Retiarius A retiarius ( plural retiarii ; literally , " net - man " or " net - fighter " in Latin ) was a Roman gladiator who fought with equipment styled on that of a fisherman : a weighted net ( " rete " , hence the name ) , a three - pointed trident ( " fuscina " or " tridens " ) , and a dagger ( " pugio " ) . The " retiarius " was lightly armoured , wearing an arm guard ( " manica " ) and a shoulder guard ( " galerus " ) . Typically , his clothing consisted only of a loincloth ( " subligaculum " ) held in place by a wide belt , or of a short tunic with light padding . He wore no head protection or footwear . The " retiarius " was routinely pitted against a heavily armed " secutor " . The net - fighter made up for his lack of protective gear by using his speed and agility to avoid his opponent ' s attacks and waiting for the opportunity to strike . He first tried to throw his net over his rival . If this succeeded , he attacked with his trident while his adversary was entangled . Another tactic was to ensnare his enemy ' s weapon in the net and pull it out of his grasp , leaving the opponent defenseless . Should the net miss or the " secutor " grab hold of it , the " retiarius " likely discarded the weapon , although he might try to collect it back for a second cast . Usually , the " retiarius " had to rely on his trident and dagger to finish the fight . The trident , as tall as a human being , permitted the gladiator to jab quickly and keep his distance . It was a strong weapon , capable of inflicting piercing wounds on an unprotected skull or limb . The dagger was the " retiarius " < nowiki > ' < / nowiki > s final backup should the trident be lost . It was reserved for when close combat or a straight wrestling match had to settle the bout . In some battles , a single " retiarius " faced two " secutores " simultaneously . For these situations , the lightly armoured gladiator was placed on a raised platform and given a supply of stones with which to repel his pursuers . " Retiarii " first appeared in the arena during the 1st century AD and had become standard attractions by the 2nd or 3rd century . The gladiator ' s lack of armour and his reliance on evasive tactics meant that many considered the " retiarius " the lowliest ( and most effeminate ) of an already stigmatised ( i . e . gladiators ) class . Passages from the works of Juvenal , Seneca , and Suetonius suggest that those " retiarii " who fought in tunics may have constituted an even more demeaned subtype ( " retiarii tunicati " ) who were not viewed as legitimate " retiarii " fighters but as arena clowns . Nevertheless , Roman artwork , graffiti , and grave markers include examples of specific net - men who apparently had reputations as skilled combatants and lovers . History and role . Roman gladiator s fell into stock " categories " modelled on real - world precedents . Almost all of these classes were based on military antecedents ; the " retiarius " ( " net - fighter " or " net - man " ) , which was themed after the sea , was one exception . Rare gladiator fights were staged over water ; these may have given rise to the concept of a gladiator based on a fisherman . Fights between differently armed gladiators became popular in the Imperial period ; the " retiarius " versus the scaly " secutor " developed as the conflict of a fisherman with a stylised fish . The earlier " murmillo nes " had borne a fish on their helmets ; the " secutores " with their scaly armour evolved from them . However , because of the stark differences in arms and armour between the two types , the pairing pushed such practices to new extremes . Roman art and literature make no mention of " retiarii " until the early Imperial period ; for example , the type is absent from the copious gladiator - themed reliefs dating to the 1st century found at Chieti and Pompeii . Nevertheless , graffiti and artifacts from Pompeii attest to the class ' s existence by this time . Fights between " retiarii " and " secutores " probably became popular as early as the middle of the 1st century CE , and the net - fighter became one of the standard gladiator categories by the 2nd or 3rd century CE and remained a staple attraction until the end of the gladiatorial games . In addition to the man - versus - nature symbolism inherent in such bouts , the lightly armoured " retiarius " was viewed as the effeminate counterpoint to the manly , heavily armoured " secutor " . The " retiarius " was also seen as water to the " secutor " < nowiki > ' < / nowiki > s fire , one constantly moving and escaping , the other determinedly inescapable . Another gladiator type , the " laquearius " ( " noose - man " ) was similar to the " retiarius " but fought with a lasso in place of a net . The more skin left unarmoured and exposed , the lower a gladiator ' s status and the greater his perceived effeminacy . Likewise , the engulfing net may have been seen as a feminine symbol . The light arms and armour of the " retiarius " thus established him as the lowliest , most disgraced , and most effeminate of the gladiator types . Helmets allowed both gladiators and spectators to dehumanise the fighters ; when an arena combatant had to kill a comrade - at - arms , someone he probably lived and trained with every day , his opponent ' s helmet added an extra layer of separation . However , the " retiarius " was allowed no head protection ; his face was visible to all . The emperor Claudius had all net - fighters who lost in combat put to death so that spectators could enjoy their expressions of agony . The " retiarius " < nowiki > ' < / nowiki > s fighting style was another strike against him , as reliance on speed and evasion were viewed as undignified in comparison to the straightforward trading of blows . The " retiarii " lived in the worst barracks . Some members of the class trained to fight as Samnites , another gladiator type , in order to improve their status . There is evidence that those net - men wearing tunics , known as " retiarii tunicati " , formed a special sub - class , one even more demeaned than their loincloth - wearing colleagues . The Roman satirist Juvenal wrote that : So even the lanista ' s establishment is better ordered than yours , for he separates the vile from the decent , and sequesters even from their fellow - " retiarii " the wearers of the ill - famed tunic ; in the training - school , and even in gaol , such creatures herd apart … . The passage suggests that tunic - wearing " retiarii " were trained for a different role , " in servitude , under strict discipline and even possibly under some restraints . " Certain effeminate men mentioned by Seneca the Younger in his " Quaestiones naturales " were trained as gladiators and may correspond to Juvenal ' s tunic - wearing " retiarii " . Suetonius reports this anecdote : " Once a band of five " retiarii " in tunics , matched against the same number of " secutores " , yielded without a struggle ; but when their death was ordered , one of them caught up his trident and slew all the victors . " The reaction of Emperor Caligula showed the disgust with which he viewed the gladiators ' actions : " Caligula bewailed this in a public proclamation as a most cruel murder , and expressed his horror of those who had had the heart to witness it . " The fate of the " retiarii " is not revealed . This was probably not a standard competition , as real gladiators did not surrender so easily . Rather , such tunic - wearing net - men may have served as comic relief in the gladiatorial programming . Juvenal ' s second satire , wherein he deplores the immorality he perceived in Roman society , introduces a member of the Gracchus family who is described as a homosexual married ( in female persona ) to a horn player . Gracchus later appears in the arena : Greater still the portent when Gracchus , clad in a tunic , played the gladiator , and fled , trident in hand , across the arena — Gracchus , a man of nobler birth than the Capitolini , or the Marcelli , or the descendants of Catulus or Paulus , or the Fabii : nobler than all the spectators in the podium ; not excepting him who gave the show at which that net was flung . Gracchus appears once again in Juvenal ' s eighth satire as the worst example of the noble Romans who have disgraced themselves by appearing in public spectacles and popular entertainments : To crown all this [ scandal ] , what is left but the amphitheatre ? And this disgrace of the city you have as well — Gracchus not fighting as equipped as a Mirmillo , with buckler or falchion ( for he condemns — yes , condemns and hates such equipment ) . Nor does he conceal his face beneath a helmet . See ! he wields a trident . When he has cast without effect the nets suspended from his poised right hand , he boldly lifts his uncovered face to the spectators , and , easily to be recognized , flees across the whole arena . We can not mistake the tunic , since the ribbon of gold reaches from his neck , and flutters in the breeze from his high - peaked cap . Therefore , the disgrace , which the Secutor had to submit to , in being forced to fight with Gracchus , was worse than any wound . The passage is obscure , but Cerutti and Richardson argue that Gracchus begins the fight as a loincloth - wearing " retiarius " . When the tide turns against him , he dons a tunic and a womanish wig ( " spira " ) , apparently part of the same costume , and thus enjoys a reprieve , although this attire may not itself have been considered effeminate as it was also worn by the priests of Mars of whom Gracchus was the chief priest . The change of clothing seems to turn a serious fight into a comical one and shames his opponent . It is unusual to see a gladiator depicted this way in a satire , as such fighters usually take the role of men who are " brawny , brutal , sexually successful with women of both high and low status , but especially the latter , ill - educated if not uneducated , and none too bright intellectually . " The " retiarius tunicatus " in the satire is the opposite : " a mock gladiatorial figure , of equivocal sex , regularly dressed in costume of some sort , possibly usually as a woman , and matched against a " secutor " or " murmillo " in a mock gladiatorial exhibition . " Despite their low status , some " retiarii " became quite popular throughout the early Empire . The fact that spectators could see net - fighters ' faces humanised them and probably added to their popularity . At Pompeii , graffiti tells of Crescens or Cresces the " retiarius " , " lord of the girls " and " doctor to nighttime girls , morning girls , and all the rest . " Evidence suggests that some homosexual men fancied gladiators , and the " retiarius " would have been particularly appealing . Roman art depicts net - men just as often as other types . A mosaic found in 2007 in a bathhouse at the Villa dei Quintili shows a " retiarius " named Montanus . The fact that his name is recorded indicates that the gladiator was famous . The mosaic dates to c . CE 130 , when the Quintilii family had the home built ; the emperor Commodus , who fought in gladiatorial bouts as a " secutor " , acquired the house in CE 182 and used it as a country villa . In modern times , popular culture has made the " retiarius " probably the most famous type of gladiator . Arms and armour . The " retiarius " is the most readily identifiable gladiator type , due to his signature equipment : arm guard ( " manica " ) , shoulder guard ( " galerus " ) , net ( " rete " ) , trident ( " fuscina " or " tridens " ) , and dagger ( " pugio " ) . ( Technically , the " retiarius " was not a " gladiator " at all , since he did not fight with the sword — " gladius " — after which such fighters took their name ) . His weapons and armour could be decorated . An embellished gladiatorial dagger is held at the Naples National Archaeological Museum . Archaeologists have excavated three engraved shoulder guards from the gladiator barracks at Pompeii : one is engraved with illustrations of an anchor , a crab , and a dolphin ; another with cupid s and the head of Hercules ; and a third with weapons and the inscription " RET / SECUND " ( " " retiarius " , second rank " ) . Although the net ( " rete " ) was this gladiator ' s signature weapon , few depictions of the device survive . Combat with throwing nets may have occurred on ancient battlefields , but modern experiments and comparisons with modern fishing nets offer the only clues as to how the gladiatorial net was constructed . Such data indicate that the " rete " was circular , with a wide mesh about 3 metres ( 9 . 5 ft ) in diameter and lead weights along the edges . A rope ran around the perimeter of the mesh , with the ends tied to the gladiator ' s wrist . Because it was thrown , the net was sometimes called an " iaculum " . The " retiarius " complemented his net with an iron or bronze trident ( " fuscina " , " fascina " or , rarely , " tridens " ) that stood about as high as a human being . A skull found in a gladiator graveyard in Ephesus , Turkey , shows puncture holes consistent with a trident strike . The wounds are 5 centimetres ( 2 in ) apart and match a bronze trident excavated from Ephesus harbour in 1989 . The trident ' s prongs are 21 . 6 centimetres ( 8 . 5 in ) long . A long , straight - bladed dagger ( " pugio " ) was the gladiator ' s final weapon . A tombstone found in Romania shows a " retiarius " holding a dagger with four spikes ( known as a " quadrens " — each spike at the corner of a square guard ) instead of the usual bladed dagger . This was previously thought to be an artistic invention or perhaps a ceremonial weapon but a recently excavated femur bone from a gladiator graveyard in Ephesus has wounds consistent with the use of such a weapon . The " retiarius " wore minimal armour ; unlike other gladiator types , he wore no helmet , greaves , or shield . He wore a " manica " on his left arm , where other gladiators wore it on the right ; this allowed him to more fluidly make a right - handed cast of his net . Attached to the top of this was a long bronze or leather guard over the upper left arm and shoulder , known as a " galerus " . This guard extended 12 to 13 centimetres ( 4 . 7 to 5 . 1 in ) beyond the shoulder blade and flared outward , allowing free movement of the gladiator ' s head . The device protected the upper arm , head and face when the " retiarius " kept his left side to his opponent . The armour was designed to let the net - man duck his head behind it , and it was curved so as to deflect a blow from the top downwards , not up towards the eyes . Three examples of this protective gear found at Pompeii vary between 30 and 35 centimetres ( 11 . 8 and 13 . 7 in ) in length and about the same in width . They weigh about 1 . 1 to 1 . 2 kilograms ( 2 . 4 to 2 . 6 lb ) . In the Eastern Roman Empire in later years , some " retiarii " wore a chainmail " manica " instead of the " galerus " . This mail covered the arm and upper chest . Equipment styles stayed relatively fixed in the Western Empire . Besides these items , the " retiarius " wore only a loincloth ( " subligaculum " ) held in place by a wide belt and gaiters or , as images show in lieu of the loincloth , a tunic that left the right shoulder uncovered . He wore fabric padding on his body to provide minimal additional protection . Artistic depictions show that other options included legbands , anklebands , a headband , and a medallion . All told , the " retiarius " < nowiki > ' < / nowiki > s equipment weighed 7 to to 17 . 6 lb ) , making him the lightest of the standard gladiator types . Like other arena combatants , the " retiarius " fought barefoot . Fighting style . The " retiarius " was traditionally pitted against a " secutor " or , possibly on rare occasions , a " murmillo " . Despite the disparity between the nearly nude net - fighter and his heavily armoured adversary , modern re - enactments and experiments show that the " retiarius " was by no means outmatched . His lack of heavy equipment meant that he could use speed and evasion to his advantage . He also fought with three offensive weapons to his opponent ' s one . The net - fighter had to avoid close combat at all costs , keep his distance , and wait for an opening to stab with his trident or throw his net . The name " secutor " means " pursuer " or " chaser " , because this gladiator had to chase down the " retiarius " . They were also known as " contraretiarii " ( " those against the net - man " ) . The " secutor " < nowiki > ' < / nowiki > s strategy was to keep behind his shield ( " scutum " ) and force his opponent into close combat so that he could strike with his sword . In close quarters , the net - man had only his " galerus " shoulder guard for defence ; its design forced him to keep his head ducked down behind it . The " secutor " < nowiki > ' < / nowiki > s helmet greatly restricted his sight , hearing , and airflow . Coupled with the heavy weight of his arms and armour — the gear of a " murmillo " , of which the " secutor " was a variant , weighed 15 to 18 kilograms ( 33 . 1 to 39 . 7 lb ) — this gladiator was in greater danger of exhausting himself in a long fight . One of the " retiarius " < nowiki > ' < / nowiki > s tactics was to jab at the " secutor " < nowiki > ' < / nowiki > s shield ( the heaviest part of his equipment ) , forcing him to block and wear himself out . Overall , Roman oddsmakers gave an advantage to a " retiarius " , although skill and experience could affect the odds in individual matches . In skilled hands , the net was a useful weapon . The " retiarius " < nowiki > ' < / nowiki > s primary objective with it was to capture his opponent . A ewer found at Rheinzabern demonstrates the throwing technique : the " retiarius " held the net folded up in his right hand and cast it underhanded . He held his trident and dagger in his left hand , careful to keep the trident ' s prongs pointed downward to avoid snagging it in the mesh . If the toss missed , the " retiarius " used the drawrope tied to his wrist to bring the net back in hand . On a successful cast , the gladiator tightened the drawcord around the net ' s perimeter and tried to unbalance or topple his rival . A successful cast of the net could win the battle for the " retiarius " straightaway . This was not certain , however , as a mosaic at the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid shows : in the first panel , the " retiarius " Kalendio has caught his opponent , a " secutor " named Astyanax , in his net . In the later image , however , Kalendio lies on the ground , wounded , and raises his dagger to surrender . The inscription above Kalendio shows the sign for " null " , implying that the match organisers ordered him killed . The net could ensnare the " secutor " < nowiki > ' < / nowiki > s weapon to disarm him and snag away his shield to put him at a significant disadvantage . Other " retiarius " tricks were to whip the net at his opponent ' s eyes to blind him and at his legs to trip him . The helmet of the " secutor " was smooth and round to avoid snagging the net . In most cases , the " secutor " knew to expect the net - man ' s tactics and tried to intercept and hold on to the weapon , possibly unsteadying his enemy by yanking on the net . In such danger , the " retiarius " could sever the drawstring from his wrist with his dagger . The " secutor " stood by a lost net and left little chance to recover it . Speculation surrounds the frequency with which the " retiarius " used his net . Extant imagery rarely shows gladiators of the type with a net , yet the class is named for the device , and Juvenal uses the net to quickly identify a " retiarius " in his satires . The discrepancy may simply be a case of artistic licence ; other types of gladiator are often shown without their weapons but can be assumed to be holding them due to their stance , and a net is a particularly difficult weapon to depict . The lack of nets in " retiarius " images may show gladiators who have already lost the weapon in the fight . Another possibility is that some " retiarii " simply did not use nets . In most bouts , the " retiarius " probably had to resort to fighting with just his trident and dagger , placing him at a disadvantage . The trident was his primary weapon in such situations , and its length allowed the " retiarius " to keep his opponent at bay . He held the weapon two - handed , left nearer the prongs , so that he could parry his enemy ' s strikes with its shaft and strike with both ends . Wielded two - handed , the weapon could land powerful blows . Images show " retiarii " stabbing downward at the " secutor " < nowiki > ' < / nowiki > s unshielded legs or stabbing down at the helmet in an attempt to poke through an eyehole . The trident itself was too weak to pierce the metal , although a skull found at Ephesus , Turkey , dating to CE 200 to 300 shows that a trident strike to the head could be fatal on a bareheaded opponent . The " secutor " < nowiki > ' < / nowiki > s helmet was rounded and free of protrusions to avoid snaring the net or being caught in the trident ' s prongs , but attacks on it forced the " secutor " to duck or hide behind his shield . This reduced his field of vision and gave the " retiarius " an advantage with his speed . Should the " secutor " strike with his sword , the " retiarius " parried with the trident prongs and attempted to disarm him . Likewise , the more heavily armoured gladiator tried to block the trident with his shield and force the net - man to lose it . Images from the Eastern Roman Empire show " secutores " wearing a tubular arm - guard in lieu of a shield . The guard fits over the left hand and ends in a hooked , knife - like blade that was probably intended to parry the net and trident or to snag and pull away the net . " Secutores " who succeeded in this probably dropped the hook weapon and fought with just a sword . The " retiarius " held the dagger in his left hand . The gladiator could use the dagger to cut his net free if it got snagged on his trident . He might fight with the trident in one hand and the dagger in the other , but this negated the advantage of distance afforded by the longer weapon when wielded by itself . The dagger also served as a backup should the " retiarius " lose both net and trident . He attacked with the dagger when he had the element of surprise and could attempt to wrestle the " secutor " to the ground . Fights could devolve into straight wrestling matches in such situations , perhaps with daggers . Should the " retiarius " win and be ordered to kill his rival , he used his knife to stab him or cut his throat . Evidence shows that " retiarii " could be quite successful combatants ; a tombstone from Gaul reads , " [ For ] the " retiarius " , L . Pompeius , winner of nine crowns , born in Vienna , twenty - five years of age . His wife put this up with her own money for her wonderful spouse . " Nevertheless , the gladiators themselves were prone to boast : A graffito at Pompeii shows the " retiarius " Antigonus , who claims a ridiculous 2 , 112 victories , facing a challenger called Superbus , who has won but a single fight . In some contests , a " retiarius " faced two " secutores " at the same time . He stood on a bridge or raised platform with stairs and had a pile of fist - sized stones to lob at his adversaries and keep them at bay . The " secutores " tried to scale the structure and get at him . The platform ( called a " pons " , " bridge " ) may have been constructed over water . Such scenarios were one of the rare situations where gladiators were not paired one on one .