protection, was light and mobile. He could move it easily to deflect the tri-
dent. Second, the armor of the Thracian meant that he could afford to take
a less powerful strike from the trident and emerge with only a bruise. In
such combat, it was far better to get a bruise and close with the enemy to
deliver a fatal blow than to be held at bay and suffer trident thrusts. Finally,
the Thracian also was well trained with his short scimitar and knew well
the effective range of the weapon. It was unlikely that he would be caught
miscalculating its effective range.
The retiarius had the following factors in his favor. One good thrust
with the trident could pierce the Thracian’s armor. Although the retiarius
was trained in using the trident with one hand, he could if necessary wrap
the net in his off-hand and wield the trident with two hands. In this case,
the retiarius would be like a traditional spearman or pole-arm user, and un-
less the Thracian could step inside the trident he would be at a disadvan-
tage, possibly a fatal one.
Yet there is another factor in this whole equation: The retiarius was
also equipped with a net. Evidence suggests that the net was employed one
of three ways. The first way was for the retiarius to drag the net in front of
him, which would force the Thracian to remain at a distance, since the
Thracian could not afford to close in and have his feet swept out from un-
der him. This forced the Thracian to stay at an extreme reach disadvantage.
The second method was to use the net as a distraction, throwing it at the
Thracian in the hope of entangling him. It should be noted here that the re-
tiarius was an expert in throwing the net as well, so his first object would
be to throw it effectively enough so that it would indeed entangle the limbs
of the Thracian. The third method was to use the net as the primary
weapon. By this method, the retiarius would attempt to first use the net to
entangle his opponent and then use the trident to finish him off, keeping
the trident in a secondary position.
The laquearius (from the Latin word for lasso) was a subclass of the
retiarius who, as the name suggests, fought with a lasso instead of a net. The
same considerations would apply to this type of fight as well. The laquear-
ius would attempt to use the lasso to entangle or distract the Thracian long
enough to employ the trident. As before, the Thracian would have to get the
trident off-line and avoid the entanglements of the lasso to close in quickly
to a distance where his weapons would have the advantage. The only tactic
that the laquearius would not be able to employ would be to drag the lasso
on the ground in the hope of tripping up an opponent. Otherwise, the re-
tiarius and laquearius would employ many of the same tactics.
Two other types of gladiators that were popular in the arenas were the
Samnite and the secutor. The Samnite was supposedly modeled on the war-
rior of a people who were defeated in 312 B.C. by Rome’s Capuan allies.144 Gladiators