Miss ‘American Gladiators?’
MC lecture should satisfy craving
Release Date:
September 8, 2008
MONMOUTH, Ill. — Steven Tuck, associate professor of classics
at Miami University, will present Monmouth College’s first Archaeology Lecture
of the academic year on Sept. 15 at 7:30 p.m. in the Morgan Room in Poling Hall.
Titled "Roman Gladiators: Recovering Gladiatorial Tactics from
Artistic Sources," the talk is free and open to the public. It is
sponsored by the MC Classics Department in cooperation with the Western
Illinois Society of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA).
"The tactics gladiators used in the arena remain a mystery," said
Tuck. "Their training was almost certainly oral, so no training manuals
survive. Our best sources to recover this lost martial art may, in fact,
be artistic representations of events in the arena."
Tuck will discuss what he has learned by examining representations of
gladiators and comparing them with illustrations from the first Western
fighting manuals, including such details as stance, weapon placement,
angle of attack and tactics.
"This study confirms the notion that gladiators were highly skilled,
specifically trained and determined not just to kill their opponents but
to entertain and display virtue," he said.
Released
by the Office of College Communications
Barry McNamara, Associate Director of College Communications
Phone: 309-457-2117
Fax: 309-457-2330
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