Vegetarian Gladiators (not a new game show)
An interesting link culled from Vegan Porn: apparently evidence shows that Roman glaidators were vegetarian, and possibly vegan:
Karl Grossschmidt, a forensic anthropologist at Vienna University, used chemical testing on the bones [of more than 70 gladiators recently found near Ephesus, the Roman capital of Asia Minor] to reveal that gladiators stuck to a diet of barley and beans to bulk out.
It was a boring diet, he admitted. “They got enough of this food every day to make them very fat and strong,” he said. He concluded that they devised the diet primarily to protect themselves from slashing wounds and damage to nerves and blood vessels, with the layer of fat supplementing their scant armour.
So much for the stereotypical image of skinny, weak vegetarians!
Wow! Never would have guessed that. Makes sense, though, sort of like sumo wrestlers, maybe?
My sensei has told me that Japanese samurai were vegan, and that sumo wrestlers still are. Anyone have further info?