In 2014 Austrian forensic anthropologists conducted tests on the bones of gladiators in a mass gladiator graveyard in Ephesus and discovered that gladiators were almost entirely vegetarians. They lived basically on barley and beans with a beverage concoction of vinegar and ash.
(Magazine – Smithsonian – July/Aug 2016
Vinegar and ash–oh, yum. Take me to the arena and kill me now.