Another New Scissor relief

[Martin Moser]

With his meaning about the Scissor he goes surely wrong!!!! I make Gladiator-combats since 3 years now and I think I can say that its impossible that one Scissor fight against a Retiarius with his trident!!!! The chainmail protects not at all against a trident!!!!!!!!

Hm, I doubt this, for 2 reasons:

No 1. Chain mail with padded protective layer beneath: Have you seen the tests a Spanish gentlemen did with a 50 lbs bow and arrows with armor piercing tips at 5-10m distance against a piece of chain mail backed by quilted cloth, cited here on RAT a few times? No penetration. If we admit a Secutor to have worn chain mail (or scale for that matter), I cannot image him not to wear some thick, quilted material beneath it (otherwise chain mail would be no protection indeed) and then the odds should have been more even again.

No. 2: Helmet: the helmet such a distinct type that to me is quite a strong indicator for an opponent similar to that of the Secutor for me. About the details of such an opponent we cannot be totally sure, however, as it seems that he is not actually named anywhere known up to now.

And there is no chance to parry fast pushes neither with the short-sword nor with the sickle-hand.

As for that I can attest for the opposite. I've seen quite a few such fights over the last 3-4 years and there were many sucessful parries of the trident with the sickle-hand, and quite a few those were locking the trident effectively too in the process and bringing the retiarius to a distinct disadvantage.

To summarize, from what is known (to me at least ;-) ) ) IMHO I'd expect the Secutor to have a Retiarius-like opponent, though we cannot be sure there weren't any modifications in terms of what weapons such an opponent would have used.