Source:

Quote:

Gladiators killed themselves; / It was in the Roman times. / People cheered with bloodshot grins / As eye and minds went blind.

If the line "gladiators killed themselves" is meant to refer to gladiatorial suicide, such suicides were probably very rare in Rome, since such behavior would have been highly antithetical to the pride and machismo represented in the Roman gladiatorial oath (uri, vinciri, verberari, ferroque necari -- to be burned, to be chained, to be beaten, and to be killed with a sword). As for the song, Dylan has never officially released it. It was perhaps most notably covered in 1965 by African-American folk singer Odessa in Odessa Sings Dylan, one of the very first Dylan cover albums.