Click on thumbnails to see large image (necessary for some details).

This is a famous painting (1872) called "Pollice Verso" ("Turned Thumb" by Jean-Léon Gérôme from a phrase in Juvenal)  that represents a victorious gladiator facing spectators, who are demanding the death of his defeated opponent (see "The Experience"  for discussion of the meaning of pollice verso).  Gérôme had done research into gladiatorial apparatus.  The defeated fighter, a retiarius ("net-man") is depicted accurately; he has no helmet or shield and his weapons are a net and a trident (on the ground nearby - clearly visible only in the large image).  The depiction of the victor, however, is problematic.  Each item of armor by itself is accurately represented, but the combination is erroneous.  The standard opponent of the retiarius is a secutor ("pursuer"),¹ who carried an curved oblong shield, but the victor in the painting carries a round shield (hardly visible even in the larger image) typical of the hoplomachus ('heavily-armed gladiator'). 

To the right,  we see a secutor (with his curved oblong shield) moving in on a retiarius, who has lost his net and his trident (lying on the ground).  He still holds his dagger, but he has been badly wounded in the calf and is on the point of giving up.  The retiarius is easy to identify because he is the only gladiator with no helmet or shield. Another identifying factor is the high metal shoulder guard (galerus), which is unique to the retiarius.  Finally, the protective sleeve called a manica (heavy linen quilting held on by straps) protects his left arm, while the secutor (and all other categories of gladiator) wears the sleeve his right arm.

The retiarius was also special because his gear was not inspired by the military. In essence, he was a fisherman, as his net and trident imply.  Marcus Junkelmann has argued that the secutor's smooth-surfaced helmet with no brim, small eye-holes and a low, thin crest (as in image to the left) suggested a fish and thus made the retiarius his appropriate opponent.²  The purpose of the small eye-holes was to prevent the narrow prongs of the retiarius' trident from penetrating to the eyes.  

Another gladiatorial type was the murmillo, whose name was derived from a Greek word for a kind of fish, probably because the high crest of the murmillo's helmet resembled a fish (see right).   In fact, the secutor was likely an off-shoot of the murmillo.   Both the murmillo and the secutor had a curved, oblong shield and the helmet of the latter just made the suggestion of a fish more obvious.  The murmillo normally fought the hoplomachus.  This pair can be seen in the image to the lower left.  The murmillo has let his curved, oblong shield fall to the ground and points the forefinger of his left hand up in the air, both signals of submission (note the stream of blood coming from his shoulder).  The murmillo is indicating his desire to submit to a referee (wearing a tunic).  The victorious hoplomachus, recognizable because of his round shield, is on the far left.  Both gladiators wear the standard equipment of heavily-armed fighters: the manica (protective sleeve), loin cloth with subligaculum (belt), and greaves (metal leg-protectors). 

The murmillo sometimes fought a thraex ('Thracian').³  These fighters were quite similar in appearance but can be differentiated by their shields.  The thraex has a smallish rectangular shield in comparison with the typical oblong shield of the murmillo (see right). There were, however,  two gladiatorial categories of gladiators that only fought opponents of the same type:  the eques ('horseman') and the provocator ('challenger').  On the left are two equites.  Both have lost their shields, but one has emerged victorious.  The referee is holding the right hand of the victor and both seem to be awaiting the recommendation of the crowd and the final decision of the editor.  Their apparel makes them easy to identify: wide-brimmed round helmet with visor and two feathers, and a tunic to mid-thigh (in comparison with the naked torso of most gladiators).  These gladiators were called horsemen probably because they began their fight (or just entered the arena) on horseback .  They, however, finished their fight on foot.  The provocatores are distinguishable by a helmet without crest, a curved rectangular shield, and a sword with a straight blade.  In addition, the provocator was the only gladiator to have effective protection for the upper body:  a rectangular breastplate (as can be seen on the figure on the far right in the middle panel of this relief).  The provocator thus lacked what was a badge of honor for other heavily-armed gladiators: a naked torso.  Junkelmann explains:⁴

It was in the very nature of the gladiatorial system that fighters were ready to die, and demonstrated that readiness by baring their torsos.  If the fighters had been entirely unprotected, the outcome would have been either a brief, unskilled bloodbath or an excessively cautious, boring fighting style.  The juxtaposition of armed and unarmed parts of the body controlled the use of weapons and created the conditions for dynamic and skilful swordsmanship.  Nor must we forget the visual stimulation of seeing muscular bodies in vigorous exertion, defying death and injury.

There were other gladiatorial types of which we have no visual evidence.  Perhaps the most popular was the essedarius (war-chariot fighter), a name derived from a Celtic chariot (essedum).  The essedarius fought on foot and probably used the chariot to make a spectacular entrance to the arena.

Notes

1. The retiarius was introduced in the early empire and the secutor became his standard opponent around the middle of the first century AD.  With a few exceptions such as the eques and the provocator, gladiators of one type regularly fought opponents of another type.  Back to text.

2. Familia Gladiatoria: “The Heroes of the Amphitheatre” in The Power of Spectacle in Ancient Rome: Gladiators and Caesars, ed. by Eckart Köhne and Cornelia Ewigleben (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 2000), 61.  Back to text.

3. "Thracian," along with "Gaul" and "Samnite," originally referred to prisoners of war from Thrace, Gaul, and Samnium (in southern Italy), who in the republican period were forced to fight as gladiators and naturally used the weapons and equipment characteristic of their people.  In time these terms ceased to indicate the actual ethnicity of the fighter, but simply designated a particular type of gladiator using particular armor and fighting equipment.  "Thracian" remained as category until late antiquity, while "Gaul"  and "Samnite" disappeared, but the former may have been the model for the later secutor and murmillo.  Back to text.

4. 47.  Back to text.

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