Benjamin Ashrafi

November 1st, 2021

Ancient World History Dr. Cook

TR 10:30 AM

Gladiators of Rome
 Gladiators were one of Rome’s most famous forms of entertainment, but often

mythologized, making the life of a gladiator seem wealthy and lavish. While stories about

gladiators fighting beasts in the arena or gaining fame and glory for winning battles is somewhat

true, it wasn’t a very large majority of them. In fact, most gladiators were former slaves, current

slaves, and prisoners that were fighting for their freedom, or just thrown into the arena for

execution. Gladiators also rarely got paid because their handlers received all the income.

Although the owners could have shared the currency, in most cases they wouldn’t, though there

were exceptions in some stories (Cartwright, 1).

There are known to be 6 “classes” of gladiators. The Murmillo, Secutor, Provocator,

Thraex, Hoplomachus, and the Retiarius (Reitzer, 1). These gladiators weren’t just thrown into

the pit against whoever and fought to the death. There was a system in place to care for the

advantages and disadvantages of the different classes to make the fights fair. While the

Gladiators sport was very brutal, there were still rules to the game. All the fights were monitored

by referees, and not all fights were lethal. Slowly as time moved forward, the fights became less

and less about killing, and more about surviving. The cost of training and replacing these

gladiators after death was far worse than just losing a fight, so the games slowly evolved, but

obviously deaths still occurred. Another misconception about gladiators was that they fought

animals just because they could. Gladiators were only put to fight against other Gladiators

(While following the matchmaking rules), and not animals. The only time animals entered the

arena was for the execution of prisoners and criminals. The only exception to this was the

Bestiaries, which was a type of combat strictly against wild animals. The Bestiaries was not

referred to as a Gladiator in the same way other Gladiators are depicted. (The colosseum, 1)
 The Murmillo were probably one of the most common gladiators among them all. They

were armed with a scutum, which is a big rectangular shield that covers the user from chin all the

way to the toes. They also were armed with a gladius, also known as a short sword, shin guards,

a single padded sleeve, and the famous crescent helmet, that makes them look like a “loose”

roman soldier. The fighting styles of the Murmillo were very similar to the roman soldier

because they would hide behind their shield and wait for their opponent to make the first move,

and then strike in retaliation.

The Secutor, another branch of gladiators, were VERY similar to the Murmillo, with the

only difference being their helmets. While the Murmillo had very decorated helmets, the

Secutors had smooth flat helmets, with only 2 holes for the eyes to see through. There is a reason

for this, which I will get into later. The name Secutor, also means pursuer (warriors and legends,

1). The branch was given this name due to the fighting style they had, which was aggressive.

The Provocator, to me is one of the most interesting types of gladiators. The name

“Provocator” translates into “challenger” and is based off old italic and samnite traditions

(Reitzer, 2). Those traditions give the Provocator one of the most unique pieces of equipment,

the breastplate. The Provocator was one of the only gladiators to wear actual body armor, other

than a helmet. Provocators were only allowed to duel other Provocators. Their small shields and

swords allowed for more aggressive combat, but also limited due to the heavy body armor they

wore.

The Thraex, or also known as Thracian, is one of the older types of gladiators. Spartacus,

a famous gladiator, was among one of the many ancient Thracian gladiators. The Thraex were

armed with small rectangular shields, like the Murmillo, but much smaller. The Thraex armor

was like the Murmillo too, but they had one big difference, their weapon. Because the Murmillo
had straight short swords, the Thraex were given curved swords, also known as the “Sica”. This

blade was designed not only for stabbing and slashing, but for blunt force strikes to the opponent

as well. Since the main opponent of the Thraex was the Murillo, they needed a weapon that

could get through the large shield of the Murillo’s, so the curved blade did the trick.

The second to last gladiator on the list is the Hoplomachus. The Hoplomachus’s name is

very similar to the Greek hoplite, and you could guess why. They were designed after the

hoplites. The Hoplomachus carried a lance, like a spear, as their main weapon. They also had a

short sword, padded armor on the legs, a helmet, and a small round shield, which was a little

different that the hoplite shield. (Reitzer, 3). While the hoplites carried the round shield that

covered big parts of their body, the Hoplomachus’s shield was a lot smaller and concaved.

And finally, the Retiarius. The Retiarius was a special type of gladiator, because of one

very odd reason. They were the only gladiators that didn’t wear a helmet or a shield, and the only

protection they had was padding on the right arm and shoulder. The Retiarius had to be fast,

because they relied on mobility to keep distance from their opponents. The Retiarius were like

fishermen, because their only weapons were a net, a 3-pronged spear, and a dagger. Sometimes,

the Retiarius was placed against 2 Secutors, but was placed on a platform and given rocks to

defend himself. (The Colosseum, 2).

Spartacus, Marcus Attilius, Tetraites, Priscus and Verus, Spiculus, Flamma, and

Commodus (Wong, 2), were some of the most famous gladiators of ancient Rome. They were the

strongest, most resilient of them all. Spartacus, a Thracian gladiator, probably one of the most

famous gladiators, was sold into slavery possibly because of a rebellion against the Roman army.

At around 73 B.C, Spartacus was enlisted into gladiator school at Capua, A small city in Italy

(Vogel, 1). Very soon after, Spartacus and about 70 other gladiators escaped from the school and
gathered by Mount Vesuvius. Gradually, its estimated that about 90,000 to 100,000 other

gladiators joined Spartacus in the mountains, to make a “small” army. With this army, they used

guerilla tactics to fend off the romans, but eventually being defeated by General Marcus Licinius

around 71 B.C. 6000 of his followers were soon after crucified. Spartacus was remembered as a

leader against an oppressive government and set a stone in the pavement though having horrible

odds against him.

Marcus Attilius, or better known as the “unlikely hero”, was a free man who volunteered

to become a gladiator. There are a lot of instances were gladiators volunteer to fight. From being

a good fighter to just looking for fame and wealth. Attilius chose to volunteer to free himself

from the debt that he owed. Attilius was known as the unlikely hero because of the fight against

Hilarus, who was part of a troupe owned by the king, Nero, and had no less than 13 wreaths to

his name. Another fight that had secured this nickname was against Lucious Raecius Felix, who

also was a champion with no less than 12 wreaths to his name. Marcus fought hard, and

eventually earned a wreath for himself.

Tetraites, is one of the most mysterious gladiators in all of history. The amount of

information that we have about his is almost zero, other than the fact that he was VERY popular

among many countries during that period (Behance, 1). His name was found etched in glass

vessels made after him in countries which are now known as France, Hungary, and even

England. Probably the most important point in his career was the battle against Prudes, who was

also talked about on the glass vessels. Tetraites had obviously won this fight and put on an

amazing show for the crowd and the emperor, which left his name all throughout history even

with so little knowledge about him as a person.

 Priscus and Verus, 2 gladiators and good friends, had put on probably one of the most

heartwarming battles of all time. The 2 gladiators had many fights, but the last fight they had was

between each other. Priscus and Verus were former slaves, sharpening their skills until they

caught the attention of emperor Titus Flavius Domitianus. The emperor ordered them to come

fight for the colosseum’s opening. The final battle Priscus and Verus had was one of the longest

battles in history, up to a point that even the emperor couldn’t decide who had won. While the

entire colosseum was quiet, the emperor awarded both Priscus AND Verus with wooden swords,

meaning they had won their freedom. Their commitment to the fight is what really caught the

emperors eye. (Imperiumroman, 1)

Spiculus, a gladiator who was able to attain an enormous amount of wealth and fame. He

won many battles in roman amphitheaters, and his skill did not go unnoticed. Spiculus

maintained a very close relationship with the emperor Nero, because of the amount of skill he

had while fighting. Nero loved him so much he had given him large amounts of money, which

was a rare occasion. What makes this even more rare, is that when Nero was overthrown as

emperor, he had personally wanted to ask Spiculus to execute him, but no one knew where

Spiculus was. Thus, resulting in Nero committing suicide (warriorsandlegends, 1).

Flamma, was one of the most outstanding and strongest gladiators of all time. with a total

of 34 battles, 21 wins, 9 draws, and only 4 losses, he was deserving of his name. The Syrian

gladiators name literally stands for flame, or “lit flame” (definitions.com, 1). Flammas’ entire

existence was to fight, and he had no desire of stopping. Flamma was offered freedom multiple

times, to which each he declined, and decided to keep fighting until his death at 30 years old.

And lastly, we have Commodus, in my opinion, the craziest and most unfair of them all.

Commodus was a roman emperor, but enjoyed fighting against other gladiators, in obviously
rigged games to his advantage (warriorsandlegends, 2). Commodus’ ego was much larger than

himself, and he even considered himself one of the greatest warriors of all time. In almost all of

his matchups, his enemies were almost always given wooden weapons, and were even physically

disabled/crippled due to birth defects or various other reasons. It is believed that his way of

treating the gladiator games contributed to his assassination, among other things within his

flawed character.
Sources:

Cartwright, Mark. “Roman Gladiator.” World History Encyclopedia, World History

Encyclopedia, 14 Nov. 2021, https://www.worldhistory.org/gladiator/.

Wong, Henry. “Who Were the Most Famous Gladiators?” Rome Tours, Rome Tours, 18 May
2020, https://www.romecitytour.it/blog/who-were-the-most-famous-gladiators/.

National Geographic Society. “Spartacus.” National Geographic Society, 3 July 2018,

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/spartacus/.

“Where Is Capua Located.” Where Is Capua (Italy) Located on the World Maps.,
https://sunsetsunrisetime.com/location/capua.

Reitzer, L. “Home.” Neutralhistorycom, https://neutralhistory.com/the-6-most-popular-gladiator-

types/#What_types_of_Gladiators_fought_each_other.

“Warriors and Legends.” Secutor, https://www.warriorsandlegends.com/gladiators/secutor-

gladiator/#:~:text=Secutor%20Gladiator%20The%20word%20secutor%20in%20English
%20means,its%20symbolism%20of%20the%20God%20of%20Fire%2C%20Vulcan.

“Ancient Roman Gladiators.” The Colosseum, 18 Apr. 2018,

https://www.thecolosseum.org/gladiators/.

Coleman, Professor Kathleen. “History - Ancient History in Depth: Gladiators: Heroes of the
Roman Amphitheatre.” BBC, BBC, 17 Feb. 2011,
https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/gladiators_01.shtml.

“Definitions for Flammaflam·Ma.” What Does Flamma Mean?,

https://www.definitions.net/definition/flamma.

Jasiński, Jakub. “Priscus and Verus – Clash of Giants.” IMPERIUM ROMANUM, 15 Sept. 2019,
https://imperiumromanum.pl/en/curiosities/priscus-and-verus-clash-of-giants/.