Those murderous killers we all know and fear as Roman gladiators had a very un-gladiator like diet.

You'd expect these killing machines to chomp on beef, pork and whatever kind of meat they had on hand to bulk up for the serious business of killing their fellow man.

Turns out gladiators loved eating veggies-a lot of veggies. Gladiators ate meat-free meals.

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And they quaffed their veggies with a drink made from plant ashes and vinegar.

This love of veggies finally explains why gladiators were widely referred to at the time as "hordearii." This Latin word literally means "barley eaters."

New evidence suggests gladiators were fed a diet of grain, said researchers from the MedUni Vienna. German researchers examined bones from a 2nd century gladiator cemetery in the ancient city of Ephesos, which is located in present day Turkey.

Ephesos was the capital of the Roman province of Asia and had over 200,000 inhabitants in its heyday.

Researchers studied the collagen in the bones of Roman corpses found in the cemetery to confirm suspicions Roman gladiators were fed a vegetarian diet. The bones were excavated in 1993 and date to the second or third century B.C.E.

Test of the bones showed gladiators mostly ate a vegetarian diet consisting of beans and grains. Wheat and barley were the gladiator's staple food, however. The gladiatorial diet also consisted of oatmeal and dried fruit.

Gladiators from throughout the Roman Empire also drank what the researchers said was a "tonic of ashes" made from vinegar and plant ashes as a sports drink similar to Gatorade.

Researchers came to the conclusion gladiators were vegetarians after discovering high traces of strontium in the bones they examined. Strontium indicates the amount of vegetables eaten over a lifetime, and the higher the levels of strontium, the more likely a diet is devoid of meat.

Researchers analyzed the bones of 22 gladiators and 31 other individuals.