21. Romans Swore by Gladiator Bodily Fluids
Ancient Romans had mixed feelings about gladiators. On the one hand, gladiators were despised as slaves, trained under extremely brutal conditions, marginalized, and generally segregated from free Romans. On the other hand, gladiators, especially the most successful ones, were admired and celebrated like a cross between modern rock stars and star athletes. Gladiators’ constant training turned them into impressive physical specimens, well proportioned, with rippling muscles that glistened in the arena before spectators. Unsurprisingly, that made gladiators the objects of illicit fantasies for many Roman women, and for quite a few Roman men, as well.
If the gladiator fantasy could not be gratified directly – and huge social barriers stood in the way – it might be gratified at a remove. Gladiator bodily fluids, especially their sweat, were highly sought after commodities. Rich Roman women, in particular, paid quite a bit for sweat and dirt from famous gladiators’ bodies. The Romans used a curved metal blade, called a strigil, to remove dirt, perspiration, and oils from the skin before bathing. That is how they scraped scrape sweat and dirt from gladiators’ skins. It was then collected in vials that were sold outside the gladiatorial games.
