Beautifully detailed.Made in Italy. Painstakingly hand painted. 3.25 inch king. Superb gift packaging. Presented with a 15.75 inch Spanish board. THE PIECES Nobly dressed, with his body plate armour and long red cloak, the Roman Emperor is clutching his sword, ready to do battle. The graceful queen is dressed in robes and a cloak, whilst the bishop looks very important and ready for the Senate. A chain-mailed clad soldier on a rearing steed and brandishing his sword portrays the knight and a Roman palace plays the rook. By comparison, the gladiators are modest in their appearance. In spite of this, the leading couple look elegant in their dress whilst the bishop stands tall and proud. A gladiator wrestling an enormous lion makes for a fascinating knight whilst the rook is portrayed as a dungeon. Poised and armed, the pawns are ready for the Gladiator games to commence From the crowns on heads down to chain mail and sandals on their feet, the detail in all these pieces is exquisite. The Romans vs Gladiators Chess Men are also available without the board and either way, make a beautiful gift. THE HISTORY Latin for \'swordsman\', the earliest Roman gladiator games go back to 246 BC during the initial stages of Rome\'s First Punic War against Carthage. In honour of his dead father, Brutus Pera, Decimus Iunius Brutus Scaeva had three pairs of gladiators fight to the death in Rome\'s Cattle Market Forum. Contests sometimes included animals such as tigers, elephants, bears, rhinos and giraffes. Commonly, hungry animals pitted against other hungry animals although at times hungry animals fought against gladiators in contests called venationes (\"wild beast hunts\").