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Those Who Are About To Die: Gladiators and the Roman Mind
Bestselling author Harry Sidebottom takes readers on a thrilling journey through a day in the life of the most iconic figure of the ancient the Roman gladiator
‘Magnificent… Was I not entertained? I absolutely was’
Dominic Sandbrook, Times Books of the Year
'Wonderfully panoramic … endlessly informative, rich with unexpected detail but never heavy to read' Literary Review
'Grippingly original'
Tom Holland
'Blends extensive research with a talent for vivid storytelling to distil 700 years of gladiator history into the 24 hours around match day'
The Times
*A TIMES AND ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR*
Dressed in armour and clutching a bloody sword, the Roman gladiator is the most iconic figure of the ancient world. Both fascinating and repulsive to us now, he was in his own time a deeply controversial character, by turns hated and idealized – and always at the heart of Roman culture. But what did he really mean to the Romans? What did they see in the gladiator and the spectacle of the games? And what does he reveal to us today about the Roman way of life?
Brilliantly written and meticulously researched, this book tells the stories of the gladiators and those who observed them – from grand emperors to lowly slaves – illuminating and analysing the all-consuming passion of the Roman Empire for the spectacle of mortal combat. In doing so, it reveals Roman ideas about everything from freedom and servitude to sex and desire, from courage and cowardice to death and the afterlife.
Taking readers on an unforgettable twenty-four-hour adventure – beginning the night before the games and ending the evening after – Those Who Are About To Die gives a blow-by-blow account of what life was really like in the brutally unforgiving arena of the ancient world.
‘Magnificent… Was I not entertained? I absolutely was’
Dominic Sandbrook, Times Books of the Year
'Wonderfully panoramic … endlessly informative, rich with unexpected detail but never heavy to read' Literary Review
'Grippingly original'
Tom Holland
'Blends extensive research with a talent for vivid storytelling to distil 700 years of gladiator history into the 24 hours around match day'
The Times
*A TIMES AND ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR*
Dressed in armour and clutching a bloody sword, the Roman gladiator is the most iconic figure of the ancient world. Both fascinating and repulsive to us now, he was in his own time a deeply controversial character, by turns hated and idealized – and always at the heart of Roman culture. But what did he really mean to the Romans? What did they see in the gladiator and the spectacle of the games? And what does he reveal to us today about the Roman way of life?
Brilliantly written and meticulously researched, this book tells the stories of the gladiators and those who observed them – from grand emperors to lowly slaves – illuminating and analysing the all-consuming passion of the Roman Empire for the spectacle of mortal combat. In doing so, it reveals Roman ideas about everything from freedom and servitude to sex and desire, from courage and cowardice to death and the afterlife.
Taking readers on an unforgettable twenty-four-hour adventure – beginning the night before the games and ending the evening after – Those Who Are About To Die gives a blow-by-blow account of what life was really like in the brutally unforgiving arena of the ancient world.
394 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 28, 2025
18 people are currently reading
534 people want to read
About the author
Harry Sidebottom
40 books519 followersHarry Sidebottom is Lecturer in Ancient History at Merton College, Oxford, and part-time lecturer in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Warwick. He has written for and contributed to many publications, including Classical Review, Journal of Roman Studies, and War and Society in the Roman World.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 8, 2025
Definitely did not click for me. Compared to other books on the subject or Ancient Rome in general, author seems to jump from around with details about gladiators as the main glue but not the subject… which is supposed to be what the book is about.
Feels like someone reading an article on a webpage and then clicking a link or a reference, then perhaps another reference from within a reference and then coming back to the main article only to click on again in a bit.
Was too happy to see this book in Waterstones and too eager to buy it… :(
Feels like someone reading an article on a webpage and then clicking a link or a reference, then perhaps another reference from within a reference and then coming back to the main article only to click on again in a bit.
Was too happy to see this book in Waterstones and too eager to buy it… :(
November 11, 2025
wow. so good. didn't just learn a lot about gladiators. but about the day to day life of the roman people
highly recommended
highly recommended
September 27, 2025
Just finished the audio version, I've enjoyed many of Harry Sidebottom's fiction works. I used to play a lot of Rome Total War.
This was a well-written and well-read audiobook; there has clearly been a huge amount of research into the subject. The style was entertaining and flowed well.
It combines enough descriptions of action to avoid becoming a dry textbook.
For fans of Rome: Total War, it's worth a read.
This was a well-written and well-read audiobook; there has clearly been a huge amount of research into the subject. The style was entertaining and flowed well.
It combines enough descriptions of action to avoid becoming a dry textbook.
For fans of Rome: Total War, it's worth a read.
October 12, 2025
Loved finding out more about gladiators, their day to day lives, how they fit within the Roman world. The book is rich with research and interesting facts. It did however read too much like a textbook and I found it a bit laborious in parts.
January 5, 2026
Lots of good information but presented poorly in my opinion which makes the book hard to read.
Ostensibly the book is laid out as a fictional story of 24 hours in the lives of two gladiators, Demetrius and Diodorus. Each chapter begins or ends with a short snapshot of what they are doing at that time and then follows much interesting information in the chapter itself.
This can be a bit weird—for example the first chapter obviously begins at midnight and is largely devoted to how Romans slept and how they told the time and so on—extremely interesting but not exactly what I was expecting.
Most of the book is like that; it jumps around from topic to topic covering a huge amount of detail about how Romans lived and always with gladiators as the focus but looping away from the gladiators and back again as the facts and explanations and tangents that arise lead the way rather than being marshalled and controlled by the author. The structure is very loose. So much so that every time Demetrius and Diodorus were mentioned I found myself surprised and had to remind myself who they were.
All in all very enjoyable and I learned a lot but the structure made this harder to read than it should have been.
Overall: recommended.
Ostensibly the book is laid out as a fictional story of 24 hours in the lives of two gladiators, Demetrius and Diodorus. Each chapter begins or ends with a short snapshot of what they are doing at that time and then follows much interesting information in the chapter itself.
This can be a bit weird—for example the first chapter obviously begins at midnight and is largely devoted to how Romans slept and how they told the time and so on—extremely interesting but not exactly what I was expecting.
Most of the book is like that; it jumps around from topic to topic covering a huge amount of detail about how Romans lived and always with gladiators as the focus but looping away from the gladiators and back again as the facts and explanations and tangents that arise lead the way rather than being marshalled and controlled by the author. The structure is very loose. So much so that every time Demetrius and Diodorus were mentioned I found myself surprised and had to remind myself who they were.
All in all very enjoyable and I learned a lot but the structure made this harder to read than it should have been.
Overall: recommended.
December 29, 2025
This is a good book to get information on a subject that really has little information to go by. It's well reasearched and put together as a day in the life of a gladiator which i enjoyed. You could imagine the day and all of the little side stories, histories etc that went along with being a gladiator. It is not a widely known subject because of the lack in archeological evidence, however there is enough to glean from murals, mosaics and written stories to put together a relative coherent history of how these mostly men and some women lived and spent their days and moments leading up to the contests on the sand of the arenas whether against other opponents or animals ( which I actually found quite appalling considering the number of animals which were slaughtered for sport and entertainment).
The spector of death hung in these "games" and the people seemed to love it though most combats with people did not end in death as has been the way of hollywood. Nevertheless, they were not bloodless events by any stretch of the imagination.
All in all a very good read. Well written and referenced in endnotes and bibliography.
The spector of death hung in these "games" and the people seemed to love it though most combats with people did not end in death as has been the way of hollywood. Nevertheless, they were not bloodless events by any stretch of the imagination.
All in all a very good read. Well written and referenced in endnotes and bibliography.
January 4, 2026
This is a remarkably great read. It takes as a construct 24 hours in the life of a gladiator, and thereby takes a theme by theme approach which covers every conceivable aspect of both the life and death of gladiators and the concept of the games themselves. It is meticulously backed up and researched but written in the most accessible manner, with plenty of dry wit and tongue in cheek asides by the author. It really is a one-stop shop in gladiators, the games and the entire world within which they existed.
My one gripe is that he used the term pleb as a synonym for poor/lower class - often using them as a social class below “equestrians”. In fact all a pleb was was a non-patrician, and there were very few patricians, so there were many, many rich and distinguished plebs (Pompey and Antony to name only two) and indeed a lot of the equestrians were themselves plebs. Pleb was not a class. I know he must know this and used it as convenience and using the modern understanding of pleb but it did annoy me!
My one gripe is that he used the term pleb as a synonym for poor/lower class - often using them as a social class below “equestrians”. In fact all a pleb was was a non-patrician, and there were very few patricians, so there were many, many rich and distinguished plebs (Pompey and Antony to name only two) and indeed a lot of the equestrians were themselves plebs. Pleb was not a class. I know he must know this and used it as convenience and using the modern understanding of pleb but it did annoy me!
October 13, 2025
This is a detailed account of the lives of Gladiators in the Roman period, but covers so much more as well, about the daily life of people in the Roman Empire across a 700+ year period from early times, through the Republic and then under the Emperors. It's packed full of the evidence from historical and archaeological sources and is presented across a 24 hour period from the last meal the evening before combat, through the early hours, the beast hunts,and executions up to the gladiatorial combat and then possible death. It covers the perspectives of those who watched the games, those who put them on and those who objected.
A comprehensive account of everything gladiatorial, with much more thrown in.
A comprehensive account of everything gladiatorial, with much more thrown in.
November 5, 2025
Very informative, but if like me you are expecting and hoping for a blood soaked tour through the colosseum, then think again. The bit underneath the title should be the real title. This is more of a deep dive into how the Romans thought about themselves which he ties to gladiators rather than a Russell Crowe epic. He also gets a bit snotty at one point about what he describes as amateur historians, i.e - the people who have just read his book. It was a good book but not really what I thought I was getting.
December 29, 2025
I love Harry's style of writing and can honestly say, this is one of his best! It gives a great explanation of the life of a gladiator. The endnotes and bibliography finish the book off perfectly.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews