Recognising Gladiators: Ⅶ the Secutor

Secutor

The name of this type of gladiator “secutor” means “chaser” or “pursuer” for he is the one who pursues the agile retiarius.

☑　Clothes

Like most types of gladiators, secutores wore a “subligaculum”, which is a loincloth held in place by a wide belt called “balteus”. Also like most other types, they often had some kind of cloth or leather covering the top of their feet, but they are almost never shown wearing shoes with soles. The term “gladiator sandals” therefore seems to be an invention of the sword-and-sandal movies of the 1950s and ‘60s. It was later further popularised by the fashion industry. 

 

☑　Manica (armguard)

Only on the right arm, there was a “manica” (arm guard) because this is the arm that would have needed to leave the protection of the shield to lash out at the opponent. The left arm was usually behind the shield so there was no need for a manica. In fact, wearing one on the left arm would have only added extra weight and hindered the arm’s movement.

 

☑　Ocrea

An ocrea (greave), was only attached to the left leg (Fig. ❶) as this is the one nearest to the opponent. In the typical gladiator stance, the right leg is put behind the left one, just like in many modern martial arts. The right leg therefore is not an interesting target for the opponent.  The ocrea reaches from the foot up, to either just below or just above the knee. Since the upper leg is usually safe behind the scutum, preference is given to allowing extra speed and movement by not covering it.

Fig. ❶ Terra sigillata jug with a depiction of a secutor holding up a scutum with the horizontal centre grip clearly showing. 100-200 CE, Rheinzabern (Germany), Gladiator exhibition ("Gladiatoren: Helden van het Colosseum"), Gallo-Romeins Museum, Tongeren (Belgium).

 

☑　Cassis / galea

Fig. ❷　Secutor helmet showing small eye holes and fin-like crest. 50-79 CE, Pompeii (Italy), Gladiator exhibition ("Gladiatoren: Helden van het Colosseum"), Gallo-Romeins Museum, Tongeren (Belgium).

The cassis (helmet) of the secutor looks very streamlined compared to the helmets of most other types of gladiators. As you can see on the secutor’s helmet found in Pompeii shown on Fig. ❷, it has a smooth crest that looks like the dorsal fin of a fish. Like in the eques’s helmet, the face is completely covered apart from two very small holes for the eyes.

 

☑　Scutum

Just like the murmillo and the provocator, the secutor carried a large semi-cylindrical shield called “scutum”. They are similar to the ones used by the Roman military. The murmillo’s scutum had a horizontal centre grip (Fig. ❶).

Fig. ❸ Bronze statuette of a secutor showing his equipment. The helmet on this statuette can open to reveal the face, but the way it opens differs from the way actual helmets that have been found open. 100-200 CE, Arles (France), Gladiator exhibition ("Gladiatoren: Helden van het Colosseum"), Gallo-Romeins Museum, Tongeren (Belgium)

 

☑　Gladius

The secutor uses a “gladius”, which is also the weapon of choice of other scutarii (“scutum-carrying fighters”: the provocator, the murmillo and the Roman legionary). This straight short sword is ideal for thrusting.

 

Opponent

Apart from the helmet, the secutor’s equipment is more or less identical to that of the murmillo. The helmets may look quite distinct at first sight, but they are both reminiscent of a fish.

This leads us to the secutor’s opponent: the retiarius. (In fact, another name for the secutor was “contraretiarius”). Some literary sources [i] suggest that the retiarius could also fight the murmillo, so it seems reasonable to presume that the secutor was an adaptation of the murmillo designed to make the match more interesting.

As fair fights are much more interesting than matches with a predictable outcome, it was important that the effectiveness of the equipment for each fighter was comparable. It is not hard to imagine that the murmillo’s helmet would get caught in the retiarius’s net so easily that matches often ended prematurely, to the disappointment of the audience of course. The smooth helmet of the secutor could prevent this problem. To avoid favouring the secutor too much, the holes for the eyes were made very small to limit his vision (This is a disadvantage especially when fighting the retiarius, the most agile of all the gladiator types). Limited air-flow is also likely to make it harder for the secutor to keep up with the retiarius.

 

Fig. ❹ Earthenware statuette of a retiarius (left) and a secutor (right) fighting. Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Trier (Germany).

The secutor’s best strategy would be to try and get close to the retiarius in order to render both of the retiarius's long-range weapons (the net and the trident) useless. Only the retiarius’s dagger is still a threat at this point. In any case, a stab or slash that connected, would have been quite likely to take out the retiarius immediately as he did not have a helmet or a shield. A powerful blow to the face with the edge of the scutum is always dangerous, but to the helmet-less retiarius, this may have been enough to finish the fight.

 References:
[i] Festus in Edmondson, Jonathan & Alison Keith (2009) Roman Dress and the Fabrics of Roman Culture. Toronto: University of Toronto Press: Note 18.