Gladiator

Мыслевцев А.С.

A gladiator (Latin gladiator, from gladius, “sword”) was a participant in organised combat at Roman spectacles. Gladiators used not only swords but also spears, nets and tridents. Their equipment classes and the pairing of opponents shaped each contest.

The origins of gladiatorial combat remain debated. The contests were connected with Italian funerary customs; armed duels appear in fourth-century BC tomb paintings at Paestum. Etruscan and Campanian theories do not establish a single direct progression from human sacrifice to the Roman arena. The earliest recorded games at Rome took place in 264 BC at the funeral of Decimus Junius Brutus Pera. Later contests were held on other occasions as well.

Gladiators included slaves, prisoners of war, convicted offenders and free volunteers. They received specialised training in schools. The wooden sword, or rudis, marked release from the obligation to fight; its award should not automatically be equated with the legal manumission of a slave. Experienced fighters might continue competing or work as trainers and officials. Not every contest ended in death: a defeated gladiator could receive a reprieve, or missio.

During the late Republic, games became an instrument of political competition. Caesar presented 320 pairs of gladiators in 65 BC. Expensive spectacles attracted audiences and could support a candidate at elections. Restrictions on electoral displays coexisted with the tradition of family funeral games. Under the emperors, the scale and organisation of spectacles changed, but the association between the arena and public power remained.

Zliten mosaic from Libya (Leptis Magna). 2nd century AD

Classification of gladiators

The most common types of gladiators:

Bestiarius. A participant in animal spectacles. The term could cover different roles; trained fighters must be distinguished from people condemned to execution by animals.

Dimachaerus. A sparsely attested fighter with two blades. His exact armour and usual opponents are not securely established.

Eques. A mounted gladiator normally paired with another eques. Images show a tunic, helmet, shield and spear; combat could continue on foot.

Hoplomachus. A spearman with a small round shield, helmet, arm guard and high greaves. A short blade served as a secondary weapon. His shield should not be equated with the large Greek hoplite shield.

Murmillo. A fighter with a gladius, large shield, crested enclosed helmet, arm guard and short greave. Common opponents included the thraex and hoplomachus.

Provocator. A gladiator with a shield, sword, arm guard, greave and breast protector, or cardiophylax. Provocatores were normally paired with one another.

Retiarius. A net-fighter armed with a trident and dagger. He wore no helmet; a manica and galerus protected the left arm and shoulder.

Secutor. The usual opponent of the retiarius. He wore a smooth enclosed helmet with two small eye openings and used a sword and large shield.

Scissor / arbelas. A rare designation associated with disputed images. Equating the scissor, arbelas and a fighter with a semicircular forearm blade remains a hypothesis.

Thraex. An equipment class, not necessarily the fighter’s ethnic origin. Its distinguishing features were the curved sica, a small shield and two high greaves.

Rare types of gladiators about which little is known:

Veles — a designation associated with light-armed fighting. Evidence for the arena equipment is limited.
Gallus — an early ethnic equipment designation. Its disappearance does not mean that all later murmillones were recruited from Gaul.
Laquearius — a fighter whose name refers to a noose or lasso. His complete equipment and normal pairings are not established.
Paegniarius — a performer in entertaining displays; images include sticks, whips and small shields.
Crupellarius — a heavily protected fighter mentioned by Tacitus in his account of the revolt of AD 21. The text does not specify the construction of the armour.
Sagittarius — an arena archer. Evidence for equipment and performance rules is sparse.
Samnite — an early equipment class named after an Italian people. The designation gave way to other categories in the early imperial period.
Essedarius — a name connected with the essedum chariot. Too little is known about arena performances to reconstruct a single standard kit confidently.

Specific types of gladiators:

Gladiatrix — a modern designation for a woman who fought in gladiatorial combat. Female performances are attested, but the entire male equipment classification cannot automatically be transferred to them.
Andabata — a name associated with combat without seeing the opponent. The exact helmet and rules remain uncertain.
Bustuarius — a fighter at funeral games. The word describes the occasion rather than necessarily a distinct armour class.
Rudiarius — a gladiator awarded the rudis and released from the obligation to fight. He could continue his career; the award alone does not establish a change in a slave’s legal status.
Tertiarius / suppositicius — designations for an additional or substitute fighter, not stable equipment classes.
Venator — a trained participant in animal hunts. Such performances could include actual fighting and killing animals. Hunting and animal training were different, although sometimes associated, elements of spectacles.

Equipment

The equipment of gladiators varied significantly depending on their types, but the following elements were particularly common:

Helmet. It should be noted that helmets could differ greatly among different types of gladiators

Helmet liner

Manica

Ocrea. Greaves were of two types: short and long (above the knee). Many types of gladiators wore greaves only on one leg

Balteus

Subligaculum

Tunic

Gladius (or other weapons specific to certain types of gladiators, such as a sika, spear, trident, etc.)

Shield. There was no standardized shield design for gladiators. The most common were truncated versions of the scutum, but there were also other types

Torso protection. Most gladiators fought with bare torsos, but in rare cases, they could wear a cardiophylax (breastplate), chainmail (lorica hamata), scale armor (lorica squamata), or even segmented armor (lorica segmentata).

Reenactment

Reenactment begins with a specific fighter type, period and body of evidence. Archaeological objects, inscriptions and images must be compared: neither a single relief nor a modern helmet classification supplies a universal kit for all gladiators.

The helmet is often among the most complex and expensive parts of a replica. Murmillo, secutor, thraex and hoplomachus have comparatively recognisable appearances; more details remain hypothetical for the dimachaerus, crupellarius and scissor. The retiarius’s lack of a helmet does not make his kit suitable for other classes.

Many images show barefoot fighters, but this detail cannot be extended to every performance. Footwear and other provisions for modern events should be identified as practical adaptations, not established ancient standards. Demonstration bouts require safe props, event rules and trained participants; ancient images are not instructions for actual combat.

Gladiatrix-murmillon,reconstruction

Provocator, modern reconstruction

Retiarius,reconstruction

Literature and sources

Gladiators-Konstantin Nosov. pdf

Arena and Blood - Goroncharovsky.pdf

Gladiators-Paolucci F. pdf

Goroncharovsky V. A. Arena and Blood: Roman Gladiators between Life and Death. - St. Petersburg: Peterburgskoe Vostokovedenie, 2009. - 256 p. - (Militaria Antiqua). — 2000 copies. — ISBN 978-5-85803-393-6.

Losev A. F. Gladiators / / Hellenistic-Roman aesthetics of the I-II centuries A.D.-Moscow: MSU Publishing House, 1979. - pp. 45-55.

Matthews Rupert. Gladiators / Translated from English by N. V. Mikelishvili. - Moscow: Mir knigi, 2006. - 320 p.: ill. - ISBN 5-486-00803-1.

Paolucci Fabrizio. Gladiators. Doomed to death / Translated from Italian-M.: Niola-Press, 2010. - 128 p.: ill. — (Secrets of history). — ISBN 978-5-366-00578-4.

Hoefling Helmut. Romans, slaves, gladiators: Spartacus at the Gates of Rome / Translated from German, afterword. and comm. by E. V. Lyapustina. - Moscow: Mysl, 1992. - 270 p.: ill. - ISBN 5-244-00596-0.

Junkelmann, Marcus. Familia Gladiatoria: The Heroes of the Amphitheatre // Gladiators and Caesars: The Power of Spectacle in Ancient Rome / Eckart Köhne, Cornelia Ewigleben, Ralph Jackson. — Berkeley — Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2000. — P. 31—74. — 153 p. — ISBN 0520227980.

Wisdom, Stephen. Gladiators: 100 BC–AD 200. — Osprey Publishing, 2001. — 64 p. — ISBN 9781841762999.

Nossov, Konstantin. Gladiator: Rome’s bloody spectacle. — Osprey Publishing, 2009. — 208 p. — ISBN 9781846034725.

Gladiators: Types and Training — Metropolitan Museum of Art

Additional views

Mosaics and frescoes

Mosaic with gladiators from Villa Borghese. 3rd century AD

Mosaic with gladiators. Dar Buc Ammera Villa. Tripoli National Museum. Second half of the 1st century AD

Mosaic with gladiators. 1-3 century AD

Mosaic with gladiators. Dar Buc Ammera Villa. Tripoli National Museum. Second half of the 1st century AD

Mural with an amphitheater. Found in Pompeii. National Archaeological Museum,Naples. 1st century AD

Mosaic of gladiators in a Roman villa in Nennig,Germany. Early 3rd century AD

Battle of gladiators,ca. 250,floor mosaic in a Roman villa. Nennig am Moselle,Germany.

Battle of gladiators,ca. 300,floor mosaic in a Roman villa. Villa Borghese Museum and Gallery,Rome,Italy

Mosaic from Roemerhalle,Bad Kreuznach (Germany). 2-3 century AD

Zliten mosaic from Libya (Leptis Magna). 2nd century AD

Mosaic of gladiators in a Roman villa in Nennig,Germany. Early 3rd century AD

Bas-reliefs

Bas-relief in honor of the gladiator games in the city of Teate (Chieti). Colosseum Alley,Rome,AD 20-40

Bas-relief of bustiarii from Amitern. 3-2 century BC

Bas-relief with gladiators. 1-2 century AD

Bas-relief with gladiators. Necropolis in Kibyra,Burdur Museum. 2-3 century AD

Bas-relief with gladiators. Italy,Rome. 2nd century AD

Bas-relief with unidentified gladiators,presumably secutors. Vm Bonnefantencollectie. 190-220 AD

Bas-relief with battles with the participation of secutors from the necropolis in Kibir. It is kept in the Archaeological Museum of Burdur (Turkey). 2-3 century AD

Bas-relief with a gladiator fight from Varna. Varna Archeology Museum. Early 3rd century AD

Sculptural portrait of a Roman gladiator; with a face,1st century AD,Museum of the Roman Theater in Verona

Gladiators from Lucus Feronia (Italy). 1st century BC - 1st century AD

Glass products with gladiators

Colored painted glass with images of gladiators,found in the Roman fort Vindolanda (Vindolanda),near Hadrian's wall,Northumbria. A.D. 230-250

Painted glass with gladiators from Vindolanda. AD 230-250; Vindolanda Museum.

Painted glass tumbler with gladiator fights. The Metropolitan Museum of Arts. 2nd century AD

Find from the Dakhla oasis,Ismant al-Harab (Roman Kellis). A vessel made of pale green glass,hand - painted with enamels. Height 26.1 cm,maximum diameter 9 cm. 4th century AD

A glass bowl with the image of gladiators. Metropolitan Museum of Art. 50-80 AD

Glass depicting gladiators,3rd century AD Trier.

Figurines

An unidentified gladiator type. The Cleveland Museum of Art,Cleveland. Mid-1st century AD

Gladiators,2-3 century AD,64 mm,lead. Private collection,Munich.

Terracotta statue of a gladiator. Taranto,Contrada Corti Vecchie. Late 1st century BC,early 1st century AD

A statuette of a gladiator,presumably a secutor. Private collection. 1-2 century AD

Oil lamps with gladiators

Image of a gladiator on a lamp. Römisch Germanisches Museum. 1-2 century AD

Lamp with gladiators. Musée gallo-romain de Fourvière, Lyon. 1st–2nd centuries AD

Fragment of a lamp with gladiators. Musée gallo-romain de Fourvière, Lyon. 1st–2nd centuries AD

Lamps with gladiators. Musée gallo-romain de Fourvière, Lyon. 1st–2nd centuries AD

Lamp with a gladiator. Musée gallo-romain de Fourvière, Lyon. 1st–2nd centuries AD