in every province of the empire. Although gladiatorial games existed
throughout the empire, the greatest, and by far the most prominent, were
held at the Colosseum in Rome.
Roman sources, such as Livy and Cicero, report that the training stan-
dards for gladiators were high. These warriors were expected to become
proficient in a variety of weapons as well as in unarmed combat. Gladia-
tors were expected to be able to handle themselves well in an arena. Glad-
iator schools themselves often had intense rivalries with one another, and
gladiators carried the reputation of a school with them whenever they
stepped into an arena. Gladiators who fought poorly, besides being in dan-
ger of losing their lives, reflected badly on their schools. To make matters
even more demanding for the fighters, wealthy Romans often placed high
wagers on them. Those who fought poorly and lived often found that their
reception on returning to their school was just as bloody as had been their
time in the arena. Gladiators, therefore, had every incentive to learn how
to fight well.
The swordplay learned by the gladiators was an exacting and ad-
vanced science. So intricate was the swordplay, for example, that a speech
of the Roman educator Quintilian compared the speeches of council mem-
bers with the fencing of gladiators: “The second stroke becomes the third,
if the first be made to make the opponent thrust; or becomes the fourth, if
there is a double feint, so that there are two bouts of parrying and riposte.”
This comparison suggests both the high level of swordsmanship that was
expected of gladiators and the spectators’ familiarity with the complexities
of the art.
In the arena itself the real issue of life or death was decided. Upon en-
tering, the gladiators faced the emperor and cried, “Ave Imperator! Mori-
turi te salutant!” (Hail Emperor! Those who are about to die salute you!)
The fight to the death then began. There existed many different types of
gladiators, who were classed generally by two different criteria: the
weapons used and the region of origin.
Probably the two most famous types of gladiators were the Thracian
and the retiarius(net fighter). The Thracian carried a curved scimitar (sica)
and a small square or round shield (parma), which looked and functioned
a great deal like a buckler of later medieval and Renaissance times. The Ro-
mans used this name for a gladiator who carried these weapons because of
a stereotype that Thracians used these weapons. The retiarius was armed
with a harpoon or trident, a net, and a dagger, which was sometimes at-
tached to the net. Many times these two types of gladiators faced each
other in the arena.
The victor in these encounters was the gladiator who knew how best
to use his own weapons effectively while cutting off the advantages of his142 Gladiators