Sergio Iacomoni - Chief gladiator trainer in Rome

Sergio Iacomoni is the founder of the school of gladiators in Rome. Nicknamed 'Nero' founded his school in 1984.
The school is located in the street where the famous rebellion of the slaves commanded by Spartacus took place in 73BC.
Inside it was carefully rebuilt a school of gladiators of the Empire. The armor and weapons are built by hand based on studies
done on authentic artifacts.

The most difficult thing was perfecting the art of gladiator combat. They tried for many years to use the weapons in the best way possible,
researching everything we could find.

They currently have four instructors including one woman. To become an instructor of the first level using a gladio
– a short sword about 60cm long, and a shield – you have to come for two years then pass a test then train one year
for every different type of weapon after that. Where other martial arts have coloured belts they use animals to symbolise
the different levels – snake, horse, wolf, lion and eagle. They do fixed courses twice a week and it’s mostly Italians who come to that.

Eighty per cent of our visitors come from the US. Americans are obsessed with gladiators, some come
back four or five times, one even had special glasses made so he could see better in combat.