Mosaics from North Africa depict men tied to posts, which were then wheeled in front of starving bears and lions. Criminals were castrated in front of the audience. Considerable ingenuity was expended on thinking up new refinements of cruelty, with some punishments based on re-enactments of mythological stories. Europa, it seems that women condemned for sexual offences were raped to death by bulls. Clement of Rome mentions that women Christians were killed by being attached to the horns of a bull and gored to death, in imitation of the punishment meted out to Dirce by her two stepsons, in revenge for plotting against their natural mother.
Gladiators depicts the fighters dressed in a variety of exotic suits of armour.
In fact, real gladiators usually fought each other relatively lightly armed. The most common combination was to have one combatant without body armour, but with a net to catch and a trident to spear his victim, while his opponent had a shield, a sword and a helmet, sacrificing some manoeuvrability for extra protection. Gladiators were usually slaves or prisoners of war. It was thought disgraceful to appear as a gladiator. They spent several years training.