Gladiadoras is the second historical novel by the Madrid writer Juan Tranche. His first one, Spiculus, was widely distributed, but going on to be published in Editorial Planeta is for him like being in another dimension.

Signing with them was the best news I could have had. A dream come true, he says as soon as he begins the interview that took place in the cafeteria of a hotel on the Gran Vía.

The protagonists are two women, Helena and Valeria, from very different class status, who have nothing to do with each other. One of them is a mulier, slave or lower-class person, and the other is a female, from the upper, noble social class. The story takes place over a period of ten years, in the 2nd century A.D. during the times of the emperors Hadrian and Antinous. Historians have not decided whether the relationship between the two was consensual or not. What is clear is that Antinous lets himself be carried away by the gifted life that Emperor Hadrian provided for him, Juan Tranche details with passion.

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