Roman Gladiator - In general, Gladiators were
condemned criminals, prisoners of war, or slaves
bought for the purpose of gladiatorial combat
by a "Lanista", or owner.
Professional Roman Gladiators were free men
who volunteered to participate in the games.
It was
suggested that Roman crowds preferred combat
by free men over that of slaves. Though low
on the social scale, free men often found
popularity
and patronage of wealthy Roman citizens by
becoming fighters.
The emperor Augustus sought
to preserve
the pietas and virtus of the knight class
and Roman senate by forbidding them to participate
in gladiatorial combat. Later, Caligula and
Nero would order both groups to participate
in the
games.
Romans citizens legally sold themselves to lanistae
and were known as auctorati. Their social status
was neither that of volunteers nor condemned
criminals, or slaves. Condemned criminals, the
damnati ad mortem who committed a capital crime,
entered the gladiatorial arena weaponless.
Those
criminals who did not commit a capital crime
were trained in private gladiator schools,
called ludi. At these private and imperial schools,
gladiators became specialist in combat techniques
that disabled and captured their opponents
rather
than killed them quickly.
Criminals trained
in gladiator schools fought with the weapons
and
armor of their choice and could earn their
freedom if they survived three to five years
of combat.
Though a gladiator was only required to fight
two or three times a year, few survived the
three to five years.
As a Roman Gladiator, a man gained immediate
status even though the gladiatorial oath forced
him to act as a slave to his master and "to
endure branding, chains, flogging, or death by
the sword". Gladiators were required to
do what their lanista ordered and therefore were
revered for their loyalty, courage and discipline.
Each Roman Gladiator was allowed to fight in
the armor and with the weapons that best suited
him. They wore armor, though not Roman military
armor, as this would send the wrong political
signal to the populous.
Instead gladiators wore
the armor and used the weaponry of non-Roman
people, playing the role of Rome's enemies.
For instance, a gladiator might dress as a Samnite
in Samnite garb that included a large oblong
shield (scutum), a metal or boiled leather
grieve
(ocrea) on the left leg, a visored helmet (galea)
with a large crest and plume, and a sword (gladius).
The gladiatorial garb for other rolls were:
A Thracian - wore ocrea on both legs, carried
a small square shield, wore either a full visored
helmet or an open faced helmet with a wide brim,
and carried a curved Thracian sword with an angled
bend in the blade;
A Secutor - took his name from the term for "pursuer" and
fought virtually naked and bald, carrying a large
oval or rectangular shield and a sword or dagger,
wearing an ocrea on the left leg, leather bands
at the elbow and wrists (manicae), and a round
or high-visored helmet;
A Retiarius - symbolized the fisherman and wore
only a loin cloth (subligaculum) and a metal
shoulder-piece (galerus) on the left arm, and
carried a net (iaculum), a dagger, and a trident
or tunny-fish harpoon (fascina). One variation
on the Retiarius was the Laquearii who carried
a lasso instead of a net.
Roman Gladiators were paid each time they fought.
If a gladiator survived three to five years of
combat they were freed. Gladiators fought in
arenas, the most famous of which was The
Coloseum built
by the Flavians. When one of the opponents in
a contest was wounded, the crowd would typically
shout “habet, hoc habet,” he has
had it.
An opponent who felt he was defeated
would raise his left hand with one finger extended
as a request for mercy. It is not clear how
the vote of life or death for the defeated opponent
was decided though it may have involved the
thumb.
If the decision was for death, the defeated
Roman Gladiator would ceremoniously grasp the
thigh of his conqueror who would slay the loser
by stabbing his sword into his neck. The dead
body was removed by costumed attendants, one
dressed as the ferry man Charon, and the other
as Mercury.
Charon struck the dead body with
a hammer and Mercury poked the body with a
hot iron disguised as his wand to assure the
loser
was dead. The winner would receive a symbol
of their victory, such as a golden bowl, crown,
or gold coin, along with a palm leaf symbolizing
victory.
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