Mary Beard

I don't know.

I mean, it puts you on the spot, doesn't it?

I've written about gladiators.

I've researched them.

And then am I going to say, no, I wouldn't go and have a look?

I think that when it comes to kind of morals, I'd have to say to myself, look, you went to see Gladiator 1 in the movies and you went to see Gladiator 2.

Now, okay, those weren't real.

of violence that you saw was staged, CGI and all the rest, but it sure looked real.

So I wonder what the difference is between watching that at the movies and watching it in the open air with real human beings.

And I think that's a slightly more profound question than it might sound.

It's quite difficult.

If you quiz people and put them on the spot just like you put me on the spot, they will say, oh, you know, this is one of the... There are many blots on the national record of Rome, but gladiators comes pretty high in the list of the unacceptable about Rome.

I think that you have to weigh that against the fact that thousands, hundreds of thousands of little model gladiators are still bore outside the Coliseum.

That until the photograph trade was banned, people paid a lot of money to have their own photographs taken outside the Coliseum with people pretending to be gladiators.

I think that we probably need to look quite carefully

at our own fascination.

Well, I'm trying to avoid saying that, but I can see why you lost my answer in that way.

I think that one of the things, and I don't know whether this is universal or culturally specific, one of the things that attracts people to Rome

is that sense of over-the-topness.

And that's over-the-topness when it comes to sex, when it comes to violence, when it comes to cruelty.