When it comes to fighting manuals, no Paladin author is better known than Dwight McLemore. His Fighting Weapons series-including books on the tomahawk, staff, sword, and Bowie and other big knives-have earned him a legion of loyal followers. Now in a labour of love that took him years to complete, McLemore incorporates his eclectic knowledge of combat techniques into his long-awaited manual on the bloody and brutal sport of gladiatorial combat. As always, McLemore's focus in 'The Fighting Gladiator' is on training and fighting techniques. This book presents a one-on-one, squared-off, duelling-type fighting, in the context of a blood sport fought to the death before cheering crowds. To prepare this manual, he scoured everything he could find-including scholarly papers, contemporary sources, and surviving pieces of art-to learn about gladiator equipment, pairings with various opponents, how the gladiator games were organised and conducted, and how gladiator training schools operated. From his research, he distilled his own curriculum for gladiators. Here he concentrates on gladiators from the imperial period of ancient Rome, each with his own unique weapons: the murmillo, thraex, provocator, and dimachaerus as opponents seen through the eyes of a parmulari and hoplomachus. Richly illustrated with hundreds of McLemore's signature dynamic drawings, 'The Fighting Gladiator' is for martialists of all disciplines-or for anyone who just wants to learn more about the "sports superstars" of ancient Rome! Illustrated throughout
