The glory that was Rome!

I'm starting to piece together next year's prospectus and one thing kicking around is a Sword & Sandals epic. Something with Gladiators and Roman legions and noble treachery and all that fun stuff. The question is what to use to run it?

Fvlminata was my first thought, but I don't own a copy of the game and my two best "swipe rules sets off of them" players had only barely heard of it. I recall very favorable play descriptions in A&E when it came out, but the reviews I've read have been mixed and their website is tres sparse. Can anyone give a good thumbs up or down on play - especially with some ideas towards combat? Does 2nd edition clear up any of the complaints raised in the review of 1st edition I linked to?

Cambias and ladegard both mentioned GURPS Imperial Rome, which I do own, but I have never been able to wrap my mind around the 1 second combat rounds attack roll vs dodge parry roll on a 3d6 curve that is core to GURPS. (It just doesn't sing to me - call it a side effect of a V&V childhood.) I know I should get familiar with it, but I expect that a game that might have multiple gladiatorial duels would be a hard place to acquaint myself with the combat mechanic with players who know it much better than I do. 

There are other generic/fantasy engines (BRP, d6, even D&D if I wanted to) that I could turn to, but I'd rather experiment a bit. Can anyone recommend another alternative?