There were many different types of gladiator

Gladiator

A gladiator was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gladiators were volunteers who risked their legal and social standing and their lives by appearing in the...

 in ancient Rome

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

. Some of the first gladiators had been prisoners-of-war

Prisoner of war

A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...

, and so some of the earliest types of gladiators, Gauls

Gauls

The Gauls were a Celtic people living in Gaul, the region roughly corresponding to what is now France, Belgium, Switzerland and Northern Italy, from the Iron Age through the Roman period. They mostly spoke the Continental Celtic language called Gaulish....

, Samnites, and Thraeces (Thracians

Thracians

The ancient Thracians were a group of Indo-European tribes inhabiting areas including Thrace in Southeastern Europe. They spoke the Thracian language – a scarcely attested branch of the Indo-European language family...

) 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 have shown that as a rule gladiators fought to strict rules and barefooted. Like today’s athletes, gladiators did product endorsements

Testimonial

In promotion and of advertising, a testimonial or show consists of a written or spoken statement, sometimes from a person figure, sometimes from a private citizen, extolling the virtue of some product. The term "testimonial" most commonly applies to the sales-pitches attributed to ordinary...

. 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.

During combat, musicians performed accompaniment that altered tempo

Tempo

In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...

 to match that of the combat. Typical instruments were a long straight trumpet (tuba

Roman tuba

The tuba of ancient Rome is a military signal trumpet, quite different from the modern tuba. The tuba was produced around 500 BC. Its shape was straight, in contrast to the military buccina or cornu, which was more like the modern tuba in curving around the body. Its origin is thought to be...

), a large curved brass instrument called the lituus

Lituus

The word lituus originally meant a curved augural staff or a curved war-trumpet in the ancient Latin language. In English it is used with several meanings.-Roman ritual wand:...

, and a water organ

Water organ

The water organ or hydraulic organ is a type of pipe organ blown by air, where the power source pushing the air is derived by water from a natural source or by a manual pump...

 (organum). During the Imperial period

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

, 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

Pompeii

The city of Pompeii is a partially buried Roman town-city near modern Naples in the Italian region of Campania, in the territory of the comune of Pompei. Along with Herculaneum, Pompeii was destroyed and completely buried during a long catastrophic eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius spanning...

 shows two figures labeled "flute playing bear" (Ursus tibicen

Tibicen

The Tibicen genus of cicadas are large-bodied Cicadidae appearing in late summer or autumn. Like other members of the subfamily Cicadinae, they have loud, complex songs, even distinct song phrases. Tibicen are the most common cicada in the United States...

) and "horn-blowing chicken" (Pullus cornicen), who may have been part of such a mimus.

Gladiator types and associated personnel

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.

Andabata

The andabata fought blind; he wore a helmet that deprived him of vision. Cicero

Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...

 makes a joking reference to the andabata in a letter he wrote to his friend Trebatius Testa

Trebatius Testa

Gaius Trebatius Testa was a jurist of ancient Rome, whose family, and himself, originated from Elea.He was a protege of Cicero; Cicero dedicated his Topica to Trebatius, and recommended Trebatius as a legal advisor to Julius Caesar...

, who was stationed in Gaul

Gallic Wars

The Gallic Wars were a series of military campaigns waged by the Roman proconsul Julius Caesar against several Gallic tribes. They lasted from 58 BC to 51 BC. The Gallic Wars culminated in the decisive Battle of Alesia in 52 BC, in which a complete Roman victory resulted in the expansion of the...

. The passage associates the andabata loosely with essedarii

Essedarius

An essedarius was a type of gladiator in Ancient Rome who fought from a chariot. There may have been just one man in the chariot, or two, a driver and a fighter. The word is also used of charioteers in other instances, such as in Caesar's Gallic War, in his campaign against Cassivellaunus in...

, chariot fighters. The Oxford Latin Dictionary

Oxford Latin Dictionary

The Oxford Latin Dictionary is the standard lexicon of Classical Latin, completed in 1982.The dictionary professes to be "independent alike of Lewis & Short on the one hand and of the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae on the other." It "is based on an entirely fresh reading of the Latin sources...

regards the word as of dubious origin. Some have argued that it is a Latin borrowing from Gaulish.

Arbelas

The arbelas

Arbelas

The arbelas was a type of ancient Roman gladiator. The word is a hapax legomenon, occurring only in the Oneirocritica of Artemidorus, a Greek work on dream interpretation that discusses the symbolism of various gladiator types. It may be related to the Greek word arbelos , a cobbler's semicircular...

is mentioned in only one source. He may be the same as the scissor

Scissor (gladiator type)

The Scissor was a type of Roman gladiator about which almost nothing beyond the name, meaning "cutter, cleaver, render" The Scissor (pl. scissoris) was a type of Roman gladiator about which almost nothing beyond the name, meaning "cutter, cleaver, render" The Scissor (pl. scissoris) was a type of...

.

Bestiarius

The bestiarius

Bestiarii

Among Ancient Romans, bestiarii were those who went into combat with beasts, or were exposed to them. It is conventional to distinguish two categories of bestiarii: the first were those condemned to death via the beasts and the second were those who faced them voluntarily, for pay or glory...

was a beast-fighter. See also Damnatio ad bestias

Damnatio ad bestias

Damnatio ad bestias was a form of capital punishment in which the condemned were maimed on the circus arena or thrown to a cage with animals, usually lions. It was brought to ancient Rome around the 2nd century BC from Asia, where a similar penalty existed from at least the 6th century BC...

.

Bustuarius

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."

Cestus

The cestus was a fist-fighter or boxer who wore the cestus

Cestus

A cestus is an ancient battle glove, sometimes used in pankration. They were worn as are today's boxing gloves, but were made with leather strips and sometimes filled with iron plates or fitted with blades or spikes, and used as weapons.-Terminology:...

, a brutal forerunner of the boxing glove.

Dimachaerus

The dimachaerus

Dimachaerus

The dimachaeri were a type of Roman gladiator that fought with two swords. The name is the Latin-language borrowing of the Greek word "διμάχαιρος" meaning "bearing two knives" ....

(Greek διμάχαιρος, "bearing two knives") used two swords, one in each hand.

Equites

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

Isidore of Seville

Saint Isidore of Seville served as Archbishop of Seville for more than three decades and is considered, as the historian Montalembert put it in an oft-quoted phrase, "le dernier savant du monde ancien"...

, 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

Hasta (spear)

Hasta is a Latin word meaning spear. Hastae were carried by early Roman Legionaries, in particular they were carried by and gave their name to those Roman soldiers known as Hastati...

), they dismounted and continued to fight on foot with their short sword (gladius

Gladius

Gladius was the Latin word for sword, and is used to represent the primary sword of Ancient Roman soldiers. Early ancient Roman swords were similar to those used by the Greeks. From the 3rd century BC, the Romans adopted swords similar to those used by the Celtiberians and others during the early...

). Generally, equites only fought other equites.

Essedarius

The essedarius

Essedarius

An essedarius was a type of gladiator in Ancient Rome who fought from a chariot. There may have been just one man in the chariot, or two, a driver and a fighter. The word is also used of charioteers in other instances, such as in Caesar's Gallic War, in his campaign against Cassivellaunus in...

(from the Latin word for a Celtic war-chariot, essedum) was likely first brought to Rome from Britain

Roman Britain

Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...

 by Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....

. Essedarii appear as arena-fighters in many inscriptions after the 1st century AD. No pictorial representations exist.

Gaul

The Galli ("Gauls

Gauls

The Gauls were a Celtic people living in Gaul, the region roughly corresponding to what is now France, Belgium, Switzerland and Northern Italy, from the Iron Age through the Roman period. They mostly spoke the Continental Celtic language called Gaulish....

") were an early type of gladiator that originated among Gallic war captives.

Hoplomachus

The hoplomachus

Hoplomachus

A Hoplomachus was a type of gladiator in ancient Rome, armed to resemble a Greek hoplite...

(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 greave

Greave

A greave is a piece of armour that protects the leg.-Description:...

s, an arm guard (manica

Manica (armour)

The Latin word "manica" means a sleeve. A manica was a type of iron or bronze arm guard, with curved and overlapping metal segments or plates, fastened to leather straps, worn by Roman gladiators called crupellarii, and later by soldiers....

) 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

Gladius

Gladius was the Latin word for sword, and is used to represent the primary sword of Ancient Roman soldiers. Early ancient Roman swords were similar to those used by the Greeks. From the 3rd century BC, the Romans adopted swords similar to those used by the Celtiberians and others during the early...

and a very small, round shield

Buckler

A buckler is a small shield, 15 to 45 cm in diameter, gripped in the fist; it was generally used as a companion weapon in hand-to-hand combat during the Medieval and Renaissance, as its size made it poor protection against missile weapons but useful in deflecting the blow of...

 made of one sheet of thick bronze, an example of which survives from Pompeii

Pompeii

The city of Pompeii is a partially buried Roman town-city near modern Naples in the Italian region of Campania, in the territory of the comune of Pompei. Along with Herculaneum, Pompeii was destroyed and completely buried during a long catastrophic eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius spanning...

. 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.

Lanista

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

Prostitution in ancient Rome

Prostitution in ancient Rome reflects the ambivalent attitudes of Romans toward pleasure and sexuality. Prostitution was legal and licensed. Some large brothels in the 4th century, when Rome was becoming officially Christianized, seem to have been counted as tourist attractions and were possibly...

 (leno) as a "vendor of human flesh."

Laquearius

The laquearius

Laquearius

The laquearius, laquerarius, or laqueator was a class of Roman gladiator that fought with a lasso or noose in one hand and a poniard or sword in the other. The laquearius appeared late in the history of the Roman games...

seems to have been a kind of retiarius who tried to catch his adversaries with a lasso

Lasso

A lasso , also referred to as a lariat, riata, or reata , is a loop of rope that is designed to be thrown around a target and tighten when pulled. It is a well-known tool of the American cowboy. The word is also a verb; to lasso is to successfully throw the loop of rope around something...

 (laqueus) instead of a net. He was equipped also with a dagger for use once he snared his opponent.

Lorarius

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

Murmillo

The murmillo

Murmillo

The murmillo was a type of gladiator during the Roman Imperial age. The murmillo-class gladiator was adopted in the early Imperial period to replace the earlier Gallus, named after the warriors of Gaul...

(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

Gladius

Gladius was the Latin word for sword, and is used to represent the primary sword of Ancient Roman soldiers. Early ancient Roman swords were similar to those used by the Greeks. From the 3rd century BC, the Romans adopted swords similar to those used by the Celtiberians and others during the early...

(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.

Paegniarius

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. 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.

Provocator

In the late Republican and early Imperial era, the armament of a provocator ("challenger") mirrored legionary

Roman legion

A Roman legion normally indicates the basic ancient Roman army unit recruited specifically from Roman citizens. The organization of legions varied greatly over time but they were typically composed of perhaps 5,000 soldiers, divided into maniples and later into "cohorts"...

 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.

Retiarius

The retiarius

Retiarius

A retiarius was a Roman gladiator who fought with equipment styled on that of a fisherman: a weighted net , a three-pointed trident , and a dagger...

("net fighter") developed in the early Augustan

Augustus

Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...

 period. He carried a trident

Trident

A trident , also called a trishul or leister or gig, is a three-pronged spear. It is used for spear fishing and was also a military weapon. Tridents are featured widely in mythical, historical and modern culture. The major Hindu god, Shiva the Destroyer and the sea god Poseidon or Neptune are...

, 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. Retiarii usually fought Secutores but sometimes fought Myrmillonis. The retiarius tunicatus wore tunics to distinguish them from the usual retiarius, and were thought effeminate.

Rudiarus

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.

Sagittarius

The sagittarius was a mounted archer, armed with a reflex bow capable of propelling an arrow a great distance.

Samnite

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

Campania

Campania is a region in southern Italy. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,590 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country...

 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.

Scissor

The scissor

Scissor (gladiator type)

The Scissor was a type of Roman gladiator about which almost nothing beyond the name, meaning "cutter, cleaver, render" The Scissor (pl. scissoris) was a type of Roman gladiator about which almost nothing beyond the name, meaning "cutter, cleaver, render" The Scissor (pl. scissoris) was a type of...

(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 opponent's weapon between the twin blades in order to disarm them.

Secutor

The secutor

Secutor

A Secutor was a class of gladiator in ancient Rome.Thought to have originated around 50 AD, the Secutor was armed similarly to the Murmillo gladiator, and like the Murmillo, was protected by heavy armour. A Secutor usually carried a short sword, a gladius, or a dagger...

("pursuer") developed to fight the retiarius

Retiarius

A retiarius was a Roman gladiator who fought with equipment styled on that of a fisherman: a weighted net , a three-pointed trident , and a dagger...

. As a variant of the myrmillo, he wore the same armour and weapons, including the tall rectangular shield and the gladius

Gladius

Gladius was the Latin word for sword, and is used to represent the primary sword of Ancient Roman soldiers. Early ancient Roman swords were similar to those used by the Greeks. From the 3rd century BC, the Romans adopted swords similar to those used by the Celtiberians and others during the early...

. 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.

Tertiarius

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.

Thraex

The Thraex

Thraex

The Thraex , or Thracian, was a type of Roman gladiator, armed in the Thracian style with small rectangular shield called a parmula and a very short sword with a slightly curved blade called a sica , intended to maim an opponent's unarmoured back...

(plural Thraeces, "Thracians

Thracians

The ancient Thracians were a group of Indo-European tribes inhabiting areas including Thrace in Southeastern Europe. They spoke the Thracian language – a scarcely attested branch of the Indo-European language family...

") wore the same protective armour as the hoplomachi with a broad-rimmed helmet that enclosed the entire head, distinguished by a stylized griffin

Griffin

The griffin, griffon, or gryphon is a legendary creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle...

 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

Sica

The sica was a short sword or large dagger of ancient Thracians/Dacians peoples, used in Ancient Rome too. It was originally depicted as a curved sword, with a blade about 16-18 inches long and many examples have been found in what are today Romania, Bosnia, Bulgaria and Serbia, as well as...

or falx

Falx

Falx is a Latin word originally meaning sickle, but was later used to mean any of a number of tools that had a curved blade that was sharp on the inside edge such as a scythe...

, c. 34 cm (13.4 in) long). They were introduced as replacements for the Gauls after Gaul made peace with Rome. They commonly fought Myrmillonis or Hoplomachi.

Velites

The velites

Velites

Velites were a class of infantry in the Polybian legions of the early Roman republic. Velites were light infantry and skirmishers who were armed with a number of light javelins, or hastae velitares, to fling at the enemy, and also carried short thrusting swords, or gladii for use in melee...

("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.

Venator

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

Lion

The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...

's mouth, riding a camel

Camel

A camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as humps on its back. There are two species of camels: the dromedary or Arabian camel has a single hump, and the bactrian has two humps. Dromedaries are native to the dry desert areas of West Asia,...

 while leading lions on a leash, and making an elephant

Elephant

Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...

walk a tightrope. Technically they were not gladiators.

External links

• Gladiator graveyard in York England