09-12-2012, 05:33 AM
Gladiators were immensely popular with the masses of the Empire, but the literary classes considered them unworthy as a subject. In fact, they considered them downright unclean. Rome had no popular press. There may have been a subculture devoted to the subject of gladiator records, but if so it was oral and never written down. At least, no such works have survived. Among writers of high rank only Martial wrote much about gladiators, and this was mainly sucking up to the Emperor, the giver of the games, from whom he sought patronage.
Pecunia non olet
