roman gladiators.

[wupwup]

hi guys. im having a bit of trouble shifting through all the on the internet and wondered if anyone could help. im trying to design a card game bbased on roman gladiators. but im not sure which gladiators to use. i think to begin with it will just be gladiator vs gladiator. also im not sure what kind of weapons / armor they wore as every source says different things.

so far i have.
Dimachaerus
Thracian
Retiarii

and

Gallus
Samnites
hoplomachi

thing is those last 3 seems verry similar and im not sure wich i should use and what the differences are. any help would be appreciated. thanks

[Lennert]

I always like this source: http://www.unrv.com/culture/roman-gladiators.php

Short but clear description of every type. There are a lot more types then those mentioned in the link, but for your purpose I wouldn't bother and go for the well known ones.

[Golden Hawk]

I'm no expert, but I believe gladiators used whatever equipment they could afford/got hands on. As far as I know, their names were derived from their fighting styles(ie. murmillos used spear and armor with with no shield, where as samnites favored a shield and a gladius), but when one became a gladiator, you would not automatically become a murmillo and so forth. As for the armor, the armor they used was designed to stop a quick kill, instead of being able withstand multiple hits.

[wupwup]

thanks guys. i think for the sake of simplicity and fitting the stereotype i will keep equipment standardized for now but that is defiantly something to think about. i think i will forget murmillos as it seems they are just a later version of the samnites. but i still cant see any real difference between the gallus, samnite and possibly the hoplomachi. all i can work out is that gallus where the same as samnites but had a spear as well (but still a gladius as well) and hoplomachi are just gallus with a smaller sheild.

[wupwup]

Anyone? I just need to know the difference between gallus , samnite and hoplomachi gladiators

[Inhuman One]

The Secutor is a light gladiator, lightly armed and armored.

[MemnonOfRhodes]

and the Murmillo was the opposite,wait,wasn't the secutor also heavily armoured?

[wupwup]

yeah, but i got the feeling he only fought retiarii and would be too limited. i might include him though. i guess i want to keep types low for simplicity so at the moment i only have:

Dimachaerus
Thracian
Retiarii
Samnites
hoplomachi

they seem fairly broad and representative of various types. is there anything glaring i have missed?

[MemnonOfRhodes]

add animals...

[wupwup]

Yeah I might add animals and executions at some time.

[cpdwane]

No... you could also add velite gladiators and Mirmillos, as both were very common.

[Henrik]

Roman gladiators were overweight vegetarians and not the muscle-bound men portrayed by actors like Russell Crowe!..

[KaRoU23]

There are also Essedarii, who were something like British on chariots!!!

[wupwup]

Ok cool. I might include some of the stranger types like chariots in battle reenactments. As for velites. I'm not sure weather they threw or stabbed their spears. Some sourses say they threw and some say this is .

[wupwup]

ok i have a full list of about 20 including mounted and animal fighters. using only the solo fighters for now i have 13. i think i need to keep it simple though so i will try and whittle that down.

for the heavy ones i have
murmillones
scissores
secutores
samanites
provacatores
hoplomachus
gallus
cataphractarius.

i have a few things i dont underestand. it seems like murmillones and secutores are the same. if there are any differences please point them out, otherwise i will just use one. if i do use one wich was more common? so i can name them? it also seems like murmillones replaces gallus and hoplomachus replaces samnites so i have a choice of gallus and samnite, or murmillones and hoplomachi depending on wich time period i do.

the provacatores only fought each other so are too limited in game terms. the cataphractarius and scissores could be interesting but i dont know enough to implement them. again if anyone knows about them please tell me. and sorry for my spelling.

[cpdwane]

The main difference I am aware of between Mirmillos and Secutores would seem to be that they fought different opponents: Mirmillos againt retiarius and Secutores against Samnites. But since Mirmillo is the more recognised name I would use that.

I would call them samnites instead of Hoplomanchi for the same reason.

[wupwup]

ok cheers. the other thing is thracians seem the most well armoured but are classed as light. where as other less well armored are heavy. did i get this right?