Water in Palestine

West Bank Water Usage

• Of the water available from West Bank aquifers, Israel uses 73%, West Bank Palestinians use 17%, and illegal Jewish settlers use 10%.
• While 10-14% of Palestine’s GDP is agricultural, 90% of them must rely on rain-fed farming methods. Israel’s agriculture is only 3% of their GDP, but Israel irrigates more than 50% of its land.
• Three million West Bank Palestinians use only 250 million cubic meters per year (83 cubic meters per Palestinian per year) while six million Israelis enjoy the use of 1,954 million cubic meters (333 cubic meters per Israeli per year), which means that each Israeli consumes as much water as four Palestinians. Israeli settlers are allocated 1,450 cubic meters of water per person per year.
• Israel consumes the vast majority of the water from the Jordan River despite only 3% of the river falling within its pre-1967 borders. Israel now diverts one quarter of its total water consumption through its National Water Carrier from the Jordan River, whereas Palestinians have no access to it whatsoever due to Israeli closures.

International Law

• Under international law it is illegal for Israel to expropriate the water of the Occupied Palestinian Territories for use by its own citizens, and doubly illegal to expropriate it for use by illegal Israeli settlers [2].
• Also under international law, Israel owes Palestinians reparations for past and continuing use of water resources. This should include interest due to loss of earnings from farming.

Israeli Actions

• Israel does not allow new wells to be drilled by Palestinians and has confiscated many wells for Israeli use. Israel sets quotas on how much water can be drawn by Palestinians from existing wells.

• When supplies of water are low in the summer months, the Israeli water company Mekorot closes the valves which supply Palestinian towns and villages so as not to affect Israeli supplies. This means that illegal Israeli settlers can have their swimming pools topped up and lawns watered while Palestinians living next to them, on whose land the settlements are situated, do not have enough water for drinking and cooking.
• Israel often sells the water it steals from the West Bank back to the Palestinians at inflated prices.
• During the war of 1967, 140 Palestinian wells in the Jordan Valley were destroyed to divert water through Israel’s National Water Carrier. Palestinians were allowed to dig only 13 wells between 1967 and 1996, less than the number of wells which dried up during the same period due to Israel’s refusal to deepen or rehabilitate existing wells.
• The Gaza strip relies predominately on wells that are being increasingly infiltrated by salty sea water because Israel is over-pumping the groundwater. UN scientists estimate that Gaza will have no drinkable water within fifteen years.

Settlers

• In Madama village 50km north of Jerusalem settlers from Yizhar settlement have repeatedly vandalized the villager’s only source of water. They have poured concrete into it, vandalized the connecting pipes and even dropped disposable diapers and other hazardous waste into the springs. Three villagers have been attacked by settlers while trying to repair the water source [3].
• Constant settler attacks on the community of Yanoun, Nablus governorate, located next to the Itamar settlement, peaked in October 2002 when masked settlers charged into the village with dogs and caused significant damage to the water network, several roof tanks, and the local spring, which is considered to be the main source of water for the community. The main line supplying water to the community from the main spring, as well as the pump, reservoir, fittings and valves were all damaged by settlers. Residents of the community were forced to buy water from tankers from the neighboring community. Tanker access was very difficult due to Israeli closures and checkpoints as well as settler threats and terror which included shootings, beatings, and harassment [4].

Water and the Wall

• Many of the most important underground wellsprings in the West Bank are located just to the east of the Green Line dividing Israel from Palestine. Israel has built the Wall not only to annex land but also to annex many of these wells in order to divert water to Israel and illegal West Bank settlements.
• The Wall is not only an Apartheid Wall, but also a water wall. Some of the largest Israeli settlements (such as Ariel and Qedumin) are built over the Western mountain aquifer, directly in the middle of the northern West Bank agricultural districts, and this is exactly where the wall cuts deepest into Palestinian territory to surround and annex this vital water source.
• The building of the Wall has caused the village of Falamya in Qalqiliya district to lose its main source of water. In Jayyous, a village near Falamya, all of its seven water wells have been annexed or destroyed by the Apartheid Wall.
• In the West Bank, around 50 groundwater wells and over 200 cisterns have been destroyed or isolated from their owners by the Wall. This water was used for domestic and agricultural needs by over 122,000 people. To build the Wall, 25 wells and cisterns and 35,000 meters of water pipes have also been destroyed [5].
• In 2003, the losses incurred by Palestinian farmers due to the Wall diverting water resources has been 2,200 tons of olive oil, 50,000 tons of fruit, and 100,000 tons of vegetables [6].
• The Wall is obstructing many water run-off flows in the Qalqiliya region that normally divert water to prevent flooding. During heavy rains in February 2005, Israeli soldiers refused to open drainage pipes in Qalqiliya, which led to heavy flood damage to crops and homes there. The Wall also caused severe flooding in Zububa and other villages.

Under the conditions brought about by the siege imposed by Israeli occupation forces, civilians in the occupied territories are suffering from lack of access to necessary resources for the maintenance of their daily needs and basic health. We have reached a state of emergency in the water sector in the Occupied Territories. We must call for an immediate end to the siege upon the water sector.

http://www.ifamericansknew.org/cur_sit/water.html

 http://www.welt.de/politik/article2954020/Krieg-in-Nahost-Tag-5.html

World: Historian Reveals Incredible Contributions Of Muslim Cartographers

Fuat Sezgin is one of the world´s most prominent historians of science and technology in the Muslim world. The 80-year-old Turkish professor is the director of the Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, and a prodigiously productive writer. He has compiled a 13-volume history of Islam´s Golden Age of Science, including three new books on the accomplishments of Arabic and Islamic cartographers. He says the cartographers not only opened much of the world to Muslim traders but also paved the way for European navigators, who later defined our modern view of geography.

Prague, 15 October 2004 (RFE/RL) -- At first glimpse, Professor Fuat Sezgin makes for an odd sight at the Frankfurt Book Fair. That is because the fair mostly features books. But Professor Sezgin is standing in the fair´s central hall, surrounded not by paper but by dozens of museum display cases.

Inside the cases are models of ancient scientific instruments from the Muslim world. The exhibits range from compasses to clocks to astrolabes for determining the altitude of stars in the night sky.

Sezgin is the white-haired, genteel octogenarian explaining the exhibits to visitors. As he does, he easily switches between Turkish, Arabic, German, and English.

The professor is one of the world´s leading authorities on Islam´s Golden Age of Science, which he says extended from the 8th to the 16th centuries. He is also one of that period´s most prolific chroniclers.

As he tells RFE/RL, he has just published three new installments in his ever-growing 13-volume history of Arabic-Islamic science. The new books detail the accomplishments of the Muslim world´s cartographers and, he says, thus fill in important gaps in the history of cartography as it is usually taught.

"I have written in these three volumes the history of mathematical geography for the first time, generally. Until now, it was impossible to write the [full] history of mathematical geography because [scholars] did not know the mathematical geography in Islam," Sezgin says.

Sezgin says it has long been recognized that Muslim navigators undertook sea voyages over vast distances, which gave them a more complete view of geography than the ancient Greeks and Romans.

But he says he believes he is the first to compile a comprehensive collection of evidence showing how Muslim cartographers combined the navigators´ information with studies of astronomy and mathematics to compile maps of astonishing precision for their day.

Sezgin says one of his greatest successes was tracking down a copy of a particularly famous map that Western scholars knew existed from Arab histories but which was generally assumed to be lost. That is the map of the world that Caliph al-Ma´mum, who reigned in Baghdad from 813 to 833 AD, commissioned from a large group of astronomers and geographers.

"Many geographers, many astronomers, many mathematics scholars made this map. Historians of geography knew of this map, but by its name only. I [finally] found this map in an encyclopedia in Topkapi Sarai [Museum in Istanbul]," Sezgin says.

The map shows large parts of the Eurasian and African continents with recognizable coastlines and major seas. It depicts the world as it was known to the captains of the Arab sailing dhows which, with planks secured by palm-fiber ropes rather than nails, used the monsoon wind cycles to trade over vast distances. Western historians recognize that by the 9th century, Arab sea traders had reached Canton, in China.

Sezgin says the Caliph al-Ma´mum map illustrates how far the Muslim cartographers departed from earlier world views. The maps of the Greeks and Romans reveal a good knowledge of closed seas like the Mediterranean but little understanding of the vast ocean expanses beyond.

"This map [shows] the Muslims knew the continents are islands, not like the Greeks´ thinking that the seas are closed seas," Sezgin says.

But if Sezgin has devoted his life to understanding Islam´s Golden Age of Science -- he has spent 55 years writing about it -- he is far from having chauvinistic views. He says Muslim scientists were able to make such advances because they were ready to build on the work of earlier scholars -- Muslim or otherwise. The professor says this "receptiveness" enabled Muslim science to become the world´s dominant scientific tradition within 200 years of the beginnings of the Arab conquests.

"The Arabs, the Muslims, had taken from Christians, from Jews, from [Persia] without complexes. The Muslims were tolerant. The Muslims had accepted these Christians and Jews as teachers. That´s very important, because the period of the reception of science was [thus just] 200 years," Sezgin says.

Islam´s Golden Age of Science finally ended as the stability and wealth of the Muslim world was shaken by rival powers. European states controlled the Mediterranean trade routes by the 14th century, and the Mongol invasions of the 13th to 15th centuries disrupted trade with China. State patronage of science gave way to military affairs.

Still, Muslim science never disappeared. Instead, it reemerged as part of the new body of science developing in Europe as scholars there -- in their turn -- borrowed liberally from Muslim scholars before them.

Sezgin says Portuguese and Spanish navigators used the knowledge they gained from Muslim cartographers while Iberia was under Arab domination to launch their own voyages of discovery.

Those great sea journeys, including the circumnavigation of the world and the discovery of the Americas, helped lead to a modern view of Earth as a globe containing all of the major continents.

Sezgin, who mostly writes in German, says the first volume of his book on the Muslim cartographers has just been translated into English and will be published next month. He hopes the translation will help his work reach a broader audience, both in the West and the Muslim world.

In the meantime, he remains busy revising five more books he has written on other areas of Muslim science. Asked if he has new works planned for the future, he smiles and answers yes. Then he offers this note of caution: "You know, my age, I am 80 years old. I should be very happy if I see these five volumes, which are just at the moment in manuscript [form], are printed."

Sezgin has no plans to retire and is much in demand at the fair among journalists and visiting officials from the 22 countries of the Arab world, which is the fair´s special focus this year.

http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1055354.html

Balat

The oldest settlement on the Golden Horn, Balat is like a miniature Istanbul with its uniform streets, its two and three-story houses with cantilevered balconies, its staircases jutting up the steep slopes, and its places of worship at every step.

Balat is a quarter that has extended its hospitality to a large number of different communities in its time. From the Byzantine Greeks to Jews that fled the Spanish Inquisition and the Armenians that settled in Istanbul, Balat has been a place of residence for numerous disparate ethnic groups. Many a migration route has ended in the old Golden Horn quarter of Balat, which to the outsider today appears mysterious and even a little forbidding.

GATEWAY TO PALACES
The shores of the Golden Horn were once lined with defense walls punctuated by a large number of gates to the city. Arriving at the palace by sea, the Byzantine emperors used the Balat Gate, known then as ´Vasiliki Pili´. This gate stood on the road leading to the Tekfur Saray, the only Byzantine palace still standing today and an annex of the Blachernae Palace as it was known by its old name, as well as to the notorious Anemas Dungeons. The name Balat is said to derive from the word ´palation´, which means palace in Greek. Quiet and peaceful today, and almost deserted at nightfall, the streets of Balat once bustled at all hours of the day.

Holy Spring of the Virgin Mary
When I stepped into the street leading to Balat from the walls of the Ayvansaray where the tombs of the Sahabe (Companions of the Prophet Muhammed) are located, the first thing I encountered at the gate was the ´Ayazma´ or Holy Spring of the Virgin Mary. A young priest here is telling visitors about the Golden Horn and Balat. Legend has it that there was once a rock fragment of dazzling whiteness sticking up out of the waters of the Bosphorus, the strait dividing the Asian and European continents, off the coast of Chalcedon. Startled by its brilliance, the pelamydes (the small tuna known in Turkish as ´palamut´ took refuge at nightfall in the Golden Horn on their migration route from the Black Sea to the Aegean.  So great were their numbers that the entire estuary glowed with their phosphorescence. According to some this is the origin of the name ´Golden Horn´, while others claim it derives from the sheer abundance of the fish. All the people of Byzantium flocked down to the shore from the gates along the Golden Horn to catch fish there with their bare hands, and behind the walls Palation (Balat) became a scene of great festivity. Although the fish migrations steadily declined, Balat remained the last stop for communities in search of a new home.

DISTRICT OF ETHNIC MINORITIES
Balat has gone down in history as a district of  ethnic minorities. Jews fleeing the Spanish Inquisition took refuge in Istanbul during the reign of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror and were settled at Balat, which in those days was a final destination for Jews from all over the place. The altar of the Ahrida Synagogue on Vodina Avenue resembles a ship´s prow. According to one legend, this structure is a fragment of Noah´s ark while according to another it is said to represent the galleons that brought the Jews from Spain to Istanbul. Another of the still active synagogues, located on Düriye Street, Yanbol Synagogue was built by Jews from Bulgaria. Practically every street where Jews lived had it own synagogue in those days.When the sultan on 27 August 1839 issue a firman declaring that ´every community has a right to build its own hospital´, a hospital was constructed on the coast road to meet the needs of the Jewish population. Due to a lack of sufficient funds to build a hospital, health care previously had been provided at home.  In 1896, today´s magnificent Or-Ahayim Hospital was erected by a well-known architect of the period, Gabriel Tedesci. Continuing along the shore, one encounters the striking Bulgarian Church of Saint Stephen, which rises on an island right in the middle of the road. Rumor has it that this church was built in one month. Since the reigning Sultan Abdulaziz granted only a single month for its construction, it was prefabricated in Vienna of cast iron and shipped by sea to Istanbul where it was then assembled. Being distinguished architecturally as the only church of its kind in the world, it also boasts a unique icon of Jesus and the Virgin Mary whose like is not found in any other church. The Armenian Church of Surp Hreshdagabed in Kamýþ Street attracts attention for its unusual architecture and its ´ayazma´ or holy spring. Originally a Greek church, later it was converted into an Armenian church. The bones of Saint Artemios, which were found during a restoration, are on display in the ayazma section underneath the building. There are also numerous Greek churches in the quarter which only open their doors on holidays and other important occasions. The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate is located in Balat. As we proceed towards it along Vodina Avenue, we see the Greek Boys´ School at the end of the steep intersecting street known as the Sancaktar Yokuþ, an imposing, eye-dazzling structure that dominates the quarter from its position on the hill. Next to it stands the Greek Girls´ School where education continues despite a gradually dwindling number of students. Immediately below the school is the house, now converted into a museum, of the Prince of Moldavia, Dimitri Kantemir, who made important contributions to classical Turkish music. When Muslims to began to make their homes here, mosques, dervish lodges, and even an entire mosque complex went up at Balat, where there had been not so much as a ´mescid´ or small mosque in the time of Mehmed the Conqueror. The best known of these buildings is the Ferruh Kethuda Complex in the street of the same name, designed by the 16th century Ottoman architect known as Mimar Sinan and consisting of a mosque, a dervish lodge, a fountain and court buildings.

http://www.thy.com/en-INT/corporate/skylife/article.aspx?mkl=997

 People around the world take part in demonstrations protesting against the Israeli strikes in Gaza

 

Turkish demonstrators chant slogans during an anti-Israeli protest in Istanbul

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/4014460/People-around-the-world-take-part-in-demonstrations-protesting-against-the-Israeli-strikes-in-Gaza.html?image=8

 

the leading authority on the history of Arabic-Islamic science. He is the founder and director of the Institute of the History of the Arab Islamic Sciences of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt. Sezgin obtained his PhD from Istanbul University under the famous German orientalist Hellmut Ritter in 1954. His thesis titled "Buhari´nin Kaynaklari" (The Sources of Al-Bukhari) showed that, contrary to the common belief among European orientalists, Al-Bukhari´s edition of Hadith collection was based on the written resources dating back to the 7th century as well as the oral history. Sezgin moved to Germany in 1961 and started working as a visiting professor at the University of Frankfurt. Sezgin was appointed professor at the university in 1965. His research at Frankfurt focused on Islam´s Golden Age of Science. In 1983, Sezgin established the Institute of the History of the Arab Islamic Sciences. Today the Institute houses the most comprehensive collection of texts on the history of Arabic-Islamic science in the world. Sezgin also founded a unique museum within the institute, bringing together more than 800 replicas of historical scientific instruments, tools and maps, mostly belonging to the Golden Age of Islamic science.

Fuat Sezgin is the author and editor of numerous publications. Among many others, his 13-volume work Geschichte des Arabischen Schrifttums is the cornerstone reference on the history of science and technology in the Islamic world. Sezgin is recipient several awards, including King Faisal Prize of Islamic Studies and The Great Medal for Distinguished Service of Federal Republic of Germany. He is member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences, Academy of the Kingdom of Morocco, and academies of Arabic Language in Cairo, Damascus and Baghdad.

This is beautiful!

http://www.rumireturning.com/preview.htm

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