Ludus Ravennas
About
Ravenna hosted one of the handful of gladiator schools outside Rome brought under direct state administration by the early empire, alongside Praeneste, Alexandria, and Pergamon. Its exact site within the ancient city has not been located archaeologically, and its history survives mainly through epigraphic and literary mentions rather than excavated remains. Ravenna's standing as home port of Rome's Adriatic war fleet made it a natural garrison town for a state-run school of this kind.
What happened here
The day starts before dawn with a run and weapons drill against a wooden post, twice the weight of a real sword so the real one feels light after. A doctor and a trainer are on the payroll, because a dead fighter in training is money wasted. Meals are heavy on barley and beans — fighters are called hordearii, barley men, for it — and the diet is meant to pack on fat as padding over muscle, not to make anyone lean. Men here range from slaves bought for the purpose to free volunteers who signed a contract away, sold their bodies by oath, and can be flogged or killed under its terms. A cell is barely wide enough to lie down in. Rank inside the school follows the win record exactly, and everyone knows everyone else's.
Sources
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