With just two eyeholes, the helmet must have been hard to see or breathe through, a handicap that balanced out bouts with this gladiator’s bareheaded foe. Professional fighters needed ...

The gladiator helmet I’ve just put on, though, is stifling. A replica of the head protection worn by a Roman gladiator almost 2,000 years ago, the dented, scratched helmet weighs more than 13 ...