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A gladiator (Latin: gladiator, "swordsman", from gladius, "sword") 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 lives and their legal and social standing by appearing ...
There were many different types of gladiatorsin ancient Rome. Some of the first gladiators had been prisoners-of-war, and so some of the earliest types of gladiators were experienced fighters; Gauls, Samnites, and Thraeces(Thracians) used their native weapons and armor. Different gladiator types specialized in specific weapons and fighting ...
The gladiatrix ( pl.: gladiatrices) was a female gladiator of ancient Rome. Like their male counterparts, gladiatrices fought each other, or wild animals, to entertain audiences at games and festivals ( ludi ). Very little is known about female gladiators. They seem to have used much the same equipment as men, but were few in number and almost ...
The Ludus Magnus (lat.: Domus Vectiliana ), also known as the Great Gladiatorial Training School, was the largest of the gladiatorial schools in Rome. It was built by the emperor Domitian (r. 81–96 C.E.) in the late first century C.E., alongside other building projects undertaken by him such as three other gladiatorial schools across the ...
A young toga-clad man of letters holding a scroll. In classical antiquity, Greek and Roman writers were acquainted with people of every skin tone from very pale (associated with populations from Scythia) to very dark (associated with populations from sub-Saharan Africa ( Aethiopia ). People described with words meaning "black", or as Aethiopes ...
A retiarius (plural retiarii; literally, "net-man" in Latin) was a Roman gladiator who fought with equipment styled on that of a fisherman: a weighted net ( rete (3rd decl.), hence the name), a three-pointed trident ( fuscina or tridens ), and a dagger ( pugio ). The retiarius was lightly armoured, wearing an arm guard ( manica) and a shoulder ...
A Thraex (left) fighting a murmillo, mosaic from Bad Kreuznach, Germany. The Thraex (pl.: Thraeces), or Thracian, was a type of Roman gladiator armed in Thracian style. His equipment included a parmula, a small shield (about 60 x 65 cm) that might be rectangular, square or circular; and a sica, a short sword with a curved blade like a small version of the Dacian falx), intended to maim an ...
Secutor. A secutor ( pl. secutores) was a class of gladiator in ancient Rome. Thought to have originated around 50 AD, the secutor ("follower" or "chaser", from sequor "I follow, come or go after") was armed similarly to the Murmillo gladiator and like the Murmillo, was protected by a heavy shield. A secutor usually carried a short sword, a ...