In Rome's Colosseum and other amphitheaters in cities scattered across the sprawling ancient Roman Empire, gladiatorial spectacles were not merely human-versus-human affairs. Gladiators also were pitted against animals.

Ancient Roman gladiators were often pitted against animals in the arena—animals capable of killing a human being. Skeletal remains in a Roman burial ground in northern England were found to have lesions that looked suspiciously like bite marks.

Bite marks discovered on the skeleton of a gladiator in Roman-era England suggest the man faced off with a lion in the arena, according to a new study.