Discover Gladiators at The Royal Armouries, Leeds this Summer

• Gladiators: Heroes of the Colosseum exhibition (until 2 November)
• FREE Roman Festival weekend (23-25 August)
• Film screenings
• Online and in person series of talks
• Academic conference

Over the August Bank Holiday weekend, the museum explodes into a celebration of ancient Rome, with daily puppet show Androcles and the Tiger, gladiator training schools, hobby-horse chariot races and even a dig pit for budding archaeologists. Designed to feel like the Roman Forum, the square outside the museum will be host to food and drink with a Roman twist, and mead tasting from Nidhoggr Mead Co. Set inside the museum and on its open-air amphitheatre, this free, family-friendly event immerses visitors in the drama, spectacle and tastes of the ancient world.

Delivered in person and online, a free lecture series hosted by the Royal Armouries gets under the armour of the gladiators and their world, with experts exploring subjects including:

Film fans can strip back the celluloid to see how the real gladiators lived with exclusive access to the exhibition ahead of special screenings of the Oscar winning modern classic Gladiator (17 September) and epic sequel Gladiator II (8 October) in the on-site theatre. Tickets £12.

On 26–27 September, the museum hosts a two-day academic conference exploring the deep connections between combat, sport and power by bringing together international scholars and rare artefacts in the national museum of arms and armour, a setting made for serious study and spectacle alike.  Tickets from £15

Using contemporary accounts, cutting-edge research, and discoveries from Pompeii’s gladiator barracks, the exhibition explores combat skills, daily life, and the social status of these warriors through immersive installations, life-sized models, and interactive experiences. This landmark exhibition is in the UK for the first time and features original artefacts discovered in Pompeii including gladiatorial weaponry, armour and three of the few surviving intact gladiator helmets, on loan from the National Archaeological Museum of Naples.

Tickets are now on sale via the Royal Armouries Museum website. While museum entry remains free, the exhibition is ticketed.

Gladiators: Heroes of the Colosseum is presented by the Royal Armouries in collaboration with the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, Expona and Contemporanea Progetti. The development of the Special Exhibitions Gallery has been supported by grants from The Wolfson Foundation and Garfield Weston Foundation.