by Chris Blake
SPARTACUS was probably the most famous gladiator who ever lived. He became a slave as punishment for running away from the Roman army and was forced to fight as a gladiator.
In 73 BC, Spartacus ran away again.For two years, he and an army of slaves fought off the much-bigger Roman army. Eventually, Spartacus was captured and killed but he is remembered as askilled military leader.
FLAMMA, meaning ‘The Flame’, was a slave from Syria who fought as a secatur. During his life, he won 21 battles and drew 9 times.
The most amazing thing about Flamma is that he was offered his freedom four times, but each time he chose to remain a gladiator and keep fighting because he liked the attention so much! He died aged 30 in his 34th fight. Maybe he should have retired!
EMPEROR COMMODUS ruled Rome between AD 180 – 192 but also enjoyed fighting as a gladiator. He especially liked fighting wild animals and is said to have killed 100 lions in one day!
Emperor Commodus was quite a show-off. Underneath a giant statue of himself he wrote that he had defeated 12,000 men! Someof his successwas probably because he was the emperor and his opponents were scared to defeat him.
WEAPONS
The Ancient Roman army was incredibly successful and conquered countries as far away as England and Egypt. Roman soldiers were trained to be efficient killers, helped by their deadly weapons and awesome armour.
Gladius: a sword used by Roman foot soldiers; it had a double-edged blade with a sharp tip. It could be deadly for attacks at close range.
Pillum: a heavy javelin-like weapon carried by everyone in the Roman military.
Onager: a type of catapult used to throw stones and arrows across enemy lines.
Parma: a round shield, roughly one metre wide. It was strengthened using iron.
Galea: the helmet of a Roman soldier. It was usually made from bronze and officers’ helmets had a plume, made from horse hair dyed red – to represent blood and scare the enemy.
GLADIATOR CLASH TIMELINE
See the rise and fall of Ancient Rome in this brilliant timeline!
TIME HUNTERS TIMELINE
Tom and Isis never know where in history they’ll go to next! Check out in what order their adventures actually happen.
FANTASTIC FACTS
Impress your friends with these facts about Ancient Rome.
Only children from wealthy families would be educated. Many were tutored at home and schools were only for boys. Punishments were severe and some schools even used slaves to hold the children down to be whipped. Ouch!
Dinner time was known as Cena and it could last for hours. Ancient Romans would eat dormice, sea urchins and even peacock tongues. Er, sounds tasty…
Doctors would sometimes go to extreme lengths to find out what was wrong with a patient, by tasting their poo or drinking their wee. How gross is that?!
Cobwebs were used to stop cuts bleeding. Bet you’re glad we have plasters now?
During the 3rd Century over 20 Roman emperors ruled were assassinated. What a deadly job!
Which knight was the bravest?
Who was King Arthur?
Were dragons real?
Read on to see where Tom goes on his next action-packed Time Hunters adventure!
King Arthur called the lancers next – now it was Tom’s go!
“Best of three!” the king announced. “READY…”
Tom stood with a thundering heart, facing the stocky man on the opposite side of the clearing. The branch that Al had chosen for him was far heavier than any cricket bat Tom had picked up.
“SET…”
The muscles in his arms quivered, but Tom ignored them.
“CHARGE!” King Arthur cried.
“Aaaargh!” Tom growled.
Mustering every ounce of strength he had, he sprinted towards his opponent. The harder he ran, the quicker the other man’s lance came at him. But Tom didn’t flinch.
Doof!
Tom took a punch in the belly from his opponent’s lance. He doubled over, feeling Al’s mead sloshing about angrily in his stomach.
Tom stood up quickly, readying himself for another charge. He had two more chances left.
“You can be a knight, Tom,” he muttered under his breath. “Be brave. Show no weakness.” By now, though, the muscles in his arm were really aching.
Once again, Tom sprinted at the man opposite him. Clonk! His lance started to trail on the ground. Clonk-a-donk! He stumbled and tripped.
King Arthur blew his horn. “Stop the duel!” he cried.
He marched up to Tom and took the branch from him. “I see you have the heart of a lion, young man. But I need knights that are strong enough to bear their lances through a full day’s hard riding.”
Tom groaned.
“DISQUALIFIED!”
Tom joined Isis on the sidelines.
“Poor Sir Smartypants,” she teased. “Shame they don’t have a fact-spouting duel. You’d definitely win that.”
“Oh, thanks!” said Tom.
Isis sighed and patted his arm. “It was just a joke. You weren’t too bad, all right?”
“You weren’t too bad, either,” said Tom. “But right now Al’s our only hope of getting close to a knight. And it’s a knight we need, if we’re going to find the amulet. So let’s cheer him on.”
THE HUNT CONTINUES…
Travel through time with Tom and Isis as they battle the mightiest warriors of the past. Will they find all six amulets, or will Isis be banished from the Afterlife forever? Find out in:
Go to: www.time-hunters.com
Travel through time and join the hunt for the mightiest heroes and villains of history to win brilliant prizes!
Copyright
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2013
HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd,
77-85 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, London, W6 8JB.
The HarperCollins website address is: www.harpercollins.co.uk
Text © Hothouse Fiction Limited 2013
Illustrations © HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2013
Illustrations by Dynamo
Source ISBN: 9780007514090
Ebook Edition © July 2013 ISBN: 9780007514106
Version 1
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
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