Gladiators - early and late

[Pegasus]

Hi Can anyone Show me the Difference between Gladiators of the first century and Gladiators of the 3rd Century onwards ? What I mean is , What kind of equipment was done away with or Introduced .

I Do 1st Century Murmillo and secutor , I was just wondering what I would have to change for a much later Fighter . Any help would be great .

Thanks , Pegasus .

[Medusa Gladiatrix]

Salve Paul,

I was just browsing thru my Junkelmann book and as far as I could see it there aren't any differences between the equipment of a 1st century murmillo and one of the 3rd century.

There was a development in the type of gladiators from the 1st century BCE and 1st century CE, e.g. that the murmillo was a development of the provocator. In the 1st century the retiarius became popular so the helment of the murmillo who was his original oponent was adjusted. It was made round with no edges so the net couldn't get tangled there. This specialized version was called sector who actually has the same weapons as the murmillo but only a different helmet.

Even rare types like the andabata, sagittarius, dimachaerus, cruppelarius etc. appeared already in the 1st century CE.

[Tib. Gabinius]

The differences between republican and imperial gladiatores also is seenable in the open helmets and the manicae, which were much shorter in the republic.

Also the gladii were shorter after augusteian - claudian time.

But the difference between middle and last part of first century and the 3rd century is the gladiator itself.
It seems, just looked for the wall paintings, that the gladiatores really became somewhat....better feeded. Even the retiarii seems to be some kind of ...fat in our eyes, but we can tell it also somewhat "hugh", cause they more look like "90, 90, 90"

Also it seems to became more usable to wear something, many times its seen that the gladiatores wear a kind of exomis, the tunica which present one shoulder and breast.

Thats what came to my mind for now.

[Pegasus]

Thanks Guys for the help , I was just wondering How to potray a Murmillo or secutor in the 3rd century onwards as well as early Imperial . Thanks you have helped me more than you think .


Pegasus .

[Martin Moser]

Hi Paul,

I Do 1st Century Murmillo and secutor , I was just wondering what I would have to change for a much later Fighter

For a Murmillo, you might want to change from a Pompeii type helmet to a Berlin type (terminology from Junkelmann, Das Spiel mit dem Tod), which seems to take over in the 2nd century and is distinctly different.

For other details I would advise to scrutinize as many securely dated depictions as possible, you might find some more characteristics.

[adamparsons]

Hiya Paul, hows the group going? Did your first gig go O.K- yesterday right?

The helmet you wear is based on a 1st century pompeii type, although not any exact one. The helmet the other Paul wears for his hoplomachus is based on the Berlin helmet which is 2nd century+.

The differences Is that the brim on most- i.e thraex, murmillo, hoplomachus helmets, starts off a a fairly straight brim right round. It then starts to dip down at the sides, and then the further on toward the 2nd century you go the more the sides and back droop, and ends up like the Berlin helmet (pauls) where the brim encases the face and at the sides and back has drooped to almost round the shoulder. The pompeii ;being late first century has good examples of early to mid helmets bearing out this typology. There is only this one good intact helmet for 2nd-3rd that I am aware of (the berlin one), but several face guards/plates to fit such a helmet and many sculptures and little figurines that bear this out.

Also earlier helmets have round eye holes, wheareas later ones have a split visor (except secutor)

Also Chain mail manica seem to be more common in the 2nd-3rd century, whereas padding and plate is more popular in the 1st century.
MArtin and Gaia Aelia were right- buy Junkleman even if you can't read German the pictures of the gear are fantastic!

[adamparsons]

here are some rough examples of the chronology to help you:

early style (thraex) (pompeii- late first)
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/enc ... elmet.html


Mid style (murmillo) (pompeii- late first) http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/compa ... id=OBJ3503

Mid style (thraex) (pompeii- late first)
http://www2.pompeiisites.org/Database/p ... /elmow.jpg

Late style (Murmillo) (Pergamon museum, berlin- probably mid second)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:2005 ... helmet.jpg

hope this helps

[Pegasus]

Hi Adam ,
The Gig went Fantastic , Only Four Gladiators Fought But It went Down Great , Still A bit cold for the Subligaculums Though . We were booked straight away for next year so cant be bad . Yeh we knew what Types of Helmets we had and what time period they were , I was just wondering How much I would have to change if I was to Go as a much later Gladiator , Thanks for the Input anyway .


Paul .