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    Gladiators

    Page 9
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    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

      CHapter 5: Hardware and venues | 77

      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

      78 | GLadIatOrs

      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,

      CHapter 5: Hardware and venues | 79

      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.

      80 | GLadIatOrs

      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.

      CHapter 5: Hardware and venues | 81

      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

      82 | GLadIatOrs

      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

      CHapter 5: Hardware and venues | 83

      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

      84 | GLadIatOrs

      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)

      CHapter 5: Hardware and venues | 85

      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

      86 | GLadIatOrs

      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

     


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