Deadliest Warrior is my favorite show. I love it and really appreciate how the format has evolved. There have been some mistakes that I would like to address for those of you involved in reconstructing ancient fighting forms.

The gladiator depicted never existed. He was a composite. Gladiators were generally armed with militarily obsolete equipment [early on the captured arms of specific ethnic enemies] in order to represent some barbarian victim of the Roman Military Machine. The thraex and hoplomachus were good examples of this type. Eventually some mythic types like the Myrmillo and Retiarius evolved as contrived dueling templates tailored for spectator appeal.

The Deadliest Warrior scenarios occur in a military or "terrain maneuver" context, not as duels. The various forms of gladiators utilized highly specialized weaponry and were trained for the duel. Militarily Spartacus had a lot of success, partially because his men discarded their gladiatorial weaponry for state-of-the-art Roman gear. Otherwise, historical sources do note that gladiators were generally only useful militarily at fixed positions and as bodyguards. It is almost inconceivable that a gladiator would be able to deal with an Apache warrior over broken terrain.

The fact is that the specific forms of gladiator were so narrowly armed that none—even though they might have been superior fighters—of them would do well in a military maneuver environment. The single most unrealistic thing about this cobbled together gladiator was that he was armed with a sling.

Gladiators were condemned to death by Rome, and the honcho in the plush booth was not about to sit next to his wife while a man his government had sentenced to death was armed with a missile weapon a mere fifty paces away! Gladiators were never armed with missile weapons. There was a type of animal fighter armed with a bow called a sagitarius. But he was a free man not a condemned slave.

Really, would you go to the local zoo if the chimps knew they were going to be sold to surgical labs when they were no longer cute, and were armed with assault rifles?

Look, even the Ninja expert said he would just run from the Spartan. There was no question in my mind which warrior was going to win this match, once I noticed that the Spartan expert actually knew how to use his shield. Of all of the so-called experts on this show he was the only fighter who knew anything about shield use. All of the other shield-using European fighting men have been misrepresented through ignorance born of not sparring and competing with shields.

There was, however, one glaring error that favored the Spartan: Spartan Similars [the heavy-armored ass-kicking-machine-citizens that mauled the Persians at The Hot Gates] never threw anything. They fought hand-to-hand. Their slaves and allies would provide any missile-armed troops for battle.

Even so, the Ninja is still destined to become olive-garnished sushi at the end of any such fight.

This was a good episode, except for one oversight. The Russian trooper did more damage from horseback with his slashing saber than the Spanish trooper did thrusting with his cut and thrust blade. The hosts then asked the re-enactor employing the Spanish weapons why he did not use the more damaging slash. He did not have a good answer. When the doctor suggested that the straight blade was superior to the curved because of its cutting and thrusting ability and reach, the other hosts dismissed him.

Okay, the bio-mechanics guy could beat me in an MMA bout and Mack would surely shoot me in the head from a mile away while I tried to figure out where he was. But if I have a straight saber with a six inch reach advantage and they have the Russian scimitar, they are getting run through ASAP.

What no one picked up on was the fact that the Russian horseman was parallel and even past his target when he did his devastating slash, while the Spaniard ran his man through the collarbone when he was still in front of him.

Gentlemen, when it comes to blades, having the longer straighter one is like having a rifle versus a shotgun. It all depends on what range you are at. If the fight starts close that's one thing. But two guys charging at each other and you give it to the fellow that does not begin to access his target until he has travelled completely through his opponent's strike zone?

Well that is all I have to complain about. It is a wonderful show that deserves our support.