Gladiators

Home > Other > Gladiators > Page 10
Gladiators Page 10

by M. C. Bishop


  instead. This was a particular novelty for the Romans who were

  used to all swordsmen fighting with both a blade and a shield.

  According to Artemidorus, a man who dreamed of fighting as

  a dimachaerus would marry a wife who was a poisoner, ugly, or

  malicious.

  Eques

  The eques (cavalryman) was a gladiator who generally fought on

  horseback, but could dismount if needed. A mosaic in Madrid

  shows two equites fighting dismounted. They were armed

  with a spear, carried a round shield in their left hand and had

  a full-face visored helmet with a brim with a pair of plumes,

  one on either side of the helmet bowl. Unusually, they wore a

  CHapter 5: Hardware and venues | 87

  tunic and not just the subligaculum. Equites were often used to open the gladiatorial part of a munus, once the prolusio was over.

  According to Artemidorus, any man who dreamed of competing

  as an eques would end up with a wife who was both noble and

  rich, but not very intelligent.

  Essedarius

  Essedarii were charioteers, supposedly based on the British

  chariots Julius Caesar encountered in 55 and 54 BC and which

  Julius Agricola found again during his campaigns in Scotland

  under Domitian. Such chariots were extremely light vehicles,

  designed for speed and manoeuvrability. Artemidorus believed

  that a man who dreamed of fighting as an essedarius would

  marry a woman who was lazy and stupid (presumably because

  the charioteer did not bother to dismount in the arena and they

  had the reputation for being rather dim).

  Female gladiator

  The word gladiatrix is a modern invention and was unknown to

  the Romans. Female gladiators were known but fought in one

  of the known armaturae, rather than being a specific type in its

  own right.

  Gaul

  The Gallus (normally translated as ‘Gaul’, but it also means

  ‘cockerel’, ‘priest of Attis’ and ‘reaping machine’ – there was

  potential for humour if nothing else) was another type of

  gladiator derived from a particular nationality. Gauls had a

  particular significance for the Romans, partly because they had

  attacked Rome in 390 BC, according to tradition (there are

  88 | GLadIatOrs

  complicated reasons for disputing the date). Little is known

  about the equipment of the Gallus – they may have been

  equipped like Gallic nobility and worn helmets and mail shirts,

  carried a large shield, and wielded a long sword, but it is also

  possible that they fought like ordinary warriors, naked but for

  the shield and sword. The type had largely disappeared by the

  Augustan period.

  Hoplomachus

  The hoplomachus was effectively a Roman gladiatorial tribute to

  the hoplite of classical Greece. Equipped with a small circular

  shield, a spear and probably at least some body armour, they

  were similar to Samnites. They would have been slow and

  cumbersome, but well-protected and, importantly, with a greater

  reach than a sword-armed opponent.

  Laquearius

  The laquearius is thought by some to have been a variant of the

  retiarius, perhaps even a novelty act. Instead of a net, they were

  equipped with a lasso.

  Murmillo

  The murmillo (or myrmillo) was originally the chief opponent

  for the retiarius. but could also be found fighting the thraex. The

  name, which comes from a small, salt-water fish, played upon

  the appearance of retiarius as a kind of fisherman. They were

  equipped with a helmet, armguard, rectangular shield and a

  greave. They were found from the 1st to the 3rd centuries AD.

  Festus recorded a taunt supposedly levelled at a murmillo by a

  retiarius:

  CHapter 5: Hardware and venues | 89

  Equites fighting on foot (photo by Carole Raddato)

  A retiarius fi ghting against a murmillo chanted ‘Why do you fl ee,

  Gaul? I’m after the fi sh, not you!’, because the murmillo fought

  with Gallic weaponry and because murmillones used to be Gauls,

  with a depiction of a fi sh on the helmet. (Festus 358 L)

  Paegnarius

  Th e paegnarius was to some extent an entertainment act, rather

  than a ‘serious’ gladiator. Lacking armour, they were protected

  with just padding on the left arms and equipped with whips or

  canes. Th ey seem to have been more akin to slapstick comedy

  than combat to the death.

  Pontarius

  Th e pontarius (‘bridge man’) was a variant of the retiarius . A

  rectangular wooden platform with ramps at either end was

  provided for the retiarius , together with a supply of rocks instead

  of a net. His opponent, a murmillo or secutor , then tried to

  assault the ramp under a hail of stone. Such a scene is depicted

  on a relief from Kos in Greece showing the retiarius Kritos and

  90 | GLadIatOrs

  his assailant Mariskos. The relief is damaged on one side so it is

  possible there was a second attacker on the other ramp. This is

  suggested by a barbotine-decorated pot from Lyon showing a

  trident-armed pontarius called Scorpus fending off two attackers

  (Flamma and Februarius) with rocks.

  Provocator

  The provocator (‘challenger’) was equipped in much the same way

  as the murmillo, with a helmet, rectangular shield, armguard and

  greave. Inscriptions mentioning provocatores are known from

  Rome (Anicetus and Pardus), Pergamum (Nympheros) and

  Pompeii (Mansuetus). The type was known in the 1st century

  BC, as is clear from a passage from Cicero:

  ... as the fact is that this band did not consist of men picked out

  of those who were for sale, but of men bought out of jails, and

  adorned with gladiatorial names, while he drew lots to see whom

  he would call Samnites, and whom provocatores, who could avoid

  having fears as to what might be the end of such licentiousness

  and such undisguised contempt for the laws? (Cicero, For Sestius

  64.134)

  Some provocatores seem to have worn a small breastplate

  ( cardiophylax) protecting the upper chest at the front and held in

  place by straps, visible on the back. It is generally held that they

  only ever fought other provocatores but this assertion is difficult

  to prove.

  Retiarius

  The retiarius (‘net man’) first appears under the Empire. Armed

  only with a trident, a net and a knife, he was lightly armoured,

  wearing only a shoulderguard and armguard most of the time.

  His only clothing was the loin cloth and ankle bindings. Using

  CHapter 5: Hardware and venues | 91

  Paegnarii (photo by Carole Raddato)

  speed to both evade and tire his opponent, he would cast his

  net in an attempt to snare or trip up the more heavily armoured

  gladiator lumbering after him.

  Occasionally, a retiarius would fi ght in a tunic, in which case

  he was known (unsurprisingly) as a retiarius tunicatus !

  A Gracchus fi ghting, not indeed as a murmillo , nor with the

  round shield and scimitar: such accoutrements he rejects,

  indeed rejects and detests;
nor does a helmet shroud his face.

  See how he wields his trident! And when with poised right hand

  he has cast the trailing net in vain, he lifts up his bare face to the

  benches and fl ies, for all to recognise, from one end of the arena

  to the other. We cannot mistake the golden tunic that fl utters

  from his throat, and the twisted cord that dangles from the

  high-crowned cap; and so the pursuer who was pitted against

  Gracchus endured a shame more grievous than any wound.

  (Juvenal, Satires 8.199–210)

  92 | GLadIatOrs

  Secutor (‘pursuer’)

  • Armour: helmet, greave, armguard, curved

  rectangular shield

  • Special feature: short sword

  • Period: Imperial

  • Common opponent: retiarius

  Th ere is some suggestion (largely innuendo in Juvenal’s Satires )

  that such retiarii were viewed as eff eminate.

  Although the origins of the retiarius are often assumed to

  have been in fi shing (despite the fact that fi shermen would

  tend to use a net or a spear, but seldom both), it has been

  pointed out that they may have had a more martial origin. In

  332 BC, the inhabitants of the island city of Tyre used tridents

  and nets to defend themselves against the siege mounted by

  Alexander the Great.

  A skull from the gladiator cemetery at Ephesus shows

  the result of a fatal blow from a trident. Th e spacing of the

  horrendous wounds exactly matches that of the tines of

  surviving tridents.

  Th e earliest depictions of a retiarius – on glass vessels from

  Lyon dating to the late 1st century BC – shows a man with a

  net and trident not only wearing greaves but also, apparently,

  body armour. A marvellous 2nd century AD pot from a grave

  in Colchester depicts a retiarius called Valentinus appealing

  for clemency, having been defeated by the secutor Memnon. A

  3rd-century AD mosaic from Spain shows events from a fi ght

  between a secutor Astyanax and the retiarius Kalendio, who is

  marked with a Θ (theta) to show that he lost and was killed.

  CHAPTER 5: HARDWARE AND VENUES | 93

  Gladiators on pottery from Colchester (photo by Carole Raddato)

  Th e classic opponents for the retiarius (or contraretiarii , as

  they were known) were the murmillo and, later, the secutor ,

  both of whom appear to have specialised in fi ghting the net

  man. Retiarii were the principal gladiator type to fi ght from a

  makeshift platform known as a ‘bridge’ ( pons ), in which case

  they might be described as a pontarius . Here they substituted

  their speed (and their net) for a height advantage and, by way

  of compensation, it seems, a pile of rocks for throwing at their

  would-be assailants!

  Artemidorus was of the opinion that dreaming of being a

  retiarius meant a man’s wife would be both poor and apt to

  wander (because the retiarius depended on moving around a lot

  and was of comparatively low status even amongst gladiators).

  94 | GLadIatOrs

  Pontarius in action (drawing by M. C. Bishop)

  Sagittarius

  The sagittarius was an archer, equipped with the recurved composite

  bow. To achieve maximum efficiency with this weapon (both in

  terms of rate of shooting and accuracy), an archer needed to practise

  all their lives, so a gladiator who adopted this armatura could never

  be as proficient with the composite bow as a native from a region

  where it was used who had grown up with the weapon.

  Samnite

  The Samnite ( samnis) was one of the earliest types of gladiator.

  They owe their origins to the Samnite Wars which Rome fought

  against the inhabitants of Samnium during the second half of the

  4th century BC. Samnites fought with the gladius and carried the

  curved, rectangular body shield. They normally wore a greave on

  the left shin and had some form of protection on the sword arm,

  either padding or a metallic armguard. On their head they wore

  a broad-brimmed helmet with a visor that completely covered

  the face. There is a record of an early Samnite in the 2nd-century

  BC writer Lucilius:

  CHapter 5: Hardware and venues | 95

  In the public show given by the Flacci was a certain Aeserninus,

  a Samnite, a nasty fellow, worthy of that life and station. He was

  matched with Pacideianus, who was by far the best of all the

  gladiators since the creation of man. (Lucilius, Satires 2.172–5)

  Scaeva

  The left-handed gladiator ( scaeva) was a novelty act that flew in

  the face of the normal style of hand-to-hand combat. Romans

  (and, indeed, nearly every body else in the ancient world) fought

  with a sidearm (some form of sword or spear) in their right hand

  and a shield in their left. When joining the army, for instance,

  those who were naturally left-handed had to retrain to be right-

  handed. The whole point of left- versus right-handed combat

  was that it challenged both fighters to think laterally if they

  hoped to win.

  It is clear that a scaeva was not really a specific armatura in its

  own right, but rather a subdivision of the standard armaturae.

  Hence Commodus boasted on an inscription of being a secutor

  of the primus palus who also fought left-handed, whilst a funerary

  inscription from Sorrento describes a ‘ mirmillo’(!) as a scaeva and

  a graffito from Pompeii depicts a man called Albanus fighting

  with his shield in his right hand and sword in his left with the

  abbreviation SC (for scaeva).

  Scissor

  The scissor seems to have been another name for the arbelas.

  Secutor

  The secutor (‘pursuer’ or ‘follower’, pl. secutores) was the standard

  opponent for the retiarius, chasing him relentlessly around

  the arena. The name was a joke on the personal assistants of

  96 | GLadIatOrs

  Roman officials who followed them around closely. The secutor

  was generally depicted armed with the classic short sword and

  protected by a helmet, a curved rectangular shield, an armguard

  on the sword arm and a greave on the shield leg. The helmet had

  two simple eye holes, a small neck guard and a curving front-

  to-back crest. Its smooth shape made it hard for the trident to

  gain purchase and left little upon which the net could snag. It

  was the Emperor Commodus’ favourite armatura and he was

  allegedly named primus palus of the secutores 620 times. A

  mosaic from Rome (now in the Museo Arqueológico Nacional

  in Madrid) shows the secutor Astyanax triumphing against the

  retiarius Kalendio, despite being covered by his opponent’s net.

  Artemidorus wrote that any man who dreamed of fighting as

  a secutor would marry a woman who (on the plus side) was

  both attractive and rich, but (at the other extreme) proud and

  disdaining her spouse (indicating that secutores had high status

  amongst gladiators, but were a bit too vain).

  Thracian

  The Thracian ( thrax or thraex) was another of the earliest types

  of gladiator, originating with captives from Rome’s wars at the

&nbs
p; beginning of the 1st century BC. The type was said to have

  been introduced to the arena by Sulla. Equipped with a small

  circular or square shield, their principal weapon was a sword

  with a curve or angle in it ( sica). They wore a broad-brimmed

  helmet with a protective visor and limb protection, usually a

  greave on the left shin and an armguard or padding on their

  sword arm. Those who fought as a Thracian did not necessarily

  need to come from Thrace itself – Exochus (see above, p.53)

  was from Alexandria in Egypt. According to Artemidorus, a

  man who dreamed of fighting as a thraex would marry a wife

  who was rich (because of all that armour), crafty (the angled

  blade) and fond of being first (due to the Thracian method of

  advancing).

  CHapter 5: Hardware and venues | 97

  Secutor versus retiarius (photo by Carole Raddato)

  Veles

  The veles is assumed to have been a light-armed gladiator,

  although no details about this armatura survive. Velites were the

  light skirmishers of the early Republican legion and, as such,

  missile-armed troops with little in the way of armour. The

  gladiatorial veles was apparently similar and they fought each

  other with spears.

  Venator

  Hunting was very popular in Roman society and was a regular

  way of supplementing the normal diet with slightly exotic game.

  It seems to have been one of the chief pastimes of bored soldiers

  on Hadrian’s Wall, dedicating altars to hunting deities. It is no

  surprise, then, that this was carried over into the arena with staged

  wild beast hunts performed by huntsmen ( venatores). It might

  98 | GLadIatOrs

  Astyanax defeats Kalendio

  not seem like much of a spectator sport to us, but observing

  the finer points of how a hunt was managed may have engaged

  a crowd almost as much as watching duelling gladiators. There

  was also the chance of an unexpected yet gory end for either the

  animals, the hunter, or possibly even both.

  On the same piece of pottery that depicts a pontarius,

  there is a fragmentary hunting frieze with hares and boar

  in the lower register. Elsewhere, scenes with hounds are

  shown, suggesting that a different set of skills were being

  demonstrated by venatores than those of the bestiarii fighting

  against exotic big game.

 

‹ Prev