Samnite (gladiator type)

By arming low-status gladiators in the manner of a defeated foe, Romans mocked the Samnites and appropriated martial elements of their culture.

The Samnite was named for the people of Samnium, an area in the southern Apennine Mountains of the Italian peninsula that Rome subdued in the 4th century BC.

The Romans had already learned of these splendid accountrements, but their generals had taught them that a soldier should be rough to look on, not adorned with gold and silver but putting his trust in iron and courage ...

The dictator, as decreed by the senate, celebrated a triumph, in which by far the finest show was afforded by the captured armor.

These gladiators fought with the signature war equipment and in the martial style of ethnic groups who had been conquered by Rome, thus appropriating their source culture for the mocking milieu of the Roman games.

[14] Gladiators who fought with a rectangular shield and sword, such as the provocator,[15] were said to be "armed in the Samnite manner".

[18] The only clear distinguishing characteristics are that the secutor almost exclusively fought the net-and-trident-wielding retiarius,[10] and the hoplomachus used a taller shield.

[18][22] Although individual gladiators of a single class might fight with widely different gear,[10] in general, the Samnite fought in the gear of a warrior from Samnium: a short sword (gladius), a rectangular shield (scutum (shield)), a greave (ocrea), and a helmet.

[1][10] The helmet had a crest, a rim, a visor, and a plume (galea);[4][17] this last element gave "an imposing appearance".