There were many different types of gladiator in ancient Rome. Some of the first gladiators had been prisoners-of-war, and so some of the earliest types of gladiators, Gauls, Samnites, and Thraeces (Thracians) used their native weapons and armor. Different gladiators specialized in different weapons, and it was usual to pair off combatants with widely different, but more or less equivalent, equipment. As a rule gladiators only fought others from within the same school or troupe but sometimes specific gladiators could be requested to fight one from another troupe.
Forensic studies[1][2] have shown that as a rule gladiators fought to strict rules and barefooted.[3] Like today’s athletes, gladiators did product endorsements. Particularly successful gladiators would endorse goods in the arena before commencing a fight and have their names promoting products on the Roman equivalent of billboards.[4]
During combat, musicians performed accompaniment that altered tempo to match that of the combat. Typical instruments were a long straight trumpet (tuba), a large curved brass instrument called the lituus, and a water organ (organum). During the Imperial period, the games might be preceded by the form of musical-comedy variety show known as mimus, with the performers sometimes costumed as animals. An image from Pompeii shows two figures labeled "flute playing bear" (Ursus tibicen) and "horn-blowing chicken" (Pullus cornicen), who may have been part of such a mimus.[5]
The following list includes gladiators as typed by fighting style and equipment, general terms for gladiators, fighters associated with gladiatorial spectacles who were not strictly gladiatores, and personnel associated with training or presentation.
The andabata fought blind; he wore a helmet that deprived him of vision.[6] Cicero makes a joking reference to the andabata in a letter he wrote to his friend Trebatius Testa, who was stationed in Gaul. The passage associates the andabata loosely with essedarii, chariot fighters.[7] The Oxford Latin Dictionary regards the word as of dubious origin. Some have argued that it is a Latin borrowing from Gaulish.[8]
The arbelas is mentioned in only one source. He may be the same as the scissor.
The bestiarius was a beast-fighter. See also Damnatio ad bestias.
The bustuarius was literally a "tomb fighter," from bustum, "tomb". The term points toward the association of gladiatorial combat with funeral games (munera), rather than a particular fighting style. Servius notes that it had once been "the custom to put captives to death at the graves of strong men, which later seemed a bit cruel, so it was decided to have gladiators fight at the tombs."[9]
The cestus was a fist-fighter or boxer who wore the cestus, a brutal forerunner of the boxing glove.
The dimachaerus (Greek διμάχαιρος, "bearing two knives") used two swords, one in each hand.[10]
The sponsor who financed gladiatorial spectacles was the editor, "producer."[11]
Eques, plural equites, was the regular Latin word for a horseman or cavalryman. In early depictions, these lightly-armed gladiators wear scale armour, a medium-sized round cavalry shield (parma equestris), and a brimmed helmet without a crest, but with two decorative feathers. In Imperial times, they sport a manica on their right arm and sleeveless, belted tunics, in contrast to other gladiators who usually fought bare-chested, and no greaves. At the time of Isidore of Seville, the equites rode white horses and opened a day's program of fights (Origines 18.53ff.). They started on horseback, but after they had thrown their lance (hasta), they dismounted and continued to fight on foot with their short sword (gladius). Generally, equites only fought other equites.[12]
The essedarius (from the Latin word for a Celtic war-chariot, essedum) was likely first brought to Rome from Britain by Julius Caesar. Essedarii appear as arena-fighters in many inscriptions after the 1st century AD. No pictorial representations exist.[10]
The Galli ("Gauls") were an early type of gladiator that originated among Gallic war captives.
The hoplomachus (Greek ὁπλομάχος, "armed fighter") wore quilted, trouser-like leg wrappings, maybe made from linen, a loincloth, a belt, a pair of long shin-guards or greaves, an arm guard (manica) on the left arm, and a brimmed helmet that could be adorned with a plume of feathers on top and a single feather on each side. He was equipped with a gladius and a very small, round shield made of one sheet of thick bronze, an example of which survives from Pompeii. He also carried a spear, which the gladiator would have to cast before closing for hand-to-hand combat. The hoplomachi were paired against the Myrmillonis or Thraecis. They may have developed out of the earlier '"Samnite" type after it became impolitic to use the names of now-allied peoples.[13]
The lanista was an owner-trainer of a troop of gladiators. He traded in slave gladiators, and rented those he owned out to a producer (editor) who was organizing games. The profession was often remunerative, but socially the lanista was on a par with a pimp (leno) as a "vendor of human flesh."[14]
The laquearius seems to have been a kind of retiarius who tried to catch his adversaries with a lasso (laqueus) instead of a net. He was equipped also with a dagger for use once he snared his opponent.[10]
The lorarius (from lorum, "leather thong, whip,") was an attendant who whipped reluctant combatants or animals into fighting.[15]
The murmillo (plural murmillones) or myrmillo wore a helmet with a stylised fish on the crest (the mormylos or sea fish), as well as an arm guard (manica), a loincloth and belt, a gaiter on his right leg, thick wrappings covering the tops of his feet, and a very short greave with an indentation for the padding at the top of the feet. The murmillo carried a gladius (40–50 cm long) and a tall, oblong shield in the legionary style. Murmillones were typically paired with Thraecis, but occasionally with the similar hoplomachi.[16]
The paegniarius did not engage in serious combat with lethal weapons, but was rather an entertainer who performed "burlesque duels" during breaks. He had neither a helmet nor a shield, but wore protective wrappings on his lower legs and head.[17] He might thus enjoy a long life: an epitaph for a paegniarius named Secundus boasted that he had lived 99 years, 8 months, and 18 days.[18]
In the late Republican and early Imperial era, the armament of a provocator ("challenger") mirrored legionary armature. In the later Imperial period, their armament ceased to reflect its military origins, and changes in armament followed changes in arena fashion only. Provocatores have been shown wearing a loincloth, a belt, a long greave on the left leg, a manica on the lower right arm, and a visored helmet without brim or crest, but with a feather on each side. They were the only gladiators protected by a breastplate (cardiophylax) which is usually rectangular, later often crescent-shaped. They fought with a tall, rectangular shield and the gladius. They were paired only against other provocatores.[19]
The retiarius ("net fighter") developed in the early Augustan period. He carried a trident, a dagger, and a net. The retiarius wore a loincloth held in place by a wide belt and a larger arm guard (manica) extending to the shoulder and left side of the chest. He fought without the protection of a helmet. Occasionally a metal shoulder shield (galerus) was added to protect the neck and lower face. A tombstone found in Romania shows a retiarius holding a dagger with four spikes (each at the corner of a square guard) instead of the usual bladed dagger. This was previously thought to be an artistic invention or perhaps a ceremonial weapon, but a recent discovery of a gladiator graveyard found that several of the remains had four odd-looking marks that form the outline of a square on their bones which is consistent with the use of such a weapon. A variation to the normal combat was a retiarius facing two secutores at the same time. The retiarus stood on a bridge or raised platform with stairs and had a pile of fist-sized stones to throw at his adversaries. While the retarius tried to keep them at bay, the secutores tried to scale the structure to attack him. The platform, called a pons (bridge), may have been constructed over water.[20] Retiarii usually fought Secutores but sometimes fought Myrmillonis.[21] The retiarius tunicatus wore tunics to distinguish them from the usual retiarius, and were thought effeminate.[22]
A gladiator who had earned his freedom received a wooden sword called a rudis; if he chose to remain a gladiator, he was called a rudiarius. Not all rudiarii continued to fight; there was a hierarchy of rudiarii that included trainers, helpers, referees, and fighters. These were very popular with the public as they were experienced and could be relied on to provide a good show.
The sagittarius was a mounted archer, armed with a reflex bow capable of propelling an arrow a great distance.
The Samnite was an early type of heavily-armed fighter that disappeared in the early imperial period. The Samnites were a powerful league of Italic tribes in Campania with whom the Romans fought three major wars between 326 and 291 BC. A "Samnite" gladiator was armed with a long rectangular shield (scutum), a plumed helmet, a short sword, and probably a greave on his left leg. It was frequently said that Samnites were the lucky ones since they got large shields and good swords.[23]
The scissor (plural scissores) used a special short sword with two blades that looked like a pair of open scissors without a hinge. It is speculated that they attempted to trap their opponents' weapons between the twin blades in order to disarm them.
The secutor ("pursuer") developed to fight the retiarius. As a variant of the myrmillo, he wore the same armour and weapons, including the tall rectangular shield and the gladius. The helmet of the secutor, however, covered the entire face with the exception of two small eye-holes in order to protect his face from the thin prongs of the trident of his opponent. The helmet was almost round and smooth so that the retiarius net could not get a grip on it.[24]
In some games three men were matched against each other. The first two would fight, with the winner then fighting the third man, called the tertiarius ("third man"). Tertiarii would also act as substitutes if an advertised gladiator was unable to fight.
The Thraex (plural Thraeces, "Thracians") wore the same protective armour as the hoplomachi with a broad-rimmed helmet that enclosed the entire head, distinguished by a stylized griffin on the protome or front of the crest (the griffin was the companion of the avenging goddess Nemesis), a small round or square-shaped shield (parmula), and two thigh-length greaves. His weapon was the Thracian curved sword (sica or falx, c. 34 cm/13 in long). They were introduced as replacements for the Gauls after Gaul made peace with Rome. They commonly fought Myrmillonis or Hoplomachi.[25]
The velites ("skirmishers") fought on foot, each holding a spear with an attached thong for throwing. Named for the early and similarly armed Republican army units of the same name.
The venator "("hunter") specialized in wild animal hunts instead of fighting them as the bestiarii did. As well as hunting they also performed tricks with animals such as putting an arm in a lion's mouth, riding a camel while leading lions on a leash, and making an elephant walk a tightrope.[26] Technically they were not gladiators.