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THE GLADIATORS
by Mauro Scarpati
The gladiator was a sort of specialized soldier: there were several categories, depending them on the different uniforms, weapons and skills, so every gladiator was easily recognizable by the public; at the origin of all the gladiators categoriesWe have two opposite kind of soldiers: the Tracian ( from the country in the north of the classic Greece), dressed with a light uniform to be faster than the enemy, skilled in agility and fighting techniques; and the Sannita ( from Sannio, a mountainuos country in the center of Italy ), an heavy uniform soldier, trained to fight defending himself, to receive lot of strokes, being ready to counter-attack with few deadly blows; these two classes were born both in the first century before Christ, when both Sannio and Tracia were roman provinces; and they gave origin to subsequent specializations, everyone with some peculiar features.
To complete the games there were all a series of others character, not only warriors but also…well, you’ll discover reading this article!
So, let’s go and see the most famous gladiator classes!
LIGHT UNIFORM GLADIATORS
THRACIAN
A large number of thracian gladiators arrived at Rome during the Silla dictatorhip, in the first years of the I century b.C.; these warriors, coming from the homonymous Greek region, had been enlisted as mercenaries in the armies of an african king, Mitridate; defeated by Silla, the imprisoned soldiers were sent in Capua, a little town close to Pompeii, where they were trained to fight in the amphitheaters. During the fights they dressed a light uniform, a little helmet, called machaira, light shoes and a little round shield; such a light uniform allowed them to run around the enemies, faster than them, exploiting at the most their weapon, the parna, a short dagger requiring an extreme ability and mobility to be used.
In the arena the thracians fought amongst them, or against the Sanniti, soldiers with an heavier uniform, just to have two differents stiles fighting together.
REZIARIUS
The reziarii got their name from the weapon they used: a long net to trap the opponents, klling then him with the fuscina, a trident, their offensive weapon; this technique requires a real ability, and every detail in the reziarius uniform is made to have the better functionality and nimbleness; they got not shield neither helmet and uniform to improve their unforeseeable speed in the fight. The only accessory they used, but for the net and the trident, was the sica, a dagger with which they gave the finishing stroke to their enemies, if the public showed the sadly famous thumbs down.For his highly spectacular fighting technique the reziarius was one of the most popular leading character into the gladiators games.
DIMACHERI
The two short swords, the machairai, these gladiators emploied gave them their name; in this class there’s no defense at all; without shield nor helmet, the only defensive uniform they had was a sort of leather muff on the forearms, to protect them from the strokes; speed was what they used to disorientate the enemies, making them more vulnerable at their swords.
HEAVY UNIFORM GLADIATORS
SANNITA
The war againsts the Sanniti, in the III century b.C., is considered to be the beginning of the roman expansion in the center of Italy; the Sanniti soldiers became the first gladiators to fight in the roman arenas, and likely, according to some historians, the real origin of the games comes from that population (see in this issue: “Sangue e Arena: an Exibition into the Colosseum” ); unlike the Thracians, they got an heavy uniform, a metal plate to protect the chest, a strenghtened helmet with a grid to cover the eyes, a long shield; their weapons was the gladium, a long sword usefel both to defense and to attack; the Sanniti, as well as the Thracian, the two most popular gladiator classes, got their own supporters: the scrutarii, the Sanniti “hooligans”, and the parmularii, the Thracian’ one. And, as in the modern stadiums, it happened sometimes that the opposite supporters engaged a riot, even more cruel that the one in the arena…too bad, not that much in changed since then!
MIRMILLIONI
These gladiators came from the Gallia, the actual French; the name comes from their symbol, a fish ( mirmillio ) they got on the pectorale¸the metal plate they dresses on the chest; their uniform is similar to the Sanniti’s one, but with some differences; they had not the typical sannita griffon carved on the helmet, and the holes in the grids are set in a way that the deadly Reziarius trident tips could not enter; and the reziarius was the classic enemy of the mirmillione
OPLOMACHOS
Another classic enemy of the reziarius, the name oplomachos came from two greek words, oplon macvs, literally, “the heavy- uniform fighter”. The sword they used was longer that the Sannita’s one, with a carved hilt and flat, perfect to attack with cutting blows.
GENERIC GLADIATORS
The “generics” were the gladiators without a particular skill: they were used to fill up the spectacles, when these lasted for all a day, or even more; and of course, their hire was hardly a tenth of the more famous champions’ one!Anyway, some of the generic games were really popular: the Caesariani, for instance, the imperial family guards; or the Catervarii and Pegmarii fights, when a heap of slave soldiers fought in a sort of army; the amusement here was to see the huggest number of killings…
PROVOCATORES
The Provocatores ( “the provocatives” ) opened the duels, just provoking the gladiators to engage the fight; the latin word provocare was used, in militar slang, to indicate the light uniform soldiers, the velites, who opened the battles provoking the enemies with screams and insults.
SESTERZIARII
One sesterzio was the really cheap hire of this gladiator class; they were mostly veterans of the army, or even not that trained soldiers drove by the necessity in the arena, looking for a not so easy earnings!
CAESARIANI, or ROSTULATICII
Caesariani are the “heroes” of the arena: their ability and bravery promoted them as the body-guards of the imperial family; sometimes the crowd, seeing them close to the emperor, claim for them; so they have to come back in the stadium, satisfyng the public’s wishes.
CATERVARII
The Catervarii fought in two different groups, made by around 100 hundred soldiers; could you imagine the chaos? The idea was to have a real battle in the arena; so these soldiers, without any skill, fought only to kill the more enemies they could, in a war simulation the Roman enypied a lot! A curiosity: in the roman modern dialect we still use the same latin word, caterva, to say “a lot”!
ESSEDARII
The knights as well fought in the arena; the Essedarii drove an essedum, a Gallic war chariot drawn by two horses; after some skirmish, however, the gladiators finished the fight with an infighting with long swords.
PEGMARII
Sources don’t explain all about the Pegmarii’s fights; probably a tower was built in the middle of the arena ( the greek word for tower is pegma ); so the match was the simulation of a siege, with a group inside, the defensors, and the other outside, the attackers; so the match didn’t have an end since the death of aal the soldiers of a group; this game was really popualr because it could last for entire days – and you know, Romans loved to see a real war in theie stadium…
THE DECADENCE
During the centuries the cast of the gladiator games knew a lot of other characters; their purpose was mainly to amuse the public, usually ridiculing the games themselves; it became famous the fight amongst dwarfs, or amongst rather old fighters; we can say that when the aristocratics, the women, even an Emperor as Commodo started to fight in the arena, the way of the decadence was opened to the originally ritual gladiator games meaning, a first step in the process leading at the death of the stadium itself.
PAEGNARIA
The fight amongst dwarfs were used to fill up the cast since the I century a.C.; they dressed too small uniforms with ridiculous short daggers, not to kill theirselves but just for the public’s amusement.
NOBILES ( noblemen )
And finally the noblemen as well wanted to fight in the arena to increase their prestige; in the traditional roman society the war against the enemies was the place to gain the glory, so the simulate aristocratic wars into the arena are another proof of the decadende in the last centuries of the Empire
FOEMINAE ( women )
As for the noblemen, the presence of women in the arena points at the decadence of the roman society; these women fought against the men, winning sometimes; could you imagine 70.000 spectators busting out laughing all together? Well, that’s what the organizers wanted…
ANDABATI
The andabati knights fight was a caricature of a regular fight; dressing an helmet with no holes for eyes, they fought blindly, drove by the public’ screams and by the hoffs noise; of course – that’s what I suppose – the amusement was in driving the knights on the wrong way…
We know there were lot of other gladiator classes, but the archaeological and literary sources don’t admit us to understand the differences amongst them; so, to know something more about the gladiators, you’d better wait the next archaeological discovery.
http://www.nerone.cc/newslett/gladiato.htm
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Which reminds me years ago when I played fairy my son was getting something out of my cabinet and found some of his teeth. Yes, I saved them. That was difficult to explain.
Lie after lie.