A hoplomachus (pl. hoplomachi) ( hoplon meaning "equipment" in Greek) was a type of

gladiator A gladiator ( la, gladiator, "swordsman", from , "sword") was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gla ...

in ancient Rome, armed to resemble a Greek

hoplite Hoplites ( ) ( grc, ὁπλίτης : hoplítēs) were citizen-soldiers of Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Polis, city-states who were primarily armed with spears and shields. Hoplite soldiers used the phalanx formation to be effective in war with ...

(soldier with heavy armor and helmet, a small, round, concave shield, a spear and a sword). The hoplomachus would wear a bronze helmet, a manica on his right arm, loincloth ('' subligaculum''), heavy padding on his legs, and a pair of high greaves reaching to mid-thigh. His weapons were the spear and a short sword. He was often pitted against the murmillo (armed like a Roman soldier), perhaps as a re-enactment of Rome's wars in Greece and the Hellenistic East. The name hoplomachus means 'armored fighter'. The small, round shield was as much a weapon as a sword or spear, not unlike the original hoplites (who carried a larger shield), who used it primarily for defensive purposes, but also employed it in their charges, using it to ram their opponents at the onset of a fight. They wore no shoes so the sand would chafe their feet, presenting them a greater challenge. His usual opponent was the murmillo but he might fight the thraex in exceptional cases. Justus Lipsius conjectured that it was one of two designations of Samnite, and that Samnites were called hoplomachi when battling a Thracian, and a secutor when matched against

retiarii A ''retiarius'' (plural ''retiarii''; literally, "net-man" in Latin) was a Ancient Rome, Roman gladiator who fought with equipment styled on that of a fisherman: a net casting, weighted net (''rete'' (3rd decl.), hence the name), a three-pointe ...

Oplomachi

The oplomachi were a designation or possibly a class of Roman gladiator with relatively little mention in literary sources. They are often identified with the similarly named hoplomachus, but literary mentions do not seem to relate the two, despite the similarity of the names. According to Justus Lipsius, an oplomachus was one of two designations of Samnite; he conjectures that Samnite variants were called oplomachi when matched against a Thracian, and a secutor when facing a

. Though historical accounts identify them primarily as an opponent of the Thraex, they appear in a Pompeian list as fighting not only against Thraeces, but against Murmillones and Dimachaeri as well.

References

External links

* Gladiator types {{Martialarts-stub

Oplomachi

See also

References

External links