About us

From 1974 to 1986 I worked as a karate instructor. Owing to this martial art I took an interest in other fighting styles too. In 1981 the book titled ‘Cruelty and Civilization’ got into my hands, within which I read about the Roman gladiator games within which the text was scholarly and still very readable. At first the mystical background and ethics, and in latter readings the ways of fighting and the gear were that got my imagination running. After the book’s fifth reading in 1985 I started the first reconstructional experiments with the members of the Vác’s Izzó MTE Karate Section. The FAMILIA GLADIATORIA came to be. Just like it is common among the pioneers, the making of the instruments was hulking without the essential know-how, the genuine depictions and the physical artefacts. I made the simpler weapons leaning on my previous locksmith qualifications. The more intricate helmets and swords were created by smiths György Sergei and Gábor Vörös in Nagymaros. Our first performance was given on the 11th of May in 1986. in Törökmező near Vác. In the beginning we only did 6-10 shows. With the inspiration of Péter Mikola Németh poet we started and to this day keep the process going, within which we exceeded the technical showings, we performed event games, later sacral games during the gladiator games and legionary battles.

In 1990 the FAMILIA executed its first truly grandiose venture with the help of the Museum of Aquincum the “LIMES WALK”. During this in legionary armour, on foot we walked the limes road by the Danube between Aquincum and the Austrian Carnuntum. In the midst of this in Esztergom, Lábatlan, Győr, Bruck and Carnuntum we performed gladiator games. In our home country this was the time they had first seen a legionary formation. In the course of the way we made a lot of important discoveries in clothing, weaponry and eating. Within the preparation for the journey I got a ton of inspiration from the work of dr. Marcus Junkelmann titled “The legions of Augustus”. The first time we met other roman reenactment groups in Carnuntum, who came in our honour to the banquet organized by the Museum of Carnuntium. From 1991 the play part of our programs broadened with moralphilosophical, spiritual and comical plays. 1991-“The guest of the procurator and the barbarian”-with fights and funny interludes. 1992-“Gods in the arena” –during the duels Nemesis and the deified Marcus Aurelius are having a discussion about vainness. In 1993 we received an invitation from the most desired place for any roman group, the Saalburg Museum a reconstructed roman fort. It was our first time performing in front of thousands of people. Within two days 24 000 people have seen our show. Next, we were able to perform in France in the Roman Festival of Mayen. Celebrating this run of luck, we performed the “Antique Harvest Home”, a funny and interactive play with Liber and the gladiators in Vác. In the summer of 1994, we organized with the Aquincum Friendship Circle in Aquincum a “Legionary meeting” with two Austrian legionary formations and Gábor Magyar’s Huns. During this meeting we performed our first battle reconstruction. In the Autumn, in front of thousands of viewers, we took part of one of the most prestigious roman festival in the German Aalen. In the same year István Molnár Szabos, a member of the Fiesta Theatre, who did a lot for the quality of our plays by helping in the directing for our plays. On Easter in 1995 we first performed the “Passion” a sacral play written by poet László Gyimesi On the Floralia in Aquincum we premiered the title “Roman wedding”, which is a slap stick, within the viewers could take a peek in the wedding of Analius Cajus Senilis and Julia Domna Satrafa. But the great event of Floralia was the “Thirteen sentences about creation” a play directed by me and István Molnár Sz. within the strives and other occurrences symbolized the world’s and the soul’s statutory movements. This play, just like the next four were inspired by the steps of initiation in Mithraism In the Vác City Festival we showed the battle slap stick “Career of the lazy legionary” In this year I started giving unusual history lessons in primary and high schools in Vác, in different themes: a. The gear, supplies, strategies and tactics of the roman legions. b. The origin of gladiator games, the religious and political background and their process. c. The roman religion and the particularity of the mystery cults. d. Eloquence and music in the antique times. Classmaster’s lessons: a. Fate – the powers and urges forming our fates in our lives. b. The views of antique religions still living in our minds-sentences. Introduction to the ancient patterns caught in our gestures and mannerisms. I illustrated the lessons with combat equipment, video and slideshows. In 1996 the Floralia started with the play titled “Venus in the arena”, in it we meet a star gladiator, who during his fights misunderstands the gestures of Tullia, who sits before the viewers, and falls madly in love, then when she leaves with another man, through a mental blow he gets initiated in the relationship between existence and love. In the beginning of May we got the honour of performing first at the Floralia in Gorsium started by Éva Petres and her co-workers. In September we performed at the Masurian Lake District’s famous fortress from the Bronze Age located in Biskupin. We closed our season at the festival of Aalen with 150 dressed up participants and 30 000 viewers. In 1997 we premiered my play “Debtor of Mars” riddled with mystical occurrences and gladiator duels. This was our first year where we got 7 invitations from foreign countries. There was one of the greatest roman events of the year in Ütrecht with 300 roman and barbarian partakers walking around in the two days. Our networking system and knowledge about clothing and legionary gear broadened too. In 1998 we performed the play titled “Lion” within the lion symbolizing Jupiter showed up with very spectacular externals, giving strength and bringing victory to the ones relying on him. This year’s jokey show was “Captions from the stories of gladiator games”- in which we showed the famous and notorious Caesars’ deeds in the arena. To the directing of these plays János Papp, András Vitai Sinkovics provided help. Sándor Halmagyi performer and István Somogyi director. In the same year professor Junkelmann started fancying the idea, inspired by us, to start his own gladiator group. In this Autumn, we met them at the Roman Festival in aalen. We ended the season and year with the Saturnalia and there we held an “Interactive slave fair” where the viewers could buy from the “bid”. In the next years we became regular partakers in the foreign roman festivals. We managed to travel to the Catalonian Tarragona and the Danish Hjemsted’s festival, so I only list the ones furthest away. I wrote further plays that we performed with the FAMILIA: „The vain judge and the gladiators” – made colourful with jokey scenes, with paired, serial and group fights. „The Persian” – during his fiery fights, the ageing gladiator becomes familiar with the law. „The stories and course of the gladiator games” – an informative play with duels and the explanation of the happenings around said duels.  The yearly 8-9 foreign travels and the shows at home brought loud successes got in the ears of two people living in towns in our home country. At first, they formed a legionary formation in Szombathely getting roused by our example. We helped them with their tents, the mechanical information of the ballists and their connection network To my nudging, as second, László Varró formed the Brigetio Legion. It was touching seeing his longing as he was looking at our gear in the forest of Komárom in 2000. We promised and gave help to them with mechanical information and connections, and at last we launched him on the road of forming our brother legion, the LEGIO I ADIUTRIX.  Much of the other European groups drew inspiration from the materials of our performances or the mechanical solutions of our weapons, they come to our performances, take films and analyse them. But we can give a lot of thanks to professor Junkelmann, who shared his precise research’s outcomes about the ancient weapon’s contraption solutions and about the unique branches. We also owe a lot of gratitude to Csaba Szamosvölgyi PR specialist and Manuela Arz, our friend living in Germany. Thanks to her connections we managed to go to bigger and smaller festivals all around Europe. Her love, livelihood and worldview made her the “mother” of the FAMILIA GLADIATORIA. It feels good to me too, that the thousands of children watching our performances get a peek at a more humaine ethic through the lenses of the ancient happenings. Today because of the syllabus and its learning becoming stressful, the education in the schools got put on the backburner, we might have managed, with the ethics, colourful externals and experiences shown in our games, to put a spark of curiosity into the students’ lives. Thank you for your flattering attention!