Hoplomachus

This article covers a Roman gladiator, a weapons trainer and tactics teacher in ancient Greece, see Hoplomachos

Greek terracotta from the British Museum, London. 2 gladiators, a Hoplomachus who has already lost his lance is fighting a Traex.

The hoplomachus ( Latin , also: oplomachus ; derived from ancient Greek ὁπλομαχία hoplomachia "fight with heavy weapons") was a heavily armed Roman gladiator .

development

After the Romans the Greek-speaking eastern part of the Mediterranean had conquered, they developed the hoplomachus from the published there Fencing Hoplomachie .

Equipment and armament

The hoplomachus was heavily armed. His weapons were a medium-length, light thrust lance ( hasta ) and a straight-bladed short sword in the off-hand. His armor consisted of an Attic-Boeotian helmet, an arm guard ( manica ) on the lance arm, a small, strongly convexly arched round shield made of bronze, tight-fitting trousers or bandages around the legs and two very high greaves ( ocreae ). He was dressed in a loincloth ( subligaculum ) and a belt ( balteus , cingulum ).

opponent

The opponent of the hoplomachus was the murmillo . In rare cases he also fought the thraex .

For other gladiators see: Gladiator types .

literature

• Marcus Junkelmann : Playing with death - This is how Rome's gladiators fought . Zabern, Mainz 2000, ISBN 3-8053-2563-0 ( Antike Welt , special issue; Zabern's illustrated books on archeology ).
• Fik Meijer: Gladiators - The game of life and death. Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf 2004, ISBN 3-7608-2303-3 .