Do you recognize the title of this post? It is supposedly what gladiators would say before a fight. In English it means "Hail Caesar! We who are about to die salute you!" "Caesar" was what they called the emperor, no matter who it was. Interestingly, Julius Caesar (from whom the emperors took the title Caesar) was himself never an emperor.
So, what exactly was a gladiator? Well the name "gladiator" comes from the Latin word gladius, meaning "sword," so basically gladiators were "swordsmen." But this name is not completely accurate. Gladiators were armed fighters who entertained people by fighting each other or wild beasts in an amphitheater (the most famous amphitheater, of course, is the Colosseum). They were often prisoners of war or slaves who had been forced to fight. Not all fights were to the death, but many were.
Even though the name "gladiator" comes from the word for sword, there were many different types of gladiators, some of whom did not have a sword. Here are some of the more common types:
Samnites: These were the earliest gladiators. They fought with a short sword, a rectangular shield, and a helmet.
Retiarius: These guys fought with a fishing net and a trident, and sometimes a small dagger.
Thracians: They fought with an oblong shield and a curved sword which was kind of like a small scimitar.
Murmillones: These guys got their name from the fish-shaped helmets they wore. They also fought with the swords similar to those of Roman soldiers.
Andabatae: Blindfolded gladiators!
Bestiarii: Beast fighters.
