ABSTRACT
The first gladiators took their stand in the middle of the stretch of sand ninety-two yards by fifty-seven which formed the arena, frail silhouettes overwhelmed by the enormous surging crowd swarming on the tiers. Their helmets, which entirely covered their faces, first caught the eye; they rivalled each other in excessive weight and complexity. But other than that the two men differed completely in appearance: one, whose body apart from his chest was covered with pieces of metal and leather, carried a small shield in his left hand; the other, almost naked, held a rounded, oblong shield which, seen from the front, completely covered him so that only his head and feet were visible. The first belonged to the class of gladiators known as Thracians, whose appearance at Rome dated from the time of Sulla. He wore a red subligaculum, a sort of loin-cloth supported at the waist by a sword-belt (balteus). Both legs were protected by metal half-cylinders (ocreae) fixed against the tibia and covering a small portion of the hip. His left arm was covered by a manica, a sort of leathern sleeve reinforced by metal scales, of which one, at the lower end, protected the upper part of his hand, leaving only the fingers uncovered. His offensive weapon was not one of those strange swords bent almost at right angles in the centre with which the Thracian sometimes fought. It was a fairly short sabre known as a sica, curved in the manner of a scythe.
