No banana either

It was the penne that felt out of place for me

Pepper is from south Asia, and was available to the ancient Romans through Arab traders.

Or orange carrots before the Dutch.

Or pumpkins, but those ones look way too small to eat

I feel like you are a professor or history teacher or something lol

And also was a lot less gory as depicted, with some being closer to modern pro wrestling than anything else.

If this a troll, I'll bite.

Mr. Connery, the phrase is "barley men", not "barely men".

If have gone with a more obvious joke format like “men? I barley knew them!”.

They weren't about to die. It was a spectacle. They were entertainers.