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List of Roman gladiator types

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A retiarius ("net fighter") with a trident and cast net, fighting a secutor (79 AD mosaic).




Gladiator types[edit]

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 gladiators, and personnel associated with training or presentation.


A "blindfolded gladiator", or a "gladiator who fought blind". Cicero jokingly refers to andabata in a letter to his friend Trebatius Testa, who was stationed in Gaul. The passage associates the andabata loosely with essedarii, chariot fighters.[6] The word is extremely rare in classical sources, and of doubtful etymology; Delamarre suggests it as a Latinised borrowing from Gaulish.[7]


The arbelas as gladiator type is mentioned only in the Oneirocritica of Artemidorus, which discusses dream-symbols and their significance in dream interpretation.[8] It may be related to the Greek word arbelos (ἄρβηλος), a cobbler's semicircular blade used to cut leather.[8][9][10]


The bestiarius was a beast-fighter. See also Damnatio ad bestias.


Detail from the Gladiator Mosaic (ca. 320 AD): the Ø symbol marks a gladiator killed in combat

Bustuarius was literally a "tomb fighter," from bustum, "tomb", a generalised reference to the association of gladiatorial combat with funeral games (munera). 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."[11] Even among gladiators, it was an unflattering term: Cicero used it to liken the morals of his enemy Clodius to those of the very lowest gladiator class.[12]


The cestus was a fist-fighter or boxer who wore the cestus, a heavy-duty type of knuckleduster, but otherwise had no armour.[13]


The Roman historian Tacitus describes a Gaulish contingent of trainee, slave gladiators as crupellarii, equipped "after the national fashion" of Gallia Lugdunensis under Julius Sacrovir, during the Aeduian revolt of AD 21 against Rome. Tacitus has them "encased in the continuous shell of iron usual in the country", labouring under its weight, unable to fight effectively, rapidly tiring and soon dispatched by regular Roman troops. Tacitus' source could refer to a heavily armoured Roman "Gallus" type, which by Tacitus' own time had been developed and renamed as the Murmillo.[14]


The dimachaerus (Greek διμάχαιρος, "bearing two knives") used a sword in each hand.[15]


Eques, plural equites, was the regular Latin word for a horseman or cavalryman. Early forms of the eques gladiator were lightly armed, with sword or spear. They had scale armour; a medium-sized round cavalry shield (parma equestris); and a brimmed helmet with two decorative feathers and no crest. Later forms also had greaves to protect their legs, a manica on their right arm and sleeveless, belted tunics. Generally, they fought only other equites.[16]


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.[15] The Essedarius fought from a chariot.


Literally a "Gaul"; either a prisoner of war, as in the earliest forms of munus, or else a gladiator equipped with Gaulish arms and armour, who fought in what Romans would have recognised as a "Gaulish style". Probably a heavyweight, and heavily armoured, the Gallus seems to have been replaced by, or perhaps transformed into, the Murmillo, soon after Gaul's absorption as a Roman province.


A modern term, referring to a female gladiator of any type. They were very rare and their existence is poorly documented.


The Hoplomachus (Greek for "armed fighter") wore quilted, trouser-like leg wrappings, loincloth, a belt, a pair of long shin-guards or greaves, an arm guard (manica) on the sword-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. 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 Myrmillones or Thraeces. They may have developed out of the earlier '"Samnite" type after it became impolitic to use the names of now-allied peoples.[17]


The laquearius was 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.[15]

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From left, a disarmed and surrendering retiarius and his secutor opponent, a thraex and murmillo, a hoplomachus and murmillo (who is wounded and signalling his surrender), and the referee (Zliten mosaic, 200 AD)


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. They are heavily armoured gladiators: the murmillo carried a gladius (64–81 cm long) and a tall, oblong shield in the legionary style. Murmillones were typically paired with a Thracian opponent, but occasionally with the similar hoplomachus.[18]


A parmularius (pl parmularii) was any gladiator who carried a parmula (small shield), in contrast to a scutarius, who bore a larger shield (scutum). To compensate for this reduced protection, parmularii were usually equipped with two greaves, rather than the single greave of a scutarius. The thraex would have been named as parmularii.[19][20]


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.[21]


The retiarius ("net fighter") developed in the early Augustan period. He carried a trident and a net, equipment styled on that of a fisherman. 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. 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 retiarius 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.[22] Retiarii usually fought Secutores but sometimes fought Myrmillones.[23] There was an effeminate class of gladiator who fought as a retiarius tunicatus. They wore tunics to distinguish them from the usual retiarius, and were looked on as a social class even lower than infamia.[24][25]


A gladiator who had earned his freedom received a wooden sword (a rudis) or perhaps a wooden rod (another meaning of the word rudis, which was a "slender stick" used as a practice staff/sword). A wooden sword is widely assumed, however, Cicero in a letter speaks of a gladiator being awarded a rod in a context that suggests the latter: Tam bonus gladiator, rudem tam cito accepisti? (Being so good a gladiator, have you so quickly accepted the rod?) If he chose to remain a gladiator, he was called a rudiarius. These were very popular with the public as they were experienced. Not all rudiarii continued to fight; there was a hierarchy of rudiarii that included trainers, helpers, referees, and fighters.[26][27]


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. [28]


The scissor (plural scissores) used a special short sword with two blades that looked like a pair of open scissors without a hinge. German historian and experimental archeologist Marcus Junkelmann has suggested that this type of gladiator fought using a weapon consisting of a hardened steel tube that encased the gladiator's entire forearm, with the hand end capped off and a semicircular blade attached to it.[29]


A scutarius was any gladiator who used a large shield (scutum), as opposed to any gladiator who used a small shield (parmularius). A murmillo or a secutor would be a scutarius; the additional protection or advantage afforded by the large shield was typically offset by the use of only one short greave, in contrast to the two greaves of a parmularius.


The secutor ("pursuer") developed to fight the retiarius. As a variant of the murmillo, 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 also round and smooth so that the retiarius net could not get a grip on it.[30]


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 or 13 in long). They were introduced as replacements for the Gauls after Gaul made peace with Rome. They commonly fought Myrmillones or Hoplomachi.[31]


There's limited information, but it's believed the veles (pl. 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.[32][33][34][35]

Personnel associated with gladiators[edit]

Two venatores fighting a tiger (5th century CE mosaic in the Great Palace of Constantinople)


The sponsor who financed gladiatorial spectacles was the editor, "producer."[36]


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."[37]


The lorarius (from lorum, "leather thong, whip") was an attendant who whipped reluctant combatants or animals into fighting.[38]


The paegniarius did not engage in serious combat with lethal weapons, but was rather an entertainer who performed "duels" during the breaks. He was an entertainer for the crowd while the gladiators rested. He had neither a helmet nor a shield, but wore protective wrappings on his lower legs and head.[39] He might enjoy a long life: an epitaph for a paegniarius named Secundus boasted that he had lived 99 years, 8 months, and 18 days.[40]


An arena referee or his assistants, named after the wooden staff (rudis) used to direct or separate combatants. A senior referee or trainer was known as a summa (high) rudis.[41][42]


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.[43] Technically they were not gladiators.


  1. ^ Stephen Wisdom Gladiators 100 BC-AD 200 Osprey Publishing, 2001 Pg 28–29 ISBN 978-1-84176-299-9
  2. ^ Gladiators fought by the book New Scientist February 23, 2006
  3. ^ Head injuries of Roman gladiators Forensic Science International Volume 160, Issue 2, Pages 207-216 July 13, 2006
  4. ^ Roman gladiators were fat vegetarians ABC Science April 5, 2004
  5. ^ Stephen Wisdom, Angus McBride, Gladiators: 100 BC - AD 200, Oxford, United Kingdom, Osprey. Author's sketch and note, p. 18.
  6. ^ Cicero, Ad familiares 7.10.2 (=95), as cited by Piganiol, “Les trinci gauloises."
  7. ^ cf the entry for andabata in the Oxford Latin Dictionary, and Xavier Delamarre's entry on andabata, in Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise (Éditions Errance, 2003), p. 46.
  8. ^ a b Duncan, Anne (2006). Performance and Identity in the Classical World. Cambridge University Press. p. 205.
  9. ^ Fagan, Garret G. (2011). The Lure of the Arena: Social Psychology and the Crowd at the Roman Games. Cambridge University Press. p. 217.
  10. ^ Carter, Michael (2001). "Artemidorus and the Arbelas Gladiator". Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik. 134: 109–115. JSTOR 20190801. (subscription required)
  11. ^ Alison Futrell, Blood in the Arena: The Spectacle of Roman Power (University of Texas Press, 1997), p. 34.
  12. ^ Kyle, Donald G., Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World, Blackwell Publishing, 2007. p. 273 ISBN 0-631-22970-1
  13. ^ Travis, Hilary John (2014-12-15). Roman Helmets. ISBN 9781445638478.
  14. ^ Book III, 43, 46 in The Annals of Tacitus, Loeb, 1931 For possible misidentification, see note 8: "Since the Gauls despised body-armour, the phrase must refer only to the conventional equipment of the "Gallus" (murmillo)"
  15. ^ a b c Marcus Junkelmann, 'Familia Gladiatoria: "The Heroes of the Amphitheatre"' in The Power of Spectacle in Ancient Rome: Gladiators and Caesars, ed. by Eckart Köhne and Cornelia Ewigleben (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 2000), p. 63
  16. ^ Junkelmann 2000, pp. 37 and 47-48
  17. ^ Junkelmann 2000, pp. 52-53
  18. ^ Junkelmann 2000, pp. 48-51
  19. ^ Rich, Anthony (1883). "Parmularius". Dictionnaire des Antiquités romaines et grecques.
  20. ^ Daremberg, Charles; Saglio, E. (1877). "Gladiator". Le Dictionnaire des Antiquités grecques et romaines. p. XXII (Les partis).
  21. ^ Junkelmann 2000, pp. 37 and 57-59
  22. ^ Junkelmann 60–61.
  23. ^ Junkelmann 2000, pp. 59-61
  24. ^ F. R. D. Goodyear The Classical Papers of A. E. Housman:, Volume 2; Volumes 1897-1914 Cambridge University Press 2004 ISBN 9780521606967 Pg 621 - 622
  25. ^ "The Retiarius Tunicatus of Suetonius, Juvenal, and Petronius" (1989) by Steven M. Cerutti and L. Richardson, Jr. The American Journal of Philology, 110, P589-594
  26. ^ James Rouse The beauties and antiquities of the county of Sussex, 149 lithogr. views accompanied by historical and explanatory notices Oxford University 1825 Pg 284 - 285
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  28. ^ Junkelmann 2000, p. 37
  29. ^ * Marcus Junkelmann, Das Spiel mit dem Tod. So kämpften Roms Gladiatoren. Mainz am Rhein, 2000, ISBN 3-8053-2563-0.
  30. ^ Junkelmann 2000, pp. 40-41 and 61-63
  31. ^ Junkelmann 2000, pp. 51-57
  32. ^ Mañas, Alfonso (2011). Munera Gladiatoria: Origen del deporte espectáculo de masas (PDF) (PhD) (in Spanish). University of Granada. pp. 135–136. ISBN 978-84-695-1026-1.
  33. ^ Travis, Hilary; Travis, John (2014). Roman Helmets. Amberley Publishing. pp. 59–60, 68. ISBN 9781445638478.
  34. ^ Versnel, Henk (1998). Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman Religion, Volume 1: Ter Unus. Isis, Dionysos, Hermes. Three Studies in Henotheism. Studies in Greek and Roman Religion. BRILL. p. 231. ISBN 9004296727.
  35. ^ Nossov, Konstantin (2011). Gladiator: The Complete Guide to Ancient Rome's Bloody Fighters. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0762777334.
  36. ^ Luciana Jacobelli, Gladiators at Pompeii (Getty Publications, 2003), p. 19.
  37. ^ Jacobelli, Gladiators at Pompeii, p. 19.
  38. ^ Lawrence Keppie, "A Centurion of Legio Martia at Padova?" Journal of Roman Military Equipment Studies 2 (1991), as reprinted in Legions and Veterans: Roman Army Papers 1971–2000 (Steiner, 2000), p. 68.
  39. ^ Marcus Junkelmann, "Familia Gladiatoria: The Heroes of the Amphitheatre," in Gladiators and Caesars: The Power of Spectacle in Ancient Rome (University of California Press, 2000), p. 63.
  40. ^ Thomas E. J. Wiedemann, Emperors and Gladiators (Routledge, 1992, 1995), p. 121.
  41. ^ Hubbard, Ben (2016). Gladiators. Conquerors and Combatants. Cavendish Square Publishing. pp. 189, 215. ISBN 9781502624574.
  42. ^ Mañas, Alfonso (2011). Munera Gladiatoria: Origen del deporte espectáculo de masas (PDF) (PhD) (in Spanish). University of Granada. pp. 184, 186. ISBN 978-84-695-1026-1.
  43. ^ Seneca, Ep. 85.41.

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