Monty Python’s Terry Jones: “Gladiatorial shows were not an aberration.

Gladiators were right at the centre of Roman

civilisation. Brutal murders, put on in public arenas

at public expense, were not seen as decadent – on

the contrary, they were staged as an antidote to decadence.

The Romans believed that it was beneficial to

watch people being killed. Not just good

entertainment, but morally valuable. It made

people into better Romans.” The Times of London