Gladiators

by M. C. Bishop

of body armour was worn, it is found amongst Republican

  gladiators right up to the time of Augustus. A relief in the

  Glypothek in Munich shows two gladiators, one triumphant,

  the other defeated, both wearing finely depicted sets of scale

  armour ( lorica squamata). The cardiophylax (‘heart protection’)

  or partial breastplate was quite common and worn by the

  provocator and thraex amongst others. The protection offered by

  such armour was rudimentary and could even be argued merely

  to be token. Just as helmets had to be lined, so armour required

  some form of padding to make it effective by helping to dissipate

  the force from any blow. We know that both felt and leather

  undergarments were used for this purpose.

  Greaves

  Greaves ( ocreae) were designed to protect the lower leg. They

  were generally only used on the left leg, since it was this foot

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  Gladiator painted on a glass vessel (photo by Shizhao)

  that was advanced when in the ‘at the ready’ stance, with the

  shield advanced and the sword drawn back ready to strike.

  Normally made of a copper alloy (bronze or brass), a greave had

  to have a fabric or leather liner to absorb shock when they were

  struck with a blade (or even kicked!), as well as straps around

  the calf to hold them in place. A possible military greave lining

  of leather is known from Vindonissa in Switzerland. Shorter

  gladiatorial greaves left the knee exposed (since it would

  usually be concealed behind the shield), but were arched over

  the foot, and were of two lengths (generally refl ecting the size

  of the shield used). Longer ones provided some protection for

  the knee and could weigh between 2.2kg and 2.5kg each. Feet

  were left completely unprotected by greaves and thus remained

  vulnerable.

  Th e examples from Pompeii were decorated with both

  embossed and engraved ornament. One pair depicts Neptune

  centrally on one shin and Jupiter on the other, with engraved

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  Laquearius (‘ceiling-maker’)

  • Armour: shoulder guard

  • Special feature: lasso, spear

  • Period: Imperial

  • Common opponent: arbelas; essedarius;

  murmillo; secutor

  tendrils surrounding them. Another pair is covered in embossed

  mythological scenes, whilst a short example depicts a triumphant

  gladiator holding aloft a palm branch, the sign of his victory.

  Greaves were used by the Roman army during the Republican

  period and were reintroduced during the early 2nd century AD

  in some regions. Th ey were subsequently employed by Roman

  cavalry in their games known as the hippika gymnasia , but

  invariably providing protection for the knee, which cavalrymen –

  unlike gladiators with large shields – needed.

  Armguards

  Just as with greaves, a metal armguard ( manica ) could be used

  by both gladiators and infantry. Although no known gladiatorial

  examples survive, a number of military examples have been

  excavated and they are now understood in some detail. Th ey were

  articulated on three or four leather straps that ran the full length

  of the defence internally. A series of curved steel or brass plates

  were riveted to the straps which overlapped upwards (from the

  wrist to the shoulder) when worn on the sword arm. Th is ensured

  that, when the sword arm being held horizontally was struck by

  a blade, the blow was defl ected towards the inside of the elbow,

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  where the plates naturally bunched together and so were at their

  thickest. If worn on the left arm (as would a retiarius) then they

  might overlap downwards. The defences are sometimes depicted

  with multiple straps or laces hanging loose, suggesting that they

  may be ties for securing the armour to the wearer’s limb.

  Another form of manica that was depicted was made up of

  overlapping scales, just like the scale body armour worn by

  soldiers. No example of such a scale armguard has yet been

  identified amongst the archaeological material, even though

  scales are common finds on military sites. However, such a

  defence is shown in use on the Borghese mosaic, its grey colour

  indicating either steel or tinned copper alloy scales. Many

  manicae , both scale and plate, are also shown with a body strap

  attached to the top of the armguard, presumably to prevent the

  defence from sliding down, out of position. To be effective, like

  all armour, the armguard would have to have been worn over

  padding of some kind.

  Shoulderguards

  Replacing a shield for a retiarius, there was a shoulderguard

  (traditionally identified as the galerus, although the evidence

  for this term is slim at best). This rested at the top of the left

  arm and afforded the wearer some protection for his face. When

  combined with an armguard, it offered protection similar to that

  of a shield but allowed a retiarius to hold his trident two-handed

  if he so wished. They were curved at the top as well as turned

  outwards, to prevent the wearer hitting his head and also deflect

  blows outwards. Surviving examples from Pompeii are decorated

  with various embossed motifs, including in one case a bust of

  Hercules and in another various nautical elements (a steering

  oar, anchor, trident, dolphin and crab!) recalling the supposed

  fishing origin of the retiarius. Used together with an armguard

  and padding, this would have made a good substitute for a shield.

  They weighed in the region of 1 kg and were 30–35 cm in height.

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  Padding

  As well as some padding under any armour, gladiators were

  also sometimes depicted wearing thick padding on their limbs.

  This was by no means universal, since it invariably involved a

  compromise between protection and manoeuvrability. There

  are no surviving examples, but mosaics and wall paintings are

  general a pale, creamy colour, suggesting they may have been

  from something like padded, undyed cotton. Straps or binding

  around the limbs held the padding in place.

  Shields

  Several different types of shield were used by gladiators. One

  of the most familiar from reliefs, mosaics and frescoes, was the

  curved rectangular body shield also used by legionary troops.

  It not only provided excellent protection between the shoulder

  and knee, but could also be used as a weapon in its own right,

  punching with the metal boss or the upper rim, perhaps even

  slamming the lower rim down onto an opponent’s foot.

  An actual example of this type of shield, often known as a

  scutum (although the word actually refers to any type of shield),

  was excavated from the city of Dura-Europos in Syria, on the

  west bank of the Euphrates. The city served as a base for a

  Roman army unit during the 3rd century AD. The shield was

  shown to be made of three layers of wooden laths, the outer

  layers being glued horizontally and the middle one vertically,

  th
ereby using the grain of the wood to increase the protection

  offered. The outer face was painted with elaborate designs

  depicting scenes from the Trojan Wars, as well as bearing

  an image of a lion (a possible legionary badge) and winged

  victories with an eagle. Like nearly all Roman shields, it had a

  horizontal wooden handgrip. Modern reconstructions of the

  shields, which might have a brass or iron boss, weigh in the

  region of 7 kg.

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  Retiarius and secutor on the Nennig mosaic (photo by Carole Raddato) Representations of gladiatorial shields of the curved, rectangular

  type suggest that these too were decorated on the front face. Most

  include right-angled digamma motifs in each of the four corners

  and these are sometimes depicted on legionary shields too. Th ey do

  not feature the thunderbolts and eagle wings found on legionary

  shields, however, with abstract designs appearing instead.

  Small circular shields ( parmae ) were also used by some types

  of gladiators, including equites , hoplomachi and thraeces . Some

  may have been made of wood but a convex example with a rim

  excavated from Pompeii, 0.37 m in diameter, was made of metal

  and decorated with two concentric laurel wreaths in low relief

  around a central repoussé boss of silver, which represented a

  head of Medusa. It weighed just 1.6 kg and closely resembles a

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  miniature version of a Greek hoplite shield so may have belonged

  to a hoplomachus gladiator.

  The distinction between the two types of shield – large

  rectangular ( scutum) and small circular ( parma) – led to a

  certain factionalism amongst followers, with adherents of the

  two types known as scutarii and parmularii. This was true for

  murmillo/ thraex and murmillo/ hoplomachus contests in particular.

  It may have reflected the fact that the gladiator with the smaller

  shield was placed at a disadvantage and was thus inevitably an

  underdog when facing an opponent with the larger shield.

  Props

  One type of gladiator, the pontarius, required a piece of apparatus

  for their performance: the pons or bridge. No examples survive,

  merely rather crude representations, but it seems to have been

  made of timber and comprised a platform with ramps at either

  end. A pontarius then piled his rocks on the platform and could

  hurl them at his attacking opponents.

  Other scenery was used for themed conflicts, where groups of

  fighters were set against each other in recreations of major battles

  from the past (particularly those Rome had won). However,

  these were normally fought by condemned criminals, rather

  than true gladiators from the gladiatorial schools, whose battles

  were usually one-on-one, minimalist affairs.

  the armaturae

  The different types of gladiator were known as armaturae. We know

  from the Roman military writer Vegetius that the armatura was

  the type of drill performed by a soldier (or gladiator) according to

  the type of equipment with which he had been issued. This means

  that armaturae were less about how gladiators were equipped (and

  minor differences within the same type can be found), but rather

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  how they actually fought. The whole point of such a wide range of

  armaturae was to provide variety for audiences. Whilst some stock

  pairs were used ( retiarius v. secutor, eques v. eques and so on) mixing other types could be interesting, particularly when matching a

  left-handed gladiator with a right-handed one.

  Andabata

  The andabata (the name may be Gallic in origin) was a type of

  gladiator who fought blind, either because they were blindfolded

  or because they wore helmets with no eye holes. They seem to

  have been paired together. Their purpose seems to have been to

  provide comedic value, as they staggered around trying to find

  their opponents. However, they do not seem to have been very

  common, which may have been part of the novelty, although

  they were sufficiently well known for Cicero to joke about them.

  Arbelas

  The arbelas is only mentioned once in a single literary source and

  does not occur in any inscriptions but is shown on several reliefs

  wearing scale armour, but this may well be the Greek name for

  a contraretiarius, since they seem to have been paired with the

  retiarius. The key element was that, like the dimachaerus, the arbelas

  fought shieldless and wielded a gauntlet a with semi-circular blade

  on his left arm and arbelas may well have been just another name for

  the scissor. According to Artemidorus, as with a man who dreamed

  of fighting as a dimachaerus, one who dreamed of being an arbelas

  would marry a wife who was a poisoner, ugly, or malicious.

  Bestiarius

  Those who performed such hunts were known as bestiarii, or

  men who fought animals, although they were sometimes also

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  Murmillo (‘little fi sh’)

  • Armour: helmet, greave, armguard, curved

  rectangular shield

  • Special feature: short sword

  • Period: Imperial

  • Common opponent: retiarius; thraex;

  hoplomachus

  known as venatores (hunters). Indeed, there seems to have been

  as much confusion over the diff erence between the two in

  ancient times as there is now. Confusingly, a handler of such

  animals who prepared them for the arena might also be known

  as a bestiarius . Sculpted reliefs of the Republican period show

  fully armed gladiators fi ghting wild animals but, by the Imperial

  period, bestiarii fought with a spear and no armour, although

  some padding might be used on the left arm. Th e poet Martial

  describes a bestiarius called Carpophorus who achieved fame

  by killing a bear, a lion and a leopard. One particular variant

  of combat against wild animals was what is now known as

  taurocatapsia or bull-wrestling, fi rst exhibited at the games by

  Julius Caesar. A man would quite literally wrestle a bull to the

  ground, starting off on horseback and leaping onto the beast.

  Bestiarii were generally held in lower esteem than ‘proper’

  gladiators and they baffl ed the Christian writer Cyprian:

  What state of things, I pray you, can that be, and what can it be

  like, in which men, whom none have condemned, off er themselves

  to the wild beasts – men of ripe age, of suffi ciently beautiful

  person, clad in costly garments? Living men, they are adorned for

  a voluntary death; wretched men, they boast of their own miseries.

  Th ey fi ght with beasts, not for their crime, but for their madness.

  (Cyprian, To Donatus 7)

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  The Emperor Domitian established a training school not far

  from the Colosseum for bestiarii (one of four gladiatorial schools

  he set up) known as the Ludus Matutinus.

  Crupellarius

  We have only one reference to the type of gladiator known as a

  crupellarius and that comes in Tacitus’ account of the revolt of

  Fl
orus and Sacrovir in AD 21. The Gallic revolt associated with

  these two men was associated with the tribes of the Treveri and

  Aedui respectively. Florus was quickly defeated by the Romans in

  the Ardennes with the help of his fellow Treveran, Iulius Indus,

  a Roman cavalry commander, but the Aedui under Sacrovir

  proved a tougher nut to crack. Finally meeting the Romans in

  battle to the north of Autun, their forces included slaves armed

  as gladiators, described by Tacitus as crupellarii, ‘clad after the

  national fashion in a complete covering of steel’, going on to

  note that ‘though they were ill-adapted for inflicting wounds,

  they were impenetrable to them’. The legionaries’ swords could

  not penetrate their armour, but the ever-resourceful Roman

  army soon found a solution,

  snatching up hatchets and pickaxes, hacked at their bodies and

  their armour as if they were battering a wall. Some beat down the

  unwieldy mass with pikes and forked poles, and they were left lying

  on the ground, without an effort to rise, like dead men. (Tacitus,

  Annals 3.46)

  Our understanding of the crupellarii would end there, were it not

  for a small statuette from Versigny in France which some scholars

  believe might represent just such a gladiator. The figure wears a

  large, cylindrical helmet with a distinctive nasal protrusion and

  small holes, presumably for ventilation, resembling the great

  helm of a medieval knight rather than the familiar types of

  gladiatorial helmet. His limbs, shoulders and upper torso bear

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  incisions suggestive of segmental

  armour of the type worn by Roman

  legionaries.

  Tacitus is very clear that this was

  a Gallic type of gladiator, perhaps

  meaning that it was only ever seen

  in Gaul itself, which might explain

  the Romans’ evident surprise

  at encountering these heavily

  armoured men in the field and the

  lack of any other references to them.

  Dimachaerus

  This gladiator’s name literally

  means ‘two swords’ in Greek and

  thus provides the vital piece of

  information we need to know – Statuette of a crupellarius

  the dimachaerus fought shieldless (drawing by M. C. Bishop)

  with a second blade in his left hand