08-09-2014, 07:26 PM
First, there are no textual or iconographical sources that any Gladiators ever fought from a chariot.
While Eques would start a fight on horseback, a chariot needs a second person to drive, if you want to fight from it, which then would not be a single combat anymore.
Junkelmann has identified the Gladiator type wearing a smooth round helmet and oval shield as Essedarii. There is a 2nd/3rd century gravestone from Mylasa of the Gladiator Chrysopetasos stating his Armatura as Essedarius. He is shown on foot with the oval Scutum and smooth helmet but since the Scutum of later Essedarii seems to have become shorter, they are also wearing one or two short greaves.
Junkelmann assumes that maybe Essedarii did at first enter the Amphitheater on a chariot, but dismounted to fight. It is likely however that the Essedarii were just renamed from Gallus once the Gauls were an integral part of the empire. The same did happen to the Samnite Armatura, though for some reason the Thraex kept his ethnological name..
While Eques would start a fight on horseback, a chariot needs a second person to drive, if you want to fight from it, which then would not be a single combat anymore.
Junkelmann has identified the Gladiator type wearing a smooth round helmet and oval shield as Essedarii. There is a 2nd/3rd century gravestone from Mylasa of the Gladiator Chrysopetasos stating his Armatura as Essedarius. He is shown on foot with the oval Scutum and smooth helmet but since the Scutum of later Essedarii seems to have become shorter, they are also wearing one or two short greaves.
Junkelmann assumes that maybe Essedarii did at first enter the Amphitheater on a chariot, but dismounted to fight. It is likely however that the Essedarii were just renamed from Gallus once the Gauls were an integral part of the empire. The same did happen to the Samnite Armatura, though for some reason the Thraex kept his ethnological name..
Olaf Küppers - Histotainment, Event und Promotion - Germany
