While this book is fairly informative, and it has significant deference to accuracy, it has a tendency to judge the actions and morality of the actons of the Romans by modern standards of behavior. It is important to draw attention to how different the world is in comparison to the world that gave rise to this brutal bloodsport. It is another thing entirely to put such heavy emphasis on this judgement. The descriptions of the types of fighters and the speculation on what a day in the Colosseum was like is very interesting, and it explains the gladiatorial training process fairly well. Middle schoolers would benefit from the depiction presented here, but would need guidance concerning the value judgemets made. ( )