Among the many ancient sources are:

Augustus, Res Gestae, 22-24.

Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares 8.6-9, 34.

Dio Cassius, Roman History.

Pliny the Younger, Epistulae 6.34.

Seneca, Epistulae Morales 7.

Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars (various places in the lives of Caligula, Claudius, Nero, and Domitian).

Tacitus, Annales, (e.g., Books 3 and 13-16).

Secondary sources include:

The Art of Ancient Spectacle. ed., Bergmann, Betina and Kondoleon, Christine. Yale University Press, 1999.

Barton, C. The Sorrows of the Ancient Romans: The Gladiator and the Monster. Princeton University Press, 1993.

Blanchard-Lemée, Michèle, Mongi Ennaïfer, Heidi slim, and Latifa Slim. Mosaics of Roman Africa. New York, 1995.

Buonocore, M. Epigrafia anfiteatriale dell’ occidente romano vol. 3. Rome, 1992.

Coleman, Kathleen. "Fatal Charades: Roman Public Executions Staged as Mythological Re-enactments," Journal of Roman Studies 80 (1990) 44-73; "Launching into History: Aquatic Displays in the Early Empire." Journal of Roman Studies 83 (1993) 48-74.

Connolly, Peter and Dodge, Hazel. The Ancient City: Life in Classical Athens and Rome. Oxford University Press, 1998.

De Caro, Stefano. The National Archeological Museum of Naples. Napoli, 1996.

Dunbabin, K. M. D. Mosaics of the Greek and Roman World, Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Guzzo, Pier Giovanni and d’Ambrosio, Antonio. Pompeii. Napoli, 1998.

Ling, Roger. Ancient Mosaics. Princeton University Press, 1998,

Potter, David and Mattingly, D. J. Life Death and Entertainment in the Roman Empire. University of Michigan Press, 1999.

Weidemann, T. Emperors and Gladiators. London, 1992.

Zanker, Paul. Pompeii: Public and Private Life. Harvard University Press 1998.