Did gladiators fight in multible styles?

[Inhuman One]

I'm just curious about this, there seem to be many types of gladiators.

Did they all just fight in a single role, or where there who would fight in multible roles? I can see how that could keep it interesting for the crowd and allow a good gladiator to be useable in more matches.

Also, how did this work for free gladiators? Could they choose themselves what to specialise in?

[IrishBlood]

To my knowledge they basically learned one combat style and stuck with it for most of their careers. There are rare examples of famous gladiators being 'upgraded' like spartacus in the tv show being trained how to fight with two swords. From what I can tell that sort of thing did happen, but very very rarely.

[Inhuman One]

Alright, I suppose it makes sense. I'm trying to develop a character who kind of has to represent gladiators in general so I'd like to have a little versatility for him.

What would be a sensible secondary choice for a Retarius? (net fighter with trident) This seems a very specialist style after all, but I assume that if the gladiator has a millitairy background he may already know how to fight with a sword and shield profficiently.

For the story the Gladiator will not be fighting in roman lands, imagine him being purchased by a foreigner who wants to put him in other kind of pit battles or arena battles where he might face other opponents than the traditional gladiator roles. I assume things like this may have happened even if its not written down.

[Dromikaites]

There is evidence the gladiators were more similar to the professional wrestlers of today than what the movies and the fiction books have portrayed them to be.

For instance, it seems that actual death in the arena was a rather rare occurrence. We know that from surviving contracts between the organizers of the fights and the owners of the gladiators, which stipulated that if a gladiator dies, the owner will be compensated for the loss. We also have some surviving imperial decrees, fining the organizers of the fight if gladiators would actually die. We also have archaeological evidence that gladiators with severe wounds were treated, and that the general number of people killed in the arena was quite low.

All that might also explain why the Romans didn't take seriously Spartacus at the beginning of his uprising. If nowadays a group of professional wrestlers would run wild, the first option would be to send in the local police, not the army. That's exactly what the Romans had done when Spartacus and his comrades escaped: they sent the local vigiles to arrest them, not the legions.

If they were indeed the Roman version of professional wrestlers then is is quite likely they would have tended to specialize in a certain fighting style. That would have allowed them to master the tricks of that style (for showmanship) and would have helped with the advertising and reputation/rating.

[Inhuman One]

On the other hand I also heard that the public was appearantly quite bloodthirsty and rarely asked for mercy when such a ruling would be given. But I suppose such rulings where rarely asked for.

I'd say its still quite beyong proffesional wrestlers though since they did use sharp weapons, horses, and such even while they did not aim to kill.

And while wrestlers clearly cant change weight class unless they gain or lose weight, with gladiators it seems it might be quite different. Its not like proffesional soldiers are not taught to be profficient with more than one weapon after all. And proffesional soldiers spend a lot of time marching and also had free time to spend with their family so I assume that Gladiators would be training quite a bit more than the average legionaire. They had nothing else after all.

[Lanista]

Owning a gladiator was like owning a racehorse. It was expensive enterprise for any lanista to undertake. Death bouts were rare (relatively - you have to think of the size of the empire and how many matches were going on) - but the rule was if you as the editor or sponsor of the games wanted a death match, you had to pay the lanista a massive fee (to recompense his losses - not only in the cost of buying the slave in the first place also his investment). Even if the gladiator was free man (around a 50/50 ratio at the height of the empire), the lanista still had to be paid.

As for different styles of fighting - In Rome itself, there were the classical pairs (fish vs fisherman - or murmillo vs retiarius if you prefer, Secutor vs Thracian and so on), but in the provinces it was a different story. The many and varied styles we see (dimacharius (sp) for instance) were likely inspired by the region they were from - so you had chariot riding lasso wielding Brits, Syrians with two knives, Gauls with long swords - that's where the variety comes from, but Rome itself could be regarded as purist.

It's unlikely a fighter would train in two styles - especially in Rome. And in truth, you wouldn't really want to - the wrestling analogy is a good one. Gladiators were trained to fight with BIG movements (so the crowd could see what they were doing), the idea was to see a lot of blood and a flashy fight... (gladiators were NOT ripped athletes - they were heavy built blokes like 70s Rugby Players - because fat over muscle means less muscle damage if its cut - and it bleeds epically with comparatively less damage. A retiarius might be an exception, but on the whole - they were fat dudes.).

You'd be a specialist - and your specialism would likely depend on where you from and what you were used to and also your size and build. You wouldn't get a huge retiarius for instance - but you would have huge secutors - because their roles required different bodytypes.

[Inhuman One]

Well the body types is a good point.

For the story I am working on this Gladiator would be taken from his era and may face different challengers. So for that I kind of want him to have more than one gladiator role available, to give him a little range.
Retiarius is kind of my first choice due to it being unlike anything else with the trident and net, but clearly it would have great disadvantages against other styles.
Would it be too out of character to mix this up with other light styles? Clearly heavy armor would not be a fitting combination, but I do want it to be as sensible as it can be even though I will be dealing with some fiction.

I dont have the list of classes with me at the moment, but maybe something with a buckler or small shield and short sword could work or two swords since in a way a net and trident are two weapons as well.

[Condottiere 40K]

Style over substance. And if I recall correctly, gladiators worked hard on brand recognition, which meant that if they suddenly started sporting a different armour and fighting techniques, their fans couldn't recognize them, or suppose find it difficult to relate to the new image.
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[diegis]

I think the reality is somewhere in the middle. Gladiators didn't had to fight to the death in every fight, but dying in the Arena wasn't quite rare. From what I understand from archaeological finds they show that a majority of the supposed Gladiators (there is even a female tomb I think) had died relatively young, and suffered some wounds. Not all, but many of them.

Gladiator fights had started as funeral games where I think death of some gladiator was the norm. After they become a mainstream enterteinment for the public I think many fights were more like coreographed ones (so the comparision with the wrestling shows) without heavy injuries or death, however fights to the death or death due some accidents weren't that rare, maybe even up to 1 of 4 fights ended like that. Probably it depended as well on how pricey was the gladiator and how good he was when fighting

I doubt as well that many fights were between really fat guys moving with clumsy large moves, I think they were athletic and nimble enough (even if still "big") to offer some entertaining and somewhat realistic fight, even if a pre-arranged one without anyone dying.
Gladiators were used as trainers for soldiers (legionares) in some instances, or bodyguards for some emperor or general so they were good figthers for sure, not just showmens.

Even Spartacus rebellion shows that (however a small part of his army was made of actual trained gladiators) and Spartacus was already an accomplished soldier used to both Thracian and Roman war styles before becoming a gladiator.
And among the free gladiators, as someone said, might have been some former Roman legionars as well

[Inhuman One]

I assume that more bodytypes might have been there, but all depictions on artwork of gladiators does seem to show more athletic shape or an average shape.

Considering deaths.. I assume that it may have been more common amongst unpopular gladiators who their owners would not mind losing. (but may pretend to care about for a good payout.)
They did not fight with wooden swords, they did fight with real blades, tridents and such. I just think they didnt go for the kill. I imagine some gladiators might have ended up dead if they would kill a prized gladiator, the owner might see to that. But mostly I think they aimed more to disable with aiming for arms and legs. But also, its not for no reason that those facing Retiarius would get a face covered helmet so that they couldnt poke that trident in their eyes. And those kind of attacks tend to be lethal. So if they'd need that protection, it does sound like they where aiming for their head.

I dont even know where I read it anymore, but I recall reading about an event in which one of the losers of a gladiator team picked up his weapon and killed the winners after he was defeated. It sounded so surreal to me that it could have been out of a movie. It didnt say how big those teams where, I'd imagine just two or such.. Should be possible when they look at the crowd and not at their defeated opponents. Still, one of the most awesome things I've read about it.

[Condottiere 40K]

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Furthermore, I recall gladiators were fattened up, so that there was some buffer between the skin and the muscles, which when cut looked spectacularly bloody, but not particularly fatal.

[Dromikaites]

Yes, they were a bit overweight, at least that was the conclusion of the forensic analysis performed on their skeletons.

Also those who died as gladiators tended to die young, according both to their funeral monuments and the skeletons. However I recall that the average number of deaths per arena per year was in the low two digits. That means around 2 to 5 per month per arena. Given that large fights happened only now and then, quite likely the deaths were also sporadic. As such it would seem most of the time nobody died, with casualties spiking up only during large and very expensive fights.

That might also explain why those who died in the arena died young. Just like the professional athletes, by the time they reached 30 they were past their prime and were generally retired. Most likely they were employed as bodyguards or "enforcers". Therefore, whoever did die in the arena had to die young. Those past 30 still fighting would be a rarity. Possible, but not likely.

[Hazzard]

It seems to me that deaths were expected in the arena, but were not intended. The armour was designed to prevent instant deaths from a wound and instead let you bleed a bit show off and then get carted off at the end to a surgeon. I recall Galen, a notable surgeon and anatomist started life as a gladiator's surgeon. Bleeding out on the surgeons table after a minor fight doesn't make the good narrative we have in wrestling now.