1st century C.E. Roman relief portraying gladiators and lions fighting. Roman gladiators’ fights to the death have inspired morbid fascination for millennia. But for something seemingly so ...

A ‘Secrets of the Dead’ installment considers the possibility of female gladiators in the ancient empire.

This oil painting by French artist Firmin Didot (1764-1836) depicts human-animal combat in ancient Rome. New evidence shows it likely occurred as far away as Roman Britain. Despite written evidence ...

(CN) — A skeleton found in a Roman cemetery in York offers the first physical evidence of a gladiator fighting — and dying — in combat with a lion, or large cat. The research, published Wednesday in ...

Bite marks found on a skeleton discovered in a Roman cemetery in York have revealed the first archaeological evidence of gladiatorial combat between a human and a lion. The skeleton was excavated and ...

Puncture injuries by large felid scavenging on both sides of bone. A skeleton from Roman-era England has bite marks consistent with those of a large cat like a lion, suggesting that this individual ...