What I Learned
I was so surprised at the amount of information I found on my topic. I found so much and learned so much from my “on-line” interview especially. I learned a number of facts and some theories. I learned that there were over 20 types of gladiators. Here are some details on three of them. The first being the Hoplomachus. This gladiator tried to get an advantage over his opponent by being heavily armed so not to get injured easily. The Secutor gladiator fought naked and bald. This gladiator carried a large oval shaped shield and a sword or dagger. The Retiarius gladiator wore nothing but a loin cloth around his waist. The main strategy in battle for this gladiator was to capture his opponent by using a fishing net and then secure him with a trident or dagger. This type of gladiator symbolized the fisherman, hence the net and trident.
I learned a great deal about the beginning of gladiators and when this “sport” first began. (Thank goodness for the library.) Marcus and Decimus Brutimus held the first gladiatorial games in 246BCE, in honor of their father, Junius Brutimus. As a munus or funeral present to the dead.
The movies were a big help to me in teaching me about the rules used in the arena. I learned that if one gladiator was weak but kept fighting that the crowd could have mercy on him and would yell, “habet, hoc habet”, which means, “He Has Had It!”. If the crowd does this, the match would stop and continue the next day, when the weaker man had recovered. If a gladiator fell to the ground and had enough strength to lift his finger in the air, the crowd could decide his fate. If they wanted him to live, they would wave their handkerchiefs in the air and his life would be spared. If the crowd wanted him to be killed, they would turn their thumbs down toward the ground and he would die at the hands of the other gladiator.
