It's a dog's life for the Wife Swap set

Sometimes watching reality television brings on a strange feeling of togetherness with people long ago.

Sometimes watching reality television brings on a strange feeling of togetherness with people long ago. Especially the audience in the Coliseum or 100 rather less elaborate venues for bloody entertainment scattered throughout the Roman empire.

Ah, the gory that was Rome. Gladiators on the bill for the afternoon, but the morning curtain-raisers were executions, employing fiendish and agonising ways of putting the condemned to death. Men and women were maltreated, often sexually, in ...