Gladiator footwear

[Aurelianus]

I saw some workman wearing them too. Nevertheless I would not wear them while I'm climbing on the scaffolding 8)

[Lusitano]

I wouldnt wear high heels either, but i've seen women doing amazing things with them on. Just a matter of habbit i guess.

Flip-flops-like sandals were used by egyptians, sherdens, moorish, south american cultures, they were all over the world.

I'm not saying that the secutor is wearing a flip-flop, i'm saying it looks like one. It really fits the description with that string up the foot.

[Tib. Gabinius]

I don't want to speculate either, just to get a little correction of the terms used in here.

"manica, manicae" is the hand- or armguard. It is a following word to "manus" which means hand or a couple of soldiers.

I don't remember a word for textile leg and footguard, the metallguards are called "ocrea".

Hope that was a little help.

[Aurelianus]

I don't want to speculate either, just to get a little correction of the terms used in here.

"manica, manicae" is the hand- or armguard. It is a following word to "manus" which means hand or a couple of soldiers.

I don't remember a word for textile leg and footguard, the metallguards are called "ocrea".

Hope that was a little help.

You are right! That is the reason why in my first post I put the word manica between two quotes (").
AFAIK there is no word for this foot protection.


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[Lusitano]

While reading another post from the forum found a site that sells roman shoes, and they sell a roman sandal that very identical to my interpretation of what the secutor is wearing on his foot

Here it is

[Martin Moser]

Why are you so keen on wearing shoes? The vast majority of gladiator depictions are showing them barefooted for sure

[Aurelianus]

I wouldnt wear high heels either, but i've seen women doing amazing things with them on. Just a matter of habbit i guess.

Let's talk about high heels! I prefer women with high heels more than women with fli-flop. Can we agree here :lol:

[M. Demetrius]

It's true that most gladiators wore no shoes, so it seems from what records we can find.

Here, now, we wear smooth leather soles because hobnails are too cruel to your partner's feet, and the ground we fight on is not smoothly raked sand. It may contain broken bottles, grass burrs, sharp sticks, etc., which do considerably to distract us when we are having our exhibitions.

I opted for a Greek-looking sandal, others wear carbatinae or similar shoes. We know that it's not authentic, but neither is fighting with non-lethal weapons, in a public park, etc. We all compromise somewhere.

I have also seen the secutor wearing a full foot pad to save his arch from the trident. About the only way to hold something like that on is to make a "sock" of some sort. Otherwise, it's not a big problem to stab the forward foot with the trident. That would basically end the match. Nobody fights well on ONE foot only. Yes, that would affect balance, but it would be a reasonable tradeoff for the combatant.

[Martin Moser]

the ground we fight on is not smoothly raked sand. It may contain broken bottles, grass burrs, sharp sticks, etc., which do considerably to distract us when we are having our exhibitions.

Sounds like an acceptable reason :-) )

We know that it's not authentic, but neither is fighting with non-lethal weapons

That actually is authentic, it was done in the prolusio apparently. Skipping the following round is what's not authentic ;-) )