The Spartacus War Read Free

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BREAKOUT

1
    The Gladiator
    S partacus was a heavyweight gladiator called murmillo. A man ‘of enormous strength and spirit’, as the sources say, he was about thirty years old. Murmillones were big men who carried 35- 40 pounds of arms and armour in the arena. They fought barefoot and bare-chested, rendering all the more visible the tattoos with which Thracians like Spartacus proudly embellished their bodies. Murmillones each wore a bronze helmet, a belted loincloth and various arm- and leg-guards. They carried a big, oblong shield (scutum) and wielded a sword with a broad, straight blade, about a foot and a half long. Called the gladius, it was the classic weapon of the gladiator. It was also the standard weapon of a Roman legionary.
    Although we know nothing of Spartacus’s record in the arena, we can imagine him locked in combat one afternoon. Fans that they were, the Romans have left masses of evidence about the games, and recent historical reconstructions enrich the picture. We know, for example, that Spartacus would have fought just one other man at a time, despite Hollywood’s image of mass fights. Real gladiators fought in pairs, carefully chosen to make an exciting contest - but not a long life for the contestants.
    A murmillo like Spartacus never fought another murmillo; instead, he was usually paired with a thraex. Thraex means ‘Thracian’, but Spartacus did not represent his country in the arena, perhaps because his owner feared stirring up his slave’s national pride. The thraex was also a heavyweight but he had to be quicker and more agile. His arms and armour were similar to the murmillo’s but the thraex carried a small shield (parmula) that made him lighter and more mobile. And the thraex carried a curved sword (sica), like the one used by Thracians in battle.
    Gladiatorial matches usually began with a warm-up with wooden weapons. Then the ‘sharp iron’ arms were brought in and tested to make sure they were razor-sharp. Meanwhile, Spartacus and his opponent prepared to die - but not by hailing the sponsor of the games. The famous cry, ‘Those who are about to die salute you!’ was, as far as we know, a rare - and later - exception. Instead, a match usually began with a signal from the tibia, a wind instrument like an oboe.
    The contest unfolded with a combination of elegance and brutality. Gladiators attacked but rarely crossed swords, since their blades were too short. Instead, they thrust and parried with their shields, pushing an opponent back, drawing him forward, or - with the shield turned horizontally - hit him with the edge. The crash and boom of shields, rather than the metallic clank of swords, marked the sound of combat.
    With his 15-pound scutum, a strong murmillo could hit harder, but a fast thraex could get in more blows in rapid succession with his 7-pound parmula. Knowing how much damage the curved sword of the thraex could do, Spartacus guarded his flank. Instead, he tried to keep the battle on a vertical axis, constantly standing with his left shoulder and left leg forward, thereby denying his foe an opening while keeping up the pressure. He held his shield close to his body to prevent the thraex from rapping at it with his parmula and destabilizing it. Every now and then Spartacus would bring his shield forward in a sudden, powerful thrust to shift the thraex off balance.
    Denied Spartacus’s flank, meanwhile, the thraex might have ducked and lunged at Spartacus’s unprotected right leg. He might even have attempted the more difficult move of leaping up, powering his right arm over the top of Spartacus’s shield and stabbing him with his curved sica. If these murderous manoeuvres failed, however, they would have given Spartacus a sudden opening. The smart move for Spartacus would have been to feint, thereby tempting the thraex into thrusting towards him - only to find Spartacus ready to parry and deliver a deadly riposte.
    Every so often during a fight a glancing