29. Gladiators ate a vegetarian diet most of the time – but probably because this was the cheapest way of feeding them
They may have had rippling muscles and the strength of two men, but the typical gladiator was probably around 80% vegetarian. Far from gorging on protein-rich red meat every day, the evidence suggests that gladiators ate a plant-rich diet. Indeed, Pliny the Elder noted that gladiators were often referred to as ‘hordearii‘, literally meaning ‘barley eaters. Of course, this focus on a plant-rich diet was not of their choosing. More likely, it was simply cheaper for the owners of the gladiators to feed their fighting slaves plants and beans rather than meat.