Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant! A Latin phrase meaning “Hail Emperor, those who are about to die salute you,” it was only recorded as being used once (before a mock naval battle in 52 AD), but the words have become linked in the popular imagination to all gladiators. Gladiators faced off in brutal combat, where the smallest mistake could be punished by death, the glory of victory was fleeting, and the true prize–the rudis (wooden sword) that meant freedom–was ever elusive. Gladiators were part of an entertainment industry that spanned the Roman world, and huge amphitheaters were built in cities all across the empire for them to fight in. These arenas were also used for beast hunts to show audiences animals from the far reaches of the empire, and some arenas could even be flooded to stage naval gladiatorial combat! CRRL’s collection is full of books on the history of ancient Rome, including the ways of the gladiators. Read on to learn about the types of gladiators, how they fought, and the places they fought in.
Arms for the Arena! Types of Gladiators
Since most gladiators only lived to their mid-20s, no gladiator had the time to be a master of all weapons. Early gladiators were typically prisoners of war who were enslaved. By the end of the Roman Republic, gladiators also included criminals condemned to the arena and free people who had offered themselves up to the lanista (gladiator trainer) for money. All gladiator trainees were trained to be a particular gladiatorial type, their weapons and armor designed for a specific combat strategy. Over the time of the Roman Republic and later Roman Empire, types of gladiators rose and fell in popularity.
One of the earliest was a heavily armored fighter designed to resemble Rome’s military rivals. The Samnite was modeled after the soldiers of Samnium, an Italian city-state that rivaled Rome during the Samnite Wars in 343-290 BC. A Samnite was armed with a gladius (a short sword, from which the word gladiator is derived) and armored with a scutum (large, rectangular, curved shield), a crested helmet, and leg greaves. The gladius was designed for thrusting attacks, and the Samnite would guard himself with the scutum while stabbing at his opponent. The Samnites were eventually phased out as Samnium was absorbed into the Roman Empire by the reign of Augustus (31 BC-14 AD), and it no longer made sense to portray them as natural opponents.
They were largely replaced by another heavy gladiator class, the murmillo. Murmillones used the same scutum and gladius as the Samnites, but had a different helmet design. The murmillo always wore a helmet with a wedge on top shaped like a fin, embossed designs on the sides, and a visor with a grille in front. Although the heavy helmet could protect the murmillo’s head well, most of the designs on it were for visual appeal rather than additional measures for the gladiator’s protection. The full weight of the murmillo’s gladius, scutum, and helmet was considerable, and, as a result, the murmillo was typically a large man with considerable upper-body strength.
The Thraex was another type of gladiator modeled after Rome’s enemies, specifically the people of Thrace, a land in southeast Europe, where the nation of Bulgaria now exists. For a weapon, the Thraex had a sica, a curved short sword that was sharp on the inside edge. A Thraex was also equipped with a parma (short, round shield), greaves to protect the shinbone and thigh, and a helmet with a griffin-shaped crest. The sica was designed as a slashing weapon, and the Thraex would use it to hack at his enemy’s sides and back during the fight. The hoplomachus shared most of his equipment with the Thraex, but used a gladius instead of a sica and had a hasta (spear) that he could throw at his opponent before closing in. Like the Thraex, the hoplomachus was modeled after a foreign enemy of Rome: the hoplite soldiers that made up the armies of the Greek city-states that Rome warred with during its expansion. Thraeces were infamous partly because of Spartacus, a Thracian man who escaped a gladiator school and led a revolt against Rome with an army consisting of gladiators and other enslaved people in 73 BC. Though his forces were defeated by 71 BC, his army reached 100,000 men at its height, and the fear it inspired in Rome’s Senate and military leadership ensured that the Thraex would be relevant for centuries afterward.
The Thraex and hoplomachus had less armor than the murmillo, but there was another gladiator type that had even less. The retiarius (“net-man”) had only the heavy balteus belt and loincloth that all gladiators had to protect their bodies and a galerus (shoulder guard) to protect his left hand and arm. Retiarii carried three weapons: large fishing nets, long tridents, and daggers–in case the enemy broke their tridents. To succeed in battle, the retiarius had to outmaneuver his opponent. After attempting to tire a heavily armored foe by dodging his attacks, a retiarius could fling his net over his enemy’s head or cast it over his weapon and try to grab it away. While the enemy struggled against the net, the retiarius would try to use the trident to finish his foe; the dagger was only a last resort and would not fare well against a gladius or sica. The retiarius was often seen as a disfavored gladiator type because the lack of armor put the gladiator at much greater risk, but only the most reviled gladiators were given the role of retiarius tunicatus. This specific group (retiarii who wore tunics) was a role assigned to the politically disfavored or anyone believed to be “unmanly.” Even if a retiarius tunicatus won, the crowd would absolutely hate him.
As the Thraex and hoplomachus were typically pitted against the murmillo, a stock opponent was needed for the retiarius. The murmillo was sometimes used for the retiarius as well; the fish-like helmet of the murmillo meant that the battle of murmillo and retiarius was meant to represent a fisherman fighting a shark. But the more common opponent for the retiarius was the secutor (“pursuer”). The secutor shared his weapon, shield, and most of his armor with the murmillo but had a very different helmet design. A secutor helmet was extremely heavy and covered the gladiator’s entire head, except for two small eyeholes. Unlike the grille of the murmillo helmet, it was virtually impossible for a retiarius to thrust a trident through, but it limited the wearer’s vision badly and, since it covered the entire mouth, made breathing difficult. Because fatigue would quickly set in, the secutor was forced to rush down the enemy retiarius and finish him in an aggressive attack. The battle between secutor and retiarius was often used to represent an elemental struggle between Vulcan, the god of fire, and Neptune, the god of the oceans.
Although most gladiators were men, on rare occasions, audiences would see female gladiators, as well. Female gladiators were rare enough that the Romans did not use a specific word to represent them, although people in later centuries used the term “gladiatrix.” A stone relief depicting the two gladiatrices Amazonia and Achillea in combat provides some insight into how the Romans saw female fighters. The two women are depicted in an athletic pose, wearing weapons and armor as functional as those of any male gladiator. Their listed names, however, suggest a purpose designed to be subversive and alluring; “Amazonia” references the infamous female warriors who dominated men, and “Achillea” is the feminine form of Achilles, legendary hero of the Trojan War. Because female gladiators challenged the traditional Roman concept of women’s role in society, many Roman writers were heavily critical of them, especially Juvenal, who thought that upper-class women training to be gladiators would run off with male gladiators for liaisons. Despite criticism, some women willingly chose to fight for fame and glory for centuries, including the Dover Street Woman, a Romano-British woman believed to have been a gladiator whose grave was discovered in 1996.
A Place for Battle: The Roman Amphitheater
The Romans had well-developed concepts for the forms of their sports arenas and entertainment venues. The arenas gladiators fought in were called amphitheaters; they were always rounded in shape, with rows of seats organized into rising tiers. This made them very different in form from circuses, such as the Circus Maximus, which took the form of a long rectangular structure around an oval-shaped track. Circuses were used mainly for chariot races, one of the few things the Romans enjoyed even more than the gladiator fights. Romans also built theaters for watching plays rather than sports. Theaters were always shaped in a semicircle, with a horizontal stage with three doors to represent three houses in front the cavea (tiers of seating for the audience). All Roman amphitheaters, theaters, and circuses were open-air venues, although the more expensive and well-known ones, such as the Colosseum, had a velarium, a series of retractable awnings that could be adjusted to give shade throughout the day.
Since gladiatorial combat was popular all across the Roman world, amphitheaters could be found in most large cities. The largest amphitheater is the Colosseum, which can be found in the city of Rome itself. It was not the oldest amphitheater; the Amphitheater of Pompeii was actually completed earlier and is the oldest surviving stone amphitheater. It was preserved under piles of ash from the very eruption of Mount Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii in 79 AD. Other important surviving amphitheaters include the stunningly well-preserved Amphitheater of Nimes in France, the Pula Arena in Croatia (the only amphitheater so well preserved that all four of its side towers still stand), and the large Verona Arena. Many other Roman cities had amphitheaters, but most have fallen into disrepair and are only partially preserved, if at all.
Some large amphitheaters could even be flooded for naval gladiatorial combat! Called naumachia, these mock naval battles required feats of arena engineering to be successfully staged. To flood the Colosseum, one of the arenas with eyewitness accounts of a naumachia, the Romans would have had to use an aqueduct to flood the base of the arena with enough water so that replica ships could float. Because the space inside the Colosseum was much more limited than in an actual naval battle, it is likely the ships could not maneuver like actual ships could, and some may have been props. The attraction would have been combat between armed men, rather than a true recreation of movement at sea, but it still would have been an incredible spectacle for the audience to see combat on such a scale reenacted. Some naumachiae had thousands of men involved!
To Battle the Beasts: The Venationes
In addition to gladiator combat, the amphitheaters also played hosts to wild animals from the far corners of the Roman Empire…and sometimes beyond. Older Hollywood films tended to represent this mostly as lions devouring noble prisoners (often Christian), but this was only one purpose wild animals served in the arena. The Romans called death by animals damnatio ad bestias, and, since this was a legal death sentence, there was no chance for those condemned to survive. Prisoners were often tied down or otherwise “offered up” to hungry predators, such as lions, tigers, bears, and even crocodiles. Animals entered the arena by a special lift system that brought them up from the floors beneath the amphitheater. A trap door would open, allowing the animal to emerge in dramatic fashion to wow the audience.
As time progressed, the use of animals in the amphitheaters expanded to include the venatio (“hunt”). Unlike damnatio ad bestias, venationes were not a kind of legal execution, but another form of entertainment for audiences. A wide array of animals were used in venationes, including elephants, leopards, hippopotamuses, oxen, hyenas, and even rhinos, along with the lions, tigers, and bears also used for damnatio ad bestias. Those who fought the beasts with the weapons and training to survive were called venatores. They were not condemned to the arena; instead, they fought the animals for pay and glory. Venatores are sometimes falsely called “gladiators” in modern writing about the Roman Empire, but the Romans only used the term “gladiator” to describe those who fought people, not animals. Venatores wore short tunics and used bows, spears, and other weapons for hunting animals.
The False Hercules: Commodus, the Gladiator Emperor
The most famous venator and gladiator of all was the Emperor Commodus, the only Emperor to personally take part in the amphitheater’s games. Known to modern audiences as the villain of the 2000 film Gladiator, opens a new window, Commodus was infamous in Rome for his lavish spending and attempts to create a hero cult around himself. His part in the venationes is well known and preserved by art, such as this bust of Commodus as the hero Hercules. To re-enact the Labors of Hercules, Commodus would appear in the arena in a raised enclosure, so he would not be at risk from the animals he was “hunting”. The lion pelt and club associated with Hercules were displayed on a golden chair for the audience to see. Commodus had no restraint in his desire to show how powerful and “heroic” he was; one day, he killed 100 bears from his platform, another day he cut an ostrich’s head off and used it to threaten the senators in the arena, showing that he could kill them just as easily.
Not content to be just a hunter of beasts, Commodus also personally fought in the games as a gladiator. In the arena, Commodus chose to fight as a secutor and was said to have fought hundreds of times. All his opponents are believed to have been retiarii, and he was so obsessed with the games that he had the Senate give him the title “Captain of the Secutores” 635 times during his reign. Unlike most gladiators, Commodus was very well paid; he charged the treasury a million sestertii (large brass coins) per appearance, draining the wealth of Rome rapidly. As he continued to fight in the amphitheater, his insanity and mania grew to the point that he changed the name of Rome to Colonia Commodiana (Colony of Commodus) and renamed all months of the Julian calendar after his 12 names. With Rome plagued by his cruelty, reckless spending, and insanity, a conspiracy finally arose to kill Commodus. In 192 AD, Commodus was strangled in his bath by the wrestler Narcissus. He had been sent by Commodus’ advisers, who had learned he would have them executed on the first day of next year. The real Commodus was far more unhinged than his portrayal in Gladiator and did not have the “Hollywood ending” of falling to a noble hero in the arena.
The End of the Gladiators
The reign of Commodus was the zenith of the Roman Empire’s obsession with gladiators. The Crisis of the Third Century—a period of civil war, chaos, and disruption—did profound damage to the Empire and permanently lowered the standard of living for many people. It began in 235 AD when the Emperor Severus Alexander was murdered by his own troops, after a defeat by the Germanic Alemanni tribe, and only ended when Diocletian restructured the Roman government in 284 AD. During the Crisis, 26 men claimed the position of Emperor, some in office less than 30 days! The competition between would-be emperors meant that massive amounts of the Imperial treasury were spent on bribing the legions to keep them loyal, and the Roman trade network was irreparably damaged when the Empire was split into three parts by political rivals. Wracked by invasions from the north and the east and plagued by internal strife, the Crisis brought an end to the relative peace and prosperity Roman citizens had enjoyed and introduced a harsher existence with much less time and money for entertainment.
The Crisis was the time when European civilization changed from a world of open trade and wealthy cities to local farming and smaller, walled cities. During this period, Christianity also rose in popularity among the peoples of the Roman Empire, and the older pagan religions began to decline. The Christians had long disapproved of the gladiatorial games (both because of their brutality and their direct association with ad bestias persecution of Christians). The games only fell out of favor with the Roman state once the first Christian emperor, Constantine I, banned them in 325 AD. Gladiator fights continued to occur for decades after the ban, until they were finally abolished in 404 AD by Honorius after the monk Telemachus was stoned to death while protesting the games. Sadly, this did not mean the end of the venatio as well, which continued in some parts of the Empire up until the 7th century AD. The venationes made the North African elephant completely extinct and did irreparable damage to the populations of Barbary lions and Atlas bears, both of which finally went extinct centuries later. Such was the tragic fate of animals in a society where life and death had been reduced to merely a form of entertainment.
Though the time of the gladiators has passed, their legends persist to this day. An audience still exists that wishes to imagine how these ancient, brutal spectacles would have appeared. Dozens of popular movies taking place in ancient Rome have been released over the decades; this November will see the release of the latest one, Gladiator II. Peacock has also recently released Those About to Die, a series about gladiators and charioteers during the reign of Vespasian. Roland Emmerich, who directed several episodes from season 1, has enthusiastically promoted the series and discussed his ideas for a second season of the drama.
The library is your lens for viewing world history and cultures. For more insight into the world of the Roman Empire and the days of the amphitheater, see our list of resources:
Books, DVDs, and streaming videos about the time of the Roman Republic/Empire, when brutality was widespread, life was uncertain, and the struggle in the arena could lead to either the roar of a joyous crowd or a bloody and unhappy demise.
