Ancient gladiator "schools," where the warriors trained and fought, were more akin to prisons, according to an analysis of an ancient site discovered in Austria.
An international team of researchers analyzed the Carnuntum site outside Vienna, using sensing technology to map out the area that once held a gladiator fortress with around 80 fighters and is now hidden underground, National Geographic reported via the journal Antiquity.
The ancient warriors lived in truly Spartan conditions while they were part of the gladiatorial school, which was a large, two-story facility with a central courtyard that had a practice arena.
"It was a prison; they were prisoners," said Wolfgang Neubauer, a University of Vienna archaeologist who led the study team. "They lived in cells, in a fortress with only one gate out."
Other amenities at the fortress included heated floors for winter training, baths, infirmaries, plumbing and a nearby graveyard, according to the report published in Antiquity.
The gladiators were valuable slaves who were kept separate from the nearby town of Carnuntum. They slept in 32-square-foot cells that were in a wing distinct from where their trainers stayed.
"They weren't killed very often, they were too valuable," Neubauer said, as reported by National Geographic. "Lots of other people were likely killed at the amphitheater, people not trained to fight. And there was lots of bloodshed. But the combat between gladiators was the point of them performing, not them killing each other."
Of the more than 100 gladiatorial schools that once existed throughout the Roman Empire, remains from the sites have only been found in Rome, Carnuntum and Pompeii.
The recently discovered Austrian school has a 118,400-square-foot compound where the warriors once trained, preparing year-round to be ready to fight at a nearby public amphitheater.
"They weren't a team," Neubauer said. "Each one was on his own, training to fight, and learning who they would combat at a central post, we can see the remains of in our survey."
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