We should know better, but we Americans always seem to think we have a lock on being the only people who have interesting hobbies. As if Asians and Europeans couldn't possibly compete in being crazy about our own nations history...that we are the only ones who will go to fabulous lengths to re-enact that history. Wrong again.

We encountered this delightful article on Roman re-enactment. It proves conclusively that Americans are not the only people crazy about history, ancient historical times, or re-enacting. Thank the gods. KPR

The first lesson at the gladiator school of the Roman Historical Society stresses discipline. "You are slaves, and that is how I will treat you," Giuseppe Coluzzi, 32, barks at eight adults fidgeting in short white togas.

Mr. Coluzzi, who uses the name "Korakos" in the arena, glares at them icily. Using the Latin phrase for "Hail, teacher," he said, "You will address me by saying 'Ave, magister,' and you will never use your swords outside the arena or without a magister present."

There are a few snickers, but mostly, the five men and three women who signed up last week to learn how to fight to the death listen raptly through two hours of gladiator history and combat theory (two points for a blow to the thorax).

"I have always been a Roman history buff, but I want to relive it more intensely," Giuseppe Pecorelli, 51, an employee of a German multinational corporation, explains as heyeamingly flexes his wooden practicesword. "It is one thing to read histories or Roman poetry. I want to get in touch with my warrior side."

The Roman Historical Society, which has about 100 members, was founded in 1994, and is fittingly situated on the Via Appia Antica, the ancient Appian Way, the road where legend has it that St. Peter saw an apparition of Christ, and asked, "Quo vadis, Domine?" ("Whither goest thou, Lord?")

The society has a Web site (http://digiIander.iol.it/sergioiac/), a clubhouse and a yard littered with helmets, shields, pikes, nets, catapults and othermartial accessories. The members devote most of their timeto staging Roman scenes and battles for pageants and town fairs. But the society, which bad long hoped to open a gladiator school, seized the coattails of the summer Hollywood hit, "Gladiator," starring Russell Crowe, to begin offering classes this month.

And these Roman history buffs, unlike many classicists in Italy and the United States, do not quibble with the liberties "Gladiator" screenwriters took in rewriting ancient Roman history.

"The movie was excellent," Korakos states defiantly. The trainer, whose day job has him printing Euro currency bills for the Bank of Italy, said he has seen "Gladiator" four times.

But not all the new students, who pay $100 for a two month course, say they are drawn to gladiator school by the movie. Training for the female "Amazon" division, Patricia Mincone, 29, a hospital worker, says she would never be influenced by Hollywood.

"I am looking for a workout that isn't the typical routine tennis, aerobics, the things everybody does," she said. A tall woman with muscular arms and legs, Ms. Mincone looks as though she could easily stab, bludgeon or harpoon any of her fellow rookies.

But gladiator school does not sanction real bloodletting. Mostly, students are taught how to choreograph combat, (four sequences, six blows per sequence), both to savor simulated savagery and, eventually, to perform gladiator combat the way it was done in the Colosseum more than 2,000 years ago.

Unlike American Civil War buffs who rigorously re enact the Battle of Gettysburg or Manassas, Italians are not known for an obsession with dressing up and reliving past wars. Italy's somewhat concise history of modern battlefield victories could be one reason.

Another is that Italians already have a centuries - old tradition of religious re enactments, pageants and processions in which whole towns turn out to recreate favorite passages of the Bible or a saint's life. Every Easter since the 17th century, the city of Sezze, in central Italy, perforrns its Passion Play, a re-enactment of agonized journey to the cross on Good Friday. As many as 700 locals take part, playing roles as diverse as Mary, Pontius Pilate and vicious bare chested Roman guards who whip chained Hebrew slaves as the procession moves through the streets.

Sometimes, even religious pageants bring out the ancient brutality of some players. Several years ago, a few young amateur actors in Sezze got carried away and inadvertently flogged members of the audience. They were banished from future parades until last Easter, when Sezze brought its Good Friday procession to St. Peter's in Rome for the Holy Year.

Gladiator school seems to appeal to Italians eager to rediscover their pagan roots. "We are the descendants of the early Romans, so we of all people should explore our past," said Lia Cinque, 44, a homemaker who is married to Mr. Pecorelli. Sighing, she said their 24 year old son is also a history buff, but in a spurt of filial rebellion, has joined a group whose members dress up as Scottish clan warriors.

Ms. Cinque explained that she herself is not interested in gladiator training, and spends much of the lesson with her head buried in a historical novel set in antiquity.

A little like English history buffs who blame Shakespeare for blackening the reputation of Richard III, longtime members of the Roman Historical Society feel that Tacitus and others grossly misjudged Nero.

Sergio lacomoni, 47, who took the nameNero when he was elected president of the society, holds court overthe class in a full - length tunic embroidered with gold- Regally affablewith the new recruits, he nevertheless takes umbrage at the suggestion that his imperial role model was a bloodthirsty madman. "Nero was nowhere near Rome when the fires started," he said sternly, referring to the legend that Nero fiddled as Rome burned.

Mr. lacomoni notes that many historians take a more revisionist view of Nero, but perhaps in a re-enactment of his predecessor's megalomania, he quickly added, "Of course, I was the first, but now there are others who also defend Nero."