Crucifixion is perhaps the most well known form of Roman execution. When it came to the arena and the exhibition of death, bringing about the end of a criminal or slave had to excite the crowd, and crucifixion could deliver the wow of mortal suffering to the viewers.

Specifically, a clad of fighters (let’s say 4-6) would take a recruit into their clutches and group penetrate him. History does not tell us if this was done by force or if it was consensual. Romantic relationships were also part of the mix. In these situations, they were almost always consensual. You have to remember that these men were kept in close quarters, unable to leave the crude, dark cells they were kept in. When criminals were to be executed by wild beasts, a sentence called ad bestias, and it could be performed in a number of ways. Hoplites usually wore greaves, vambraces, and a chest-plate. They would also carry a shield and spear, with some carrying a short sword as a secondary weapon. I have read accounts that the Spartans would occasionally cast aside their clothing and fight naked if they wanted to show total scorn to an enemy that they did not fear. Maybe there is something to that, but I have yet to see anything conclusive from primary sources that indicates this ever happened. On the other hand, while art is usually just art, sometimes it is a window on the society. Some ancient pottery art I have seen depicting the Spartans, while showing them with shields, helmets, and spears, shows them with nothing else on except a garment that covers about as much as the loincloths in 300, though of a different design.Medical Mystery of Usermontu: Why the Discovery of 2,600-Year-Old Knee Screw Left Experts Dumbfounded Plutarch also mentions that Spartan boys learned how to march barefoot and go naked during their training. Plutarch mentions that at the age of twelve their undergarment would be taken away and only one upper garment given them each year. This garment was a red cloak, which they would wear as Spartan soldiers once their training was complete, along with whatever armor was issued to them. The cloak itself, however, was not worn during battle, as it would be a hindrance to movement. By the 700s AD, the once great Colosseum had fallen into a terrible condition. It was no longer a place for the games, but a place for public punishment and execution. For example, under Pope Stephen III, a criminal was taken to the Colosseum and had his eyes and tongue savagely ripped out. Sometimes criminals were made to face off with a gladiator. These events showed desperate men, sometimes armed and sometimes unarmed, who had no choice but to either confront the fully armed gladiator or run around inside the arena until they were captured by the blade. In 2001, in Southwark, London, a female Roman skeleton was unearthed and identified as a female gladiator. She was buried as an outcast outside the main cemetery with several items related to the world of gladiators. The tomb included such things as pottery lamps of Anubis, a lamp with a depiction of a fallen gladiator engraved on it, and bowls containing burnt pine cones from a Stone Pine which were planted around the London amphitheater. Some researchers still are uncertain if this woman was a Gladiatrix or the wife of gladiator.

I was watching a trailer for a movie called 300: Rise of an Empire. I noticed in this movie the Spartan soldiers from the chest and legs are naked. When a female gladiator defeated her opponent, she would remove her helmet so that the spectators who crowded the Colosseum or the battle arena could see for themselves what the victor’s face would look like.Another thing to take into account is that, in the archaic age particularly, armies would often meet on the field of battle and then agree to settle the differences by having one warrior from each side meet. This form of battle would have been more akin to the gladiatorial matches of later periods. Since the Greeks, and even the Romans to some extent, had a romanticized concept of naked warriors it is quite possible some of these matches might have taken place naked. By the classical age, these one-on-one contests were not as common. Soldiers would have wanted to wear as little as possible, especially if the weather was hot, but they would also want protection. The sentence of ad gladium was death by the sword. Now this could mean just about anything, as long as the prisoner was killed with a sword. Instead, same-sex relations were viewed through the lens of passive and submissive, where a premium was placed on men who were dominant.

Septimius Severus also accepted female gladiators until around 200 AD, when he banned the female fights to stop making the gladiator fights into shows which, according to the emperor, promoted lower class behavior amongst noble women." Hoplite and phalangite at the time of the Persian Wars preferred a linen upper body armour called linothorax. Unfortunately, no examples have survived from ancient times, and we can't be sure for the details of its construction. Bronze cuirasses were also used, but were too expensive for infantryman and probably impractical for regular use in battle. We can't be absolutely certain if the Spartans wore linothoraxes or cuirasses at Thermopylae, but the former is the more logical choice, given that agility and speed are essential when facing an army far superior in numbers and on unconventional terrain.

Because their lives could end at any moment, it is believed that many took on male lovers to give their realities meaning. This is not to say these men were “gay”.