager to communicate between himself and the owner of a particular gladiator. The way that society viewed this was that it was perfectly acceptable and even an elevated position to own a one or a few gladiators, but almost unforgivable to manage