Gladiator Training

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Outside of a program on History Channel(Warrior School) dealing shortly with the subject, I have little knowledge of what kind of training the gladiators went through. I can only assume that strength, stamina, and weapon skills were top on the list of priorities.

So, does anyone know how the gladiators trained? Or perhaps someone could recommend a good book on the subject?

[Susanna]

In German (some of them had been translated into English I guess):

Marcus Junkelmann. Das Spiel mit dem Tod - So kämpften Roms Gladiatoren. Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 2000
ISBN 3-8053-2563-0

Thomas Wiedemann. Kaiser und Gladiatoren - Die Macht der Spiele im antiken Rom. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2001

Fik Meijer. Gladiatoren - Das Spiel um Leben und Tod. Artemis & Winkler, 2004
ISBN 3-7608-2303-3

Eckart Köhne und Cornelia Ewigleben (Hrsg). Caesaren und Gladiatoren - Die Macht der Unterhaltung im antiken Rom (Ausstellungskatalog). Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 2000
ISBN 3-8053-2614-9

Österreichisches Archäologisches Institut / Grabung Ephesos (Hrsg). Gladiatoren in Ephesos - Tod am Nachmittag (Ausstellungskatalog). Wien 2002
ISBN 3-900305-42-0

(taken from Medusas post *wink* in the Antikefan Forum)

[Medusa Gladiatrix]

Salve Susanna,

Thanks for mentioning the books I'd stated in the Antikeforum:

In German (some of them had been translated into English I guess):

Marcus Junkelmann. Das Spiel mit dem Tod - So kämpften Roms Gladiatoren. Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 2000
ISBN 3-8053-2563-0

Unfortunately not translated into English yet.

Thomas Wiedemann. Kaiser und Gladiatoren - Die Macht der Spiele im antiken Rom. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2001

Although Thomas Wiedemann is German he lectures at Birmingham University (if I remember it correctly). Therefore he'd written this book in English and it was then translated into German. The English title is "Emperors and Gladiators".

Fik Meijer. Gladiatoren - Das Spiel um Leben und Tod. Artemis & Winkler, 2004
ISBN 3-7608-2303-3

The original was written in Dutch. The original title is "Gladiatoren. Volksvermaak in het Colosseum." I don't know if an English translation exists.

Eckart Köhne und Cornelia Ewigleben (Hrsg). Caesaren und Gladiatoren - Die Macht der Unterhaltung im antiken Rom (Ausstellungskatalog). Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 2000
ISBN 3-8053-2614-9

This has been translated into English as "Caesars and Gladiators"

Besides that I can recommend the book by Susanna Shadrake "The World of the Gladiator".

Thomas Wiedemann and Fik Meijer concentrate more then sociological aspects of the phenomenon of gladiatorial shows. So if you wanna find out more about their training I recommend the books by Junkelmann and Shadrake. They both assume that the training of gladiators must have been somewhat similar to that of legionaries which is described by the military historian Vegetius in his epitoma rei militaris.

The basic training was with wooden weapons and a wicker shield against a wooden pole (palus) first, then against a sparrings partner. It is not sure if all gladiators had the same training first and then specialized after a while or if they had to train in the different categories from the very first beginning.

As you could imagine the requirement for a retiarius is a bit different than that for a secutor, his opponent. The retiarius with only very little protection needed to be swift while the secutor had to carry a lot of armor and should have been therefore a more muscular type.